Re doing your research …
One day I was in the neighborhood near an academy an hour from our home. I thought twice about stopping in. I felt my son should be the lead conversant in a visit. But I had some suspicions about this organization from general baseball conversations I had with some of their coaches from 13u to 16u. I decided to refer to the visit as an in the neighborhood preview and bring my son later.
On the tour I checked out the alumni wall. I noticed a couple of names of sons I played with the dads. They lived 400+ miles away. One of the dads has been a college coach for years now. The other dad was also one of my best friends as a little kid. Then there were a couple of names I’ll discuss in a bit.
When I told the coach I played with the dads the conversation turned to where he started assuming my son had their sons potential. They both played at Vanderbilt. One was a first round pick. He played eight years in the majors. The other flamed out (injury) in A ball.
When I called each dad they told me this academy approached their sons at another PG event and invited them to represent the team at PG at (then) East Cobb. The only cost would be to get there. The academy threw paying customers under the bus (on the bench) to play non paying invited players.
So you respond I played, was fortunate to recognize these names, know the dads and called them. Wouldn’t seeing the names Justin Upton and BJ Upton on the wall raise a red flag knowing they grew up about 300 miles away?
What I learned was this academy’s reputation was based on bringing in a bunch of ringers for PG GA and PG FL.
This place wasn’t in my son’s top two picks. We never went back despite repeated phone calls. I also warned the parents of the other four players on my 16u team they were after.