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kbbaseball
3 Posts |
 Posted - 09/22/2017 : 08:43:44
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I'd like to propose a new folder/topic for College Showcases. We're now getting multiple invitations each week and aren't sure which one's are legit and worthwhile. It would be great to share with other families the good/bad/ugly.
We've had a good experience at East Cobb Academic Showcase (where we had contact from multiple programs after the showcase) followed by a terrible experience at Wallace Community College in AL offering juco exposure. Clearly the coach managing that showcase (Phillip Hurst) has a nice money making venture going. For $125 he promises exposure to 19 different colleges across GA, AL, and FL but the 'evaluations' were done by him and his players. He never introduced any of the other 'coaches' to the players-- immediately suspicious. For most of the showcase his guys hung out in the dugout and nobody paid any attention to the hitters other than Hurst. Nobody was taking notes, there was very little evaluation and coaching going on. Unless you want to play at Wallace, it's definitely not worth the time/money. They offer this showcase multiple times each year and on our Saturday morning he made a cool $10K. I should get into the showcase biz!
I hope this helps someone else who gets an email invitation to go to Ozark, AL for a 'showcase'. |
Edited by - kbbaseball on 09/22/2017 08:45:04 |
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CaCO3Girl
1989 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2017 : 14:52:58
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I think of this board as a YOUTH board. Pre-high School if you will.For showcase information we usually suggest going to the high school baseball web. They have High School, College, MiLB, MLB covered over there.
However, thanks for the tip on the AL guy. It looked a bit fishy so I didn't bother. My plan is to go to the individual college camps and if my son starts flashing some new big time talent I'll take him to a PG showcase.
http://community.hsbaseballweb.com/home |
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Hurricane
351 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2017 : 16:01:35
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I think this is great place to discuss Showcases since a good bit of people are in HS.
It is very hit or miss on the showcases and who is really looking for money and looking for talent. The less expensive showcases seemed to be legit for my son. The more expensive were money makers. I saw some colleges make offers on the spot. Some never even returned and email or call. I would email them when they ask you about coming to their camp if they will provide written feedback for you, if they say no or don't respond I would not go to those. That's my 2 cents for what it's worth.
Go Canes!
The Time for Honoring Yourself Will Soon Be at an End! |
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in_the_know
985 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2017 : 09:02:23
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A few key points that may help anyone entering this phase of recruiting better appreciate and understand Camps.
First, nearly all colleges have unpaid assistants. D1, for example, can only have 3 coaches paid by the University. Camps are an important and immediate source of revenue for these unpaid (as well as underpaid staff) coaches. If you look at any D1 coach's contract (many are public and online), you'll see that camp revenue is typically explicitly in the contract with terms that the coach receives all the revenue (and has the discretion of how to distribute). To that same point, they will most often use current players to staff the camps, again as a means of saving as much of that camp money to pay assistants.
Second, coaches cannot privately work out a prospect. They cannot invite an individual to the school to throw a bullpen or take BP without violating NCAA rules. They can, however, have a prospect or two attend a camp and effectively work them out with all the others. While anyone meeting the criteria (typically a certain age range) can sign up and pay to attend a camp, there are usually a few that are invited or asked to attend. Yes, they have to pay the same as other campers, but make no mistake, they are receiving special attention (as an example, my son was being heavily recruited by a school. When the players were hitting on the field, the HC was with another group at the indoor facility. As soon as my son's time to hit on the field came up, he was asked to wait while the HC was summoned. The HC watched all his rounds and he was asked to stay and hit on field with the next group as well while the HC watched).
Finally, because of the points above, you'll see various levels of talent (or lack thereof) attending camps, particularly at the power 5 D1 schools. Legitimate prospects with D1 talent, some level of delusion kids who have no chance of playing SEC or ACC ball, but not yet realizing that, and the "fantasy campers", kids who are there as a birthday present to get the shirt who may not even make their HS team.
The first key for any parent in attending a camp as a legitimate recruiting prospect is to do your homework first. Understand which schools will be there (and are those schools in your son's target of schools to attend/play), contact the coaches of the attending schools that are in your target to verify their attendance and to let them know you'll be there (make it a point for you son to introduce himself to the coach when there). Finally, follow up with those coaches afterward and seek guidance on gaining an unofficial visit to that school to see the campus and further the discussion with the coach about possibly playing there.
All this only scratches the surface and everyone at this stage of recruiting should definitely check HSBBWEB that CaCo links above. A lot more homework to understand what positions a school is recruiting for each year (it changes each year), how many walk-ons the school brings in each fall (as a means of understanding what chance the kid has of making a spring roster spot), if the school is fully funded for scholarships or not, is the coach on the hot seat to retain his job, how many JUCO transfers a school historically brings in each year (4 yr schools, obviously), etc., etc.
Without understanding camps and having a solid plan with respect to attending and following up, you'll likely waste a good bit of money before you figure these things out.
Best of luck to your family and son. |
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Shut Out
512 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2017 : 14:22:54
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quote:
Originally posted by in_the_know
A few key points that may help anyone entering this phase of recruiting better appreciate and understand Camps.
First, nearly all colleges have unpaid assistants. D1, for example, can only have 3 coaches paid by the University. Camps are an important and immediate source of revenue for these unpaid (as well as underpaid staff) coaches. If you look at any D1 coach's contract (many are public and online), you'll see that camp revenue is typically explicitly in the contract with terms that the coach receives all the revenue (and has the discretion of how to distribute). To that same point, they will most often use current players to staff the camps, again as a means of saving as much of that camp money to pay assistants.
Second, coaches cannot privately work out a prospect. They cannot invite an individual to the school to throw a bullpen or take BP without violating NCAA rules. They can, however, have a prospect or two attend a camp and effectively work them out with all the others. While anyone meeting the criteria (typically a certain age range) can sign up and pay to attend a camp, there are usually a few that are invited or asked to attend. Yes, they have to pay the same as other campers, but make no mistake, they are receiving special attention (as an example, my son was being heavily recruited by a school. When the players were hitting on the field, the HC was with another group at the indoor facility. As soon as my son's time to hit on the field came up, he was asked to wait while the HC was summoned. The HC watched all his rounds and he was asked to stay and hit on field with the next group as well while the HC watched).
Finally, because of the points above, you'll see various levels of talent (or lack thereof) attending camps, particularly at the power 5 D1 schools. Legitimate prospects with D1 talent, some level of delusion kids who have no chance of playing SEC or ACC ball, but not yet realizing that, and the "fantasy campers", kids who are there as a birthday present to get the shirt who may not even make their HS team.
The first key for any parent in attending a camp as a legitimate recruiting prospect is to do your homework first. Understand which schools will be there (and are those schools in your son's target of schools to attend/play), contact the coaches of the attending schools that are in your target to verify their attendance and to let them know you'll be there (make it a point for you son to introduce himself to the coach when there). Finally, follow up with those coaches afterward and seek guidance on gaining an unofficial visit to that school to see the campus and further the discussion with the coach about possibly playing there.
All this only scratches the surface and everyone at this stage of recruiting should definitely check HSBBWEB that CaCo links above. A lot more homework to understand what positions a school is recruiting for each year (it changes each year), how many walk-ons the school brings in each fall (as a means of understanding what chance the kid has of making a spring roster spot), if the school is fully funded for scholarships or not, is the coach on the hot seat to retain his job, how many JUCO transfers a school historically brings in each year (4 yr schools, obviously), etc., etc.
Without understanding camps and having a solid plan with respect to attending and following up, you'll likely waste a good bit of money before you figure these things out.
Best of luck to your family and son.
Well said - without a plan and without communicating with the staff prior to the camp as well as after is a waste of money! |
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College Showcases
