Our goal is to give young baseball/softball players a positive, focused and challenging environment to enhance their growth as people and as players. One of the best parts about the classes is that the players often don’t realize how much they are improving. They just see it as a fun, fast-paced, different type of practice than their traditional baseball practice. During an hour class time, the group fields over 1,600 balls and works on every aspect of baseball/softball defense. Each player’s confidence builds through each repetition, and yet players also learn to deal with failure. We believe that the number of repetitions in fielding balls that each player receives is impossible to replicate without the use of an automated machine. It allows the coaches to program the speed and complexity of the drills based on the level of play and to be available in the field to coach each player on their fielding skills. The pace of improvement accelerates significantly as a result of the training program.
643 Training started in the fall of 2017. Taylor Love completed his collegiate career from Louisiana Tech in 2016, and while weighing the options to continue playing baseball, he began selling baseball/softball automated practice machines, called FungoMan. He played the full 2017 season in the Frontier League in St. Louis, Missouri. In October 2017 during his off-season, he borrowed a machine and began giving infield/outfield training classes with just 9 players. By the time he left for spring training in early 2018, he had over 100 players coming weekly through what would later become 643 Training classes. In the summer of 2018, Taylor stopped playing baseball and returned to Shreveport to focus full-time on developing baseball/softball defense classes to meet the needs of all levels of players.
Since that time, classes have continued to grow along with the efficiency and effectiveness of the training program. In the early classes Taylor used just 1 machine per class. Currently, they run 3 machines at the same time in each group, giving each player a maximum number of repetitions to perfect his/her play. In May 2022, Taylor hired Cole Downey to help coach, and they have continued to grow and expand the program, as doors continue to open for them.
643 Training started in the fall of 2017. Taylor Love completed his collegiate career from Louisiana Tech in 2016, and while weighing the options to continue playing baseball, he began selling baseball/softball automated practice machines, called FungoMan. He played the full 2017 season in the Frontier League in St. Louis, Missouri. In October 2017 during his off-season, he borrowed a machine and began giving infield/outfield training classes with just 9 players. By the time he left for spring training in early 2018, he had over 100 players coming weekly through what would later become 643 Training classes. In the summer of 2018, Taylor stopped playing baseball and returned to Shreveport to focus full-time on developing baseball/softball defense classes to meet the needs of all levels of players.
Since that time, classes have continued to grow along with the efficiency and effectiveness of the training program. In the early classes Taylor used just 1 machine per class. Currently, they run 3 machines at the same time in each group, giving each player a maximum number of repetitions to perfect his/her play. In May 2022, Taylor hired Cole Downey to help coach, and they have continued to grow and expand the program, as doors continue to open for them.
|
TAYLOR LOVE
Taylor Love is a Shreveport native, graduating from C.E. Byrd High School in 2012 where he played both baseball and soccer. He received both a baseball and an academic scholarship offer from Louisiana Tech, a Division 1 college located in Ruston, Louisiana where he went on to play 4 years with the Bulldogs from 2012 - 2016. He graduated in 2015 with a Finance degree, and he completed his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in 2016 on a dual undergraduate and graduate academic track. Love played Shortstop throughout his career with a little time at Second base. He earned All-Conference Honors in 2014 and 2015, and he was voted hardest worker by his teammates all 4 years in Ruston. During Love’s senior year in 2016, he helped lead the Bulldogs to their first Regional appearance in almost 30 years, where they came in second place in the Regional Championship behind Mississippi State. In 2020, Love was one of 9 players named to the Louisiana Tech Baseball All-Decade Team.
After completing 4 years at Louisiana Tech, Love played two summers of Minor League baseball in the Frontier League. In 2017 in his off-season, Taylor started what would later become 643 Training with just a handful of athletes. By the end of the off-season he was coaching over 100 athletes each week. After his final season of playing baseball in 2018, Love began to expand 643 Training with more and different types of classes as his full-time job. October of 2023 marked 6 years of business. In 2021 Taylor married the love of his life, Faith Love, who, upon request, works separately with players on speed/agility and strength training. Taylor and Faith have two children, one son, and one daughter. Taylor has watched the athletes that he has coached over the last 6 years excel in their play as a result of his carefully developed program. Taylor structures the program to meet the needs of all levels of players and continues to enjoy the game of baseball by instilling knowledge and insights of the game he loves to all those he coaches. |
|
COLE DOWNEY
Cole Downey is a 2017 graduate of Calvary Baptist Academy, where he earned All-District, All-City and All-State honors as a baseball player. After high school he played at Bossier Parish Community College, before deciding to join the youth baseball coaching ranks with Blaze Baseball. After one season with Blaze, Coach Downey was named Infield Coach at Calvary Baptist and would go on to be the hitting coach there as well from 2019-2022. During his four seasons on staff, the Cavaliers won two State Championships (2019, 2022), and made a Semi-Finalist appearance (2021).
In the summer of 2020, Cole began coaching with the Knights Knation Organization out of Mandeville, LA. In 2022 and 2023 he was the Head Coach for the Knights Knation 2026 National Team, where he traveled the country coaching in some of the biggest high school tournaments. In two summers, his team won 45 games and were consistently ranked as a top 30 team in the country. Since joining the 643 Training team in May of 2022, Cole has gotten out of high school and summer coaching to dedicate more of his time to the youth athletes in North Louisiana. Cole feels as if the opportunity to impact the younger generation in his hometown is the best way to utilize his coaching platform. |
