Hello,
My son is 15 and likely was the youngest there. He was happy he showed well and that he belonged.
Despite 3 confirmation letters, right at the start
the computer system 'lost' his file and he ended up with a Sharpie shirt instead, am proud he did not let that cloud his head.
Yes, there was a lot of waiting, at one point an hour between catching pitchers.
Many kids clearly stiffened up
His 1st pitcher was solid and he looked good receiving,
the 2nd was very wild (pitches bouncing into the righty batters box, etc)- he blocked most, missed 2.
The Scout threw pretty hard vs. lobbing it in on "throws down", Many catchers threw bouncers to 2nd or high to the outfield so he was pretty happy on his accuracy around 2b, though he has thrown harder.
Would have liked to see each catcher get 3 or 4 'practice' throws, am sure most would have done better.
Most infielders had 3-4 grounders and many were of course trying (too) hard to impress.
Outfielders also.
Am sure many are far better than they showed in such a brief chance.
Seemed many/most colleges left after the pitchers finished,
which was unfortunate as my son hit after that
and
5 of his 6 allotted swings were line drives/fly drives ranging from LCF to RCF, (doubles in the gap type hits)
the MLB scouts behind the backstop told him he hit well, way to hit, etc....
Many dads on the bleachers felt similarly to the above comment that 99% of the team was picked beforehand, perhaps so
.....will say some who did not shine Sunday but were selected may have had an off-day and surely had done amazing when their respective scout 1st saw them,
some were clearly really good ballplayers, no question.
Our takeaway was that the overall caliber was better than the USA 16 NTIS last year in Cary
{my son was 14u then (late bday but cut-off birth date moved so he could not accept invite to 14u Stars) & the 3rd youngest there so no expectations to make the final team, happy he made it to the 3rd round in Cary}.
There were a slew of college coaches there so it was good exposure, if you went for exposure purposes you were probably happy about that, however wished your son had more opportunity to show his prowess.
Obviously, a really good 17 year old is going to be better than a really good 15 year old and the 3 finalist catchers were the best Sunday.
He held his own
and
IMHO was in the upper tier (4-7) of the 23 (?) catchers present,
so felt it was a worthwhile day.
The scout who recommended him sent a message that he did well and to keep working hard towards next year.