I agree, this is a great thread for pitchers who are thinking about college. I did not understand it until this year, and we (sort of) planned accordingly. (Son is a Jr) Now that I have experienced it, I believe you need to focus on these events MORE than HS ball. I would do the USA 16U again, and the Area Code tryouts are a must. If you don’t make the Area Code team then shut down and if you do keep throwing until they are over with. Shut down after this, which seems weird but makes sense when college coaches are doing much of their recruiting at the WWB early fall tournaments and Arizona Fall Classic tournaments. (at least out here on the west coast)
BTW PG the Tucson tournament is going to be HUGE in the future and dovetails nicely with the Az Fall Classic tournament.
A couple of his target schools wanted to see him this winter so we will do two winter camps and he will continue to throw up until the HS season start. Not real heavy maybe 3x / week LT and one bullpen.
I am going to stress to his HS coach to really take it easy on him in the early season. Get in short but high quality outings, 40 pitches max early on and a 90 pitch count drop-dead later in league. He and my son are not going to like it, but when you add in the extra load from the fall events you have to take it from somewhere else.
We will do this for only 1 or maybe 2 years. After the recruiting is done then back to his 3 month shut down. I would also not do any of this for a Fr/Soph again, no point in spending the money and putting the additional stress on their body.