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My 2019 has been scheduled to do the Junior AZ Fall Classic for a month. Just this weekend he was invited to go to the PG WWBA Underclass World championship. He's also been invited to the PG National Top Prospect showcase. We really only have the time and $$ to do 1 event. Most of the schools he's interested in are in TX. I can see the list of schools that went to the Fall Classic the past 2 years and I know 2 of them were there. I can't find anywhere which TX schools will be at the 2 PG events. Any thoughts on which would be the most advantageous?

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Texas 2 Sons posted:

My 2019 has been scheduled to do the Junior AZ Fall Classic for a month. Just this weekend he was invited to go to the PG WWBA Underclass World championship. He's also been invited to the PG National Top Prospect showcase. We really only have the time and $$ to do 1 event. Most of the schools he's interested in are in TX. I can see the list of schools that went to the Fall Classic the past 2 years and I know 2 of them were there. I can't find anywhere which TX schools will be at the 2 PG events. Any thoughts on which would be the most advantageous?

Can he text or email the schools he is interested in and see if they will be at a particular event (and, ideally, which coach -- much better to have the HC or RC)?

I agree with 2019 dad....there's really no way to know unless you ask....and the fact that the schools were at the Fall Classic the past 2 years isn't a guarantee they'll be there again.  Email or better yet, try to call the coaches today and see if you get a reply.  Other than that, not sure if there is any way to help.  I'm not sure if PG has a list of coaches attending...maybe try to contact them and see if they can help.

#1 son went to Az Fall Classic two years ago, #2 son is going this year.  Good event, lots of possible exposure.  That's why we're doing it again.  No experience with the PG events; I can't help you there.  But I totally get your dilemma.  Too many "good" options to attend.  Too little $$ and time.  It can tie you in knots.

A player is not getting the full advantage of any event unless he is in contact with a program well in advance. He should be indicating to someone at a school that he is interested in their program, he should have already sent them a one page profile, the team he is on, references, his coaches contact info, and his game schedule. He *may* be seen by sheer a** luck, but the odds are low that the program a player is interested in "just happens to see him", particularly if only two *may* be there. To get the most out of any event a player and his family should be planning these months in advance and have been in some sort of communication with a program. Without doing the advance planning any event is a waste of money IMO. (Unless of course you are 6'4" and throwing 95) 

Very good responses.

I asked my son this question a few weeks ago. Coaches always go to recruit with a plan. They have already identified those they are planning to offer and right now that would include 2019s well in advance and more than likely have established a relationship.  

 

 

BOF posted:

A player is not getting the full advantage of any event unless he is in contact with a program well in advance. He should be indicating to someone at a school that he is interested in their program, he should have already sent them a one page profile, the team he is on, references, his coaches contact info, and his game schedule. He *may* be seen by sheer a** luck, but the odds are low that the program a player is interested in "just happens to see him", particularly if only two *may* be there. To get the most out of any event a player and his family should be planning these months in advance and have been in some sort of communication with a program. Without doing the advance planning any event is a waste of money IMO. (Unless of course you are 6'4" and throwing 95) 

Today, (have your son) email that one page profile, with the times and fields he will be playing this weekend to the coaches of all the schools he is interested in.  DO IT NOW, with a good-referenced header.  The coaches may or may not be there.....but they may have a buddy that will be.  (This was mentioned in another recent thread; coaches will look for other coaches especially if they are in different conferences.)  Yes, this should have been done weeks ago, but coaches do pick up their emails, and if the header grabs his attention, he can be added to the list of players to watch.

BTW, do this for every event he attends.  Don't expect a response.  You never know who is watching.

Concur with above.  There will be coaches at WWBA and AZ Fall Classic, less so at PG Top Prospect (but it's an inaugural event, never know...). 

At the WWBA and AZ Fall Classic, there could be tons of schools on your sons list, but unless they know about him ahead of time he won't be on their "shopping list".  If he's the beast in the crowd (6'4 throwing 95 guy mentioned) or making head turning contact at the plate he will be noticed.

Easiest way: quick email as Keewart detailed AND have your son call a few of the coaches at the schools he's interested in.  Someone will pick up, just ask: if and which coaches will be at which events??  Write him a simple script - 2 questions regarding if they're attending and who, if coach says none, then ask which showcases or tourney's they'll be at next, his name, class, position...

If he's specifically interested in couple of schools in Texas, then he should try to get to one of their upcoming camps (camps are cheaper).

As said above: Coach may not respond to email, don't worry.  It is very key to HIGHLIGHT in the SUBJECT HEADER some of his CAPABILITIES.  Size? 6.7 60time? 90+ Exit Velo?  And tailor your skills video to less than two minutes!!  Get enough attention to get them to look at the video. 

keewart posted:
BOF posted:

A player is not getting the full advantage of any event unless he is in contact with a program well in advance. He should be indicating to someone at a school that he is interested in their program, he should have already sent them a one page profile, the team he is on, references, his coaches contact info, and his game schedule. He *may* be seen by sheer a** luck, but the odds are low that the program a player is interested in "just happens to see him", particularly if only two *may* be there. To get the most out of any event a player and his family should be planning these months in advance and have been in some sort of communication with a program. Without doing the advance planning any event is a waste of money IMO. (Unless of course you are 6'4" and throwing 95) 

Today, (have your son) email that one page profile, with the times and fields he will be playing this weekend to the coaches of all the schools he is interested in.  DO IT NOW, with a good-referenced header.  The coaches may or may not be there.....but they may have a buddy that will be.  (This was mentioned in another recent thread; coaches will look for other coaches especially if they are in different conferences.)  Yes, this should have been done weeks ago, but coaches do pick up their emails, and if the header grabs his attention, he can be added to the list of players to watch.

BTW, do this for every event he attends.  Don't expect a response.  You never know who is watching.

Keewart, this is great advice. Only one quibble: when you say "this should have been done weeks ago" -- the player often doesn't know what times and what fields he will be playing on until shortly before the event. My son is going through his right now; he has reminded the coaches he is in contact with that he'll be at both the Senior Fall Classic and Junior Fall Classic, but he's not going to be able to send them the fields and times until closer to the event.

2019Dad posted:
keewart posted:
BOF posted:

A player is not getting the full advantage of any event unless he is in contact with a program well in advance. He should be indicating to someone at a school that he is interested in their program, he should have already sent them a one page profile, the team he is on, references, his coaches contact info, and his game schedule. He *may* be seen by sheer a** luck, but the odds are low that the program a player is interested in "just happens to see him", particularly if only two *may* be there. To get the most out of any event a player and his family should be planning these months in advance and have been in some sort of communication with a program. Without doing the advance planning any event is a waste of money IMO. (Unless of course you are 6'4" and throwing 95) 

Today, (have your son) email that one page profile, with the times and fields he will be playing this weekend to the coaches of all the schools he is interested in.  DO IT NOW, with a good-referenced header.  The coaches may or may not be there.....but they may have a buddy that will be.  (This was mentioned in another recent thread; coaches will look for other coaches especially if they are in different conferences.)  Yes, this should have been done weeks ago, but coaches do pick up their emails, and if the header grabs his attention, he can be added to the list of players to watch.

BTW, do this for every event he attends.  Don't expect a response.  You never know who is watching.

Keewart, this is great advice. Only one quibble: when you say "this should have been done weeks ago" -- the player often doesn't know what times and what fields he will be playing on until shortly before the event. My son is going through his right now; he has reminded the coaches he is in contact with that he'll be at both the Senior Fall Classic and Junior Fall Classic, but he's not going to be able to send them the fields and times until closer to the event.

You dont have to let the coaches know what time. They get the schedule and figure out their schedule days in advance.

TPM posted:
2019Dad posted:
keewart posted:
BOF posted:

A player is not getting the full advantage of any event unless he is in contact with a program well in advance. He should be indicating to someone at a school that he is interested in their program, he should have already sent them a one page profile, the team he is on, references, his coaches contact info, and his game schedule. He *may* be seen by sheer a** luck, but the odds are low that the program a player is interested in "just happens to see him", particularly if only two *may* be there. To get the most out of any event a player and his family should be planning these months in advance and have been in some sort of communication with a program. Without doing the advance planning any event is a waste of money IMO. (Unless of course you are 6'4" and throwing 95) 

Today, (have your son) email that one page profile, with the times and fields he will be playing this weekend to the coaches of all the schools he is interested in.  DO IT NOW, with a good-referenced header.  The coaches may or may not be there.....but they may have a buddy that will be.  (This was mentioned in another recent thread; coaches will look for other coaches especially if they are in different conferences.)  Yes, this should have been done weeks ago, but coaches do pick up their emails, and if the header grabs his attention, he can be added to the list of players to watch.

BTW, do this for every event he attends.  Don't expect a response.  You never know who is watching.

Keewart, this is great advice. Only one quibble: when you say "this should have been done weeks ago" -- the player often doesn't know what times and what fields he will be playing on until shortly before the event. My son is going through his right now; he has reminded the coaches he is in contact with that he'll be at both the Senior Fall Classic and Junior Fall Classic, but he's not going to be able to send them the fields and times until closer to the event.

You dont have to let the coaches know what time. They get the schedule and figure out their schedule days in advance.

2019Dad, what we did...and it worked, was.....

Son sent out a "bio-sheet" of sorts.  Name, address, position, school team and coach, travel team and coach, with emails and phone numbers, some accolades, with a link to his video (done by Play In School).  He sent this to about 12 schools plus ones that showed interest.  Samples of letters, now emails, are listed on this site.  He sent this out early spring sophomore year when he played varsity.  (He got called up to V during Freshman year, and that was before we knew what we were doing).

About a week before an event/showcase/tournament, son sent another email, attached to the top of the prior email (bring up first email, then write at the top). This email included the event, times he would be playing, and what field.  Make it easy on the coach so they don't HAVE to look it up.

The second email accomplishes several things.  Not only do you have an excuse to send an email to the coach many times during the summer and  fall with the latest accurate information, your bio is also at the bottom of the emails.  Plus, and this is a biggie, your son doesn't have to keep putting in  email addresses and have possible typos.  He just has to do it once.

Remember, each email needs to be customized to the school:  "Dear Coach XXXX", would love to attend "XXXXX University", would love to be an "Anteater/Bear/Tiger".

 

 

Last edited by keewart

I agree with being purposeful in the target marketing. The problem was the timeline was very short and we didn't have the connections in place to contact coaches that might be there. Because of this and other things we decided to pass on the WWBA event. I really wish there was a big event locally for schools in Texas to come to. The PG events are mostly for east coast schools and the Fall Classic is more for west coast schools. Texas has at least 10 Top D1 schools that have made a regional tourney in the past 5 years. A couple more that are very competitive. Add in LSU, ULL, Ark, OK, OSU and you could get around 20 very good D1 baseball programs. Throw in 20 or more MLB scouts and you're well on your way to a top notch event. You know what they say.."Everything is bigger and better in Texas"  

Maybe I should've kept this to myself and just started one.

Texas two; did you sons attend the Area Code tryout. When I managed the AC games and tryouts we held the tryouts at UT, Texas A&M, TCU.

Each tryout attracted over 100 pro scouts and College coaches. 120 talented players were invited at no cost to the player. Great coaches and scouts in Texas.

From this tryout I selected players and coaches for our International tours to Korea, Japan and Australia.

Bob Williams

<www.goodwillseries.org>

Consultant posted:

Texas two; did you sons attend the Area Code tryout. When I managed the AC games and tryouts we held the tryouts at UT, Texas A&M, TCU.

Each tryout attracted over 100 pro scouts and College coaches. 120 talented players were invited at no cost to the player. Great coaches and scouts in Texas.

From this tryout I selected players and coaches for our International tours to Korea, Japan and Australia.

Bob Williams

<www.goodwillseries.org>

Consultant we sent in for it with a scouts recommendation but didn't get an invite. Not sure why not but was told by them that not everybody gets an invite. Would've been helpful to have gone. They have done the underclass at Baylor the past 2 years. 

baseballmom posted:

Son attended AC at TCU and UT Austin.  At one time,  Baylor hosted PG events (2003-2005, as I recall), then a few in Houston, too. 

All the PG tourneys in TX are run by PGBA, not PG. IMO it would be fair to say that they're not anything like WWBA or Jupiter when it comes to the quality of teams or the amount of coaches and scouts attending.

baseballmom posted:

I think things have changed some... The events were Showcases back then, identifiers or some such. Son did a couple WWBA in Jupiter, 1 yr in Ft Meyers (due to a hurricane, as I recall all?) 

By the way, how are things going in Rockport? I hear it's still pretty bad in town. Speaking of  Hurricanes, did you see there's another one forming in the caribbean right now? Supposed to hit the Gulf Coast east of N.O. this wknd.

Enough already..UNCLE!!!

Texas 2 Sons posted:
baseballmom posted:

Son attended AC at TCU and UT Austin.  At one time,  Baylor hosted PG events (2003-2005, as I recall), then a few in Houston, too. 

All the PG tourneys in TX are run by PGBA, not PG. IMO it would be fair to say that they're not anything like WWBA or Jupiter when it comes to the quality of teams or the amount of coaches and scouts attending.

In Texas, V-Tool events are better run with better competition/more scouts than PGBA events. 

Go44dad posted:
baseballhs posted:

We did 5 different VTool tournaments in TX last year and outside of the hosting school, I only saw D2 and D3 coaches. That said, they are good with social media.

At the Dallas event early in summer (DBU was host, I beleive), I saw Texas Tech, UH, TCU, UTA, Texas State and UL.

I would have to agree. We saw quite a few schools at the Dallas event we went to and the Houston event. Not just the host schools, but saw several at Premiere in Tomball. Plus having the opportunity to play at TCU, DBU, A&M, Rice, UofH, Baylor, Texas Tech..hard to beat that!

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