There are two major landmarks outside of Neal Pionk’s family home.



First, there is a little league baseball diamond, built and maintained by his father Scott — a collegiate baseball player turned landscaping professional.



The diamond is regulation size, outfitted with a pitching machine donated by Pionk’s grandfather and is where all five Pionk brothers learned to throw, catch and hit. For Neal, a competitive baseball player until he turned 21, friends would come over from Hermantown to play so often that his house became the official practice diamond for his childhood team.



Pionk’s idyllic sporting childhood gets better.



The Pionk family hockey rink isn’t regulation size — instead, it’s closer to one-third or one-quarter of an NHL sized ice surface — but it is the site of some of Pionk’s finest work as a boy.



It’s where he learned to skate like this:



Despite his obvious...