Youth baseball showcases

fenwaysouth
Sun, 16 Sep 2012 08:46:34 +0000

schoolhouse,

I understand what you are saying, and I agree your comments may apply to some people. There are various type of exposure for the athlete (national showcase vs a camp) would be one comparision. What may work for some peope isn’t going to work for all people. People have different recruiting requirements and they are not always athletic. My son had D1 offers that he turned down because they did not have engineering programs. HeadFirst showcase put us in touch with D1 Ivy, D1 Patriot. D3 NESCAC and D3 schools that offered my son a chance to play baseball and study engineering.

Both HeadFirst showcase and camps can be used in totally different situations…my son did both as part of a planned strategy. We used the HeadFirst national showcase to standout with his athletic talent AND high SATs and GPA. My son got 20-30 emails and phone calls after the HeadFirst showcase and had coaches chasing him down in the parking lot. From that list, he selected the schools he was most interested in (engineering schools), and we attended their camps. Fast forward 4 weeks later, an offer was made while at the camp (on the mound) and he verbally accepted. We would not have gone to that camp had that Ivy coach not seen him at the Head First showcase. That is a 100% certainty.

This is 180 degrees different than how we started our recruiting process with his travel team showcases and camps where they were only focused on athletics (he didn’t stand out because the coaches didn’t care about the grades & SATs as much). He was getting offers from D1 schools that did not offer engineering, and it really bothered my son. Could we have just gone to camps? Possibly, but to go to a showcase where you know you will stand out and get many interested coaches is much more valuable, and it gives you more options and leverage. So each is different, but can be used together in an overall strategy.

Recruited = passion + skill + exposure + persistence + luck