There's a lot of great info here so far. Lots to absorb!
We've been to this rodeo twice now. Some words of wisdom we've picked up along the way...
- Player "wants" a Spring varsity roster spot guaranteed. Some coaches won't do it. We had a couple coaches challenge my 2016 to tryout in the Fall..."are you afraid of competition?" No he's not. But all things being equal, he wants to go where he will be on the Spring roster with a shot at playing. Beyond that, we understand there are no guarantees.
- Commit to the school where you are loved, and where you will love to be. With both a 2012 and a 2016 they've been "liked" a lot, but when they've been loved it was way more obvious.
- For college camps and showcases, go where the schools on your vetted list will be. This is particularly true the Summer between Junior and Senior high school years. Why waste time and money somewhere else? Why waste time chasing schools where the player can't make the roster or can't make it in Admissions?
- "Demonstrated interest" is key in college admissions. There's lots of ways to do it. It's also very important with college coaches when the player is part of the big pile of kids who are "interchangeable", i.e., somewhat similar abilities. I hate to say it that way. My 2012 had national D1 skills. My 2016 is a phenomenal kid, and his baseball tools are not necessarily impact skills. He's part of the big middle. Excellent high school player looking for a college opportunity.
There's always threads on Stanford, HF, PG, Showball, etc. I've probably posted thoughts on some of those. My 2 cents for whatever it's worth and it's just IMHO. My boys did the Future Stars, All Star, and a pitching/catching camp. My boys did HF Jupiter and HF Long Island, one also did HF Sac.
Stanford Futures and All Star are really fun camps. Coach Stotz is a wonderful guy. It's a blast to stay in the dorms (some of the camps have this residential option). Instruction was solid. It was very cool to play on the sunken diamond and to see the player's picture projected on the big screen. Roughly 35-50 schools. Some are high academic. Some (Kansas, Butte JC, Abilene Christian...) not so much or at all. For some high academic kids, schools on their lists will be at Stanford. The camps had way too many players IMO. We didn't care for moving around to the off site fields...typically just a handful of coaches there. We didn't care for the assessments provided by the team coach...we found Perfect Game assessments to be much more accurate and useful.
For college recruiting visibility for a potential "academic" D1 or D3 player, IMHO Headfirst is the best. It has the most coaches present in a reasonably broad range of "academic" schools, from Kalamazoo College to Amherst and pretty much everything in between. Access (players communicating with coaches) is encouraged and expected. All four fields (Long Island and Jupiter) and the two fields (Sacramento...highly recommended) are together. Every coach is there and all will observe the showcase.
As always, go where your schools will be. Happy to PM with anyone. Good luck!!!