Anyone have any experience with this program? Just stumbled onto it and it looks interesting because of its relatively small size and lower costs. Thanks!
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Bumping this thread as we have the same question. Great group of schools, and more convenient for us than the Sacramento Headfirst camp. Doesn't seem to be much on Rising Prospects via the search on HSBBW? Link to camp:
I saw they had one of these in the Fall that looked promising but sold out. I haven't had a chance to hear from anybody who attended to get their prospective on it.
I noticed the one they are now promoting for August 6-7 looks like it will be in direct conflict with a Top 96 camp that same weekend in Southern California:
http://www.top96baseball.com/e...lay_camp.php?de=5283
At least 4-5 of the schools are also listed at the Top 96 camp. And since the Top 96 camp actually lists the coaches attending and you can verify their names on the college team website, I would say that is the safer bet.
As others have said here, it is hard to beat the HeadFirst option for Academic showcases. While they do cost more, it sounds like they really deliver the opportunity for players to interact with coaches, which is particularly critical for an academic school.
Thanks Backstop. We've looked at Top96 as well, but they don't get the Ivy League schools like Rising Prospects does. They do have a strong school list though. 2018 plans to do Headfirst next year when he is a rising senior, for this year the Rising Prospects was interesting because it is right in our backyard and about half the price as Headfirst, so seems like an interesting option. Fully realize you may get what you pay for, so trying to get a better understanding of both RP and T96.
Good to know we will have some feedback on Rising Prospects. To me, it is really important who the coaches are that come to these Showcases and how influential they can be in the schools recruiting. I came upon RP too late last Fall to get signed up for the Showcases they held in December. The better one of the two was geared toward Juniors and had a lot of the strong academic schools. I wished we could have gotten into that one. Then a week later they had one for "uncommitted" players that I understood was more for Seniors (2016 grads) who had passed the early signing without a commitment. That list of schools was much smaller, and my son is a 2017, so we passed on it.
If your experience in August is a good one, maybe we will look to them again this Fall. Of course we are hoping the Headfirst in June goes so well that we won't need to worry about doing another academic one!
Backstop - an interesting note on T96, when looking more into it this weekend they post their fee, but then video, evaluations and a processing fee (?) get tagged on as well. Not disparaging the quality of what they do at all - I know nothing about it - but I did find that to be a turn off no different than I hate "resort fees" at a hotel or "service charges" when buying tickets for a game. Just let me know what it costs. I realize they likely want it to be a la carte for folks who already have a video or may not find a formal evaluation necessary, but not my cup of tea.
Good luck at Headfirst, 2018 looks forward to attending their Sacramento event either this year or definitely next.
There is another alternative - Coastal VA Baseball Academic Camp (coastalvabaseball.com). It is scheduled for June 23-24 in the DC area. Field specifics should be released soon. I chose those dates because they get the Academic kids on college radar screens sooner, which allow for more evaluation and discussions with coaches.
All of my camps contain a showcase portion and hands on instruction from the college coaches. I actually guarantee your son will have every opportunity to show what he can do.
In just over one week, we have secured the following schools:
Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Davidson, Elon, Bucknell, Navy, William & Mary, Furman, Franklin & Marshall, Bates, Holy Cross, Gettysburg, Wesleyan & Hamilton (more will be coming)
Oh, and each player will get a Play In School recruiting video as well as a written eval by a college coach, included in the price.
Find more details at coastalvabaseball.com
Bumping this thread up, since son just received a marketing flyer yesterday in the mail about the "Rising Prospects Academic camp". Looks like there are 25 colleges and costs $550, which includes video and measurements.
Anyone going or has been to the camp?
Too rich for my blood.
Bogey,
Last year my son went to the Ivy League camp. It was held at Concordia University in Irvine. Beautiful campus and ball park. The exposure to the college coaches is excellent as the player to coach ratio seemed favorable. I believe this camp helped my son receive interest and ultimately an offer.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
My mistake - I was thinking of the Top Prospects Camp in Irvine, not Rising Prospects. Too many similar names!
Haven't been yet but will be going to the National camp November in San Bernardino. My son is an uncommitted 2018 MIF.
Andy, the Director of the camp is also the Director of USA Baseball's NTIS in the Southwest & SoCal. He use to be the RC at Long Beach State and seems very connected to current college coach's & RC's (google him). I've listened to his 'recruiting presentation' at the NTIS tryout this year in Phoenix and have spoken with him on the phone a couple times (once fairly in depth about my son's ability as it relates to the recruiting process). He's very knowledgable about recruiting, the different levels of collegiate baseball, breaking down a kids ability and project-ability, as well as the game in general. Overall, definitely one of the sharper guys I have spoken with (and I've talked to a lot).
I wouldn't hesitate to give him a call if you have any questions about his showcase camps, his number is listed on the website and he will call you back if he doesn't answer when you call. He is a straight shooter that really seems to want to help.
I consider him a very valuable source of information in this wild & crazy process and am looking forward to running my son thru one of his camps (we've done the PG showcase, Showball last month, Jr. Day camp and a few individual college camps).
Feel free to PM me if you'd like.....
Just my .02
