SportsZone Complex Brings Out the Athlete & Fan in All of Us

All right, let’s see. Christmas is over, you’re back in the office already but the kids are home from school for another week. What do you do with them while you’re busy working to pay off their brand-new PlayStation 3 and Guitar Hero III?

Let ‘em wear themselves out in the Grand Strand area’s newest recreational Mecca.

SportsZone – the massive, 44,000-square-foot indoor recreation complex located at the SportsZone Center in Little River – offers its “School Zout” program that lets children ages 5-15 participate in a dizzying array of sports activities as you tend to your work schedule. Full-day rates (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) start at $16 per child for SportsZone members and $22 for non-members, while half-day rates (1-6 p.m.) are also available at $11 and $16 per child. A light snack with sports drink is provided for all program participants, while an additional $5 KidzMeal option is available for full-day registrants (kids can also bring their own lunch with drink).

While they’re there, kids benefit from a combination of sports activities, hands-on teaching of sports-specific skills and an array of other activities that will offer your child a full day of exercise both physically and mentally. Check out some of these pictures to get a good idea of the resources that they’ll have at their disposal:

And if you’re stuck for a New Year’s Eve solution for the entire family, SportsZone offers its “2008 New Year’s Eve Sports Bash” on Monday, Dec. 31 from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. While you’re out & about enjoying the holiday revelry with the grownups, the children enjoy a secure “lock-in party” at SportsZone that gives them their choice of soccer, football, basketball, skating and dodgeball activities; food and refreshments; and a ball and balloon drop at midnight to ring in 2008 in style. Only 200 tickets are available ($25 per child in advance for members; $30 in advance for non-members; and $40 day of event), so now’s the time to get your kids’ place in all the action.

If you don’t want to wander too far that night, just walk across the complex and check out The Underdog Family Sports Grill & Pub. It’s a sports bar with full menu options, and décor that would make any fan of history’s most notable sports underdogs (both real and fictional) feel right at home. I’ve already got my sights on “Koosman’s Korner” (pictured, below) – I don’t know if that’s what owner Rick Van Blarcum calls it, but as a fellow diehard fan of New York’s National League team, I can’t think of any true sports underdogs I’d rather have looking over my shoulder while I munch my nachos & wings than the Miracle Mets of 1969.

For more information, call SportsZone at 843-249-4FUN or visit their Web site.