NASHUA – Jason Novak and Jake Hart were once actually on the opposite side of things.

They were opposing coaches in Nashua Biddy Basketball. But despite that competition, they discovered they had a common bond.

“I said to him, ‘Hey, why are you triple teaming my kid?’?” Hart said. “And he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re 0-14.’ And I said, ‘So are we.’?”

But suffering through rough seasons weren’t the only thing they shared.

“We both loved to teach,” Hart said.

And with that, they combined that interest to form a vision, an athletic facility where hundreds of youths can be taught fundamentals by older, still active local athletes that they can look up to. Of course, to do that, they would need a large facility.

Introducing the Nashua Sports Academy, a large multi-court/field indoor-outdoor facility located in a remote industrial park in the northwest corner of Nashua off Amherst Street. Scheduled to open Saturday, it’s not quite as large as the Sports Zone in Derry or the Hampshire Dome in Milford, but its functions are similar. It’s definitely the largest facility of its kind in Nashua.

“I was bringing my kids to other places,” said Novak, an electronic engineer who has worked overseas. “And I just thought, ‘Why not have one in Nashua?’?”

The $4 million, 18,000 square foot facility located on Northwest Boulevard features four full-sized basketball courts adjacent to a hockey size (90 by 200 feet) rectangular field turf field. Beyond the basketball courts are seven batting cages. There will also be a fitness area and mezzanine level two-lane track looking down on the field/courts. There are plans for an outdoor rectangular field on the property.

The pair envision seeing hundreds of athletes on a given weeknight and more than 2,000 on weekends.

“There could be five or six activities going on at once involving hundreds of people,” Hart said.”But what we really want are developmental programs with coaches giving great instructions. It’s about the kids in the community. If we wanted to make money, we probably could have put something together 10 years ago.”

They want to create a mentoring program, through which local high school and college athletes can work and be assigned to instruct the younger kids.

“The theme is this: How can I take this kid, develop him, and what high school kid can I match him up with,” Hart said. “Maybe the kid likes soccer, but then he also sees a coach teaching lacrosse and he wants to try lacrosse. Or he wants to try the batting cage.”

Hart, a former Nashua High School South baseball assistant, wants to foster the return of multi-sport athletes. Nashua North girls soccer coach Dan Wyborney will run the soccer program. Nashua alum Darren Fleury will handle lacrosse. Former Nashua South girls volleyball coach Bonnie Ducharme will run that sport, and Kiki McIntyre will handle field hockey and women’s lacrosse. Former Hollis Brookline athlete Nick Esposito will run baseball. Former Merrimack athlete and coach Austin Denton will handle boys basketball and Roger Dunning girls basketball.

Hart and Novak actually started the mentoring program and operated a de facto Nashua Sports Academy out of St. Patrick’s in Nashua last spring, because they didn’t want to lose coaches. Mainly it was baseball and basketball.

“We got together and said let’s start this now,” Novak said. “One thing we are working on is how do you teach kids how to deal with adversity? We’ve had some kids who never lost a game.”

The facility will also cater to very young kids with a “Super Heroes Sports Program” for ages 2 through 6. And to attract adults, the pair envision corporate morning and lunchtime leagues. But they will treat young athletes as student-athletes, with after school tutoring programs.

It’s all a work in progress, but the courts have been built, the field laid down, when just a few weeks ago the NSA was just a huge empty building with dry wall and construction everywhere.

“Why do a lot of these things not work?” Novak said. “When it becomes just about money. Jason and I love what we’re doing. And what we do is we love to teach.”

And now they have a huge classroom in which to do it.