A kid I coached from 13u to 15yo in 16u was graded a 10 by PG. He committed to an annually high ranked P5 program. His highly regarded coach referred to him as potentially the best recruit he’s ever snagged.
What the father did was spent every dollar possible to train the kid for showcases. At fifteen he looked physically like Josh Hamilton.
But from coaching the kid for three years I knew he didn’t have the mental makeup. This kid led our team in me telling him to shake it off and focus.
In 17u my son and this kid also played on the same team. My son became good friends with a teammate that played high school ball with the kid. The friend told my son the “stud” accumulated all his stats against cupcakes and didn’t hit in the big games. But this stud had been trained to death to excel in showcases. I thought the major PG tournaments would expose the kid. I never understood how they didn’t. The kid was handed a spot on the regional Area Code team. It’s the one thing that ticked my son off since he didn’t make the team (still great exposure just to tryout).
When this class of 17u players headed for college I told a friend (son was also on the 17u team) the “stud” will play his way out of the lineup by conference play every year. For three years the kid was handed a starting position and on the bench by conference play.
Then, after junior year and I don’t understand why, after the draft he was offered a free agent contract for short season with a MLB organization. The kid had the look. But this was when I started wondering who his father knew. He didn’t get past Low A in three seasons.