Tagged With "Talking"

Attending Showball next week with my son. He has reached out by email to at least twelve schools that will be there. He's hoping to have conversations with as many of those twelve as possible. We have not attended Showball before. Is there an appropriate or inappropriate time during the Showball schedule to initiate a conversation with a coach. It sounds like they don't have designated meet and greet sessions like Headfirst does. Does the boy need to just grab a coach as he's walking by?

They have a meet-greet after both the morning and afternoon session on the first day.

I go to a lot of showcases and I talk to a lot of kids. Sometimes what makes a good impression are the small things. Assuming the requisite level of talent is a given, here are some things that are separators for me - a firm handshake, maintaining eye contact, speaking confidently, and talking like an adult. Don’t wear sunglasses when speaking to coaches. Look them in the eye and let them see yours. The eyes can tell you a lot.

Thanks, @Dadbelly2023 . We're going to be in the afternoon session. Do you know whether we'd be allowed to participate in the morning meet and greet? Did you walk around with your son during the meet and greet or did he fly solo?

My 2c FWIW...I do not work for Showball nor am I affiliated with them. The best thing about Showball is the schools that attend and the direct player-coach interaction. Day 1 is a combine with position-specific drills, workouts and evals. There is also a coach meet and greet - highly recommend attending this. Everyone, including parents, is invited. Day 2 the coaches run live games where they are in the dugouts and on the field at all times. They will also be behind the backstop and mulling...

My son and I attended HF many years ago. We didn't attend a Showball camp, but my understanding is they are very similar. There are going to be hundreds of kids there. You want to make a positive, memorable impression on as many target coaches as possible both on the field and off the field. Off the field, you may get 30 seconds with one coach, and with other coaches you may get 5 minutes. We had 2 Ivy coaches who had recruited my son who wouldn't give him the time of day at the event, and...

Not much meat to those replies, but at least they are replying. As I mentioned above, I think your son asking "what do you look for in a 3b" or "how many of X positions are you recruiting this year" can help him. This is a very direct approach, but you don't want to waste your time with a program you have zero shot with. If a school is requiring a 1500 SAT and your son has a 1380, he should probably cross them off the list. If the coach says they want catchers under a 2.0 and running a 7.0...

Adbono mentions a key point, the player has the requisite level of talent. If the coaches are responding to emails the talent the are looking for is probably there. If they are not responding you need to wait until the event to figure out what they look for. SB does their meet and greet on day 1 so the coaches haven't seen much of a player's ability yet. The conversations outside of this meet and greet and in the dugouts and off the fields are much more valuable than the meet and greet. A...

Some coaches have been responding to his emails like this: Thanks for the updates [name] – see you at Showball in Boston! and Thanks [name], look forward to seeing you at Showball. and [name], Coach and I will both be at Showball in Boston, we look forward to meeting you. Safe travels, -[name] Any sense for what interest level we can read into responses of this nature?

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure if you are there early you could go to the session over the lunch hour. The kids all do it by themselves. You'd stand out if you were there with your kid. We had him email the coaches of the schools he was most interested in and work hard to meet those particular coaches. He'd try to write something in his emails that might be remembered when he talked with them. One Ivy coach treated him like dog water even though his cousin was an all american athlete...

Your son is on a list to see if he has the goods. If unable to meet that particular coach in the dugout or at the meet and greet, it's ok to introduce yourself if the coach is showing up or leaving. My son had prepared - he went on his own mission. After a couple of meetups with coaches they asked to meet mom or dad; really quick intro and saying they'd like to get him to see the campus. Adbono is absolutely spot on above! We did SHowball a few times. A lot of the coaches know each other and...

Our experience from 2 years ago was this: 1. We had the most success with responses from email that had Subject lines like the following: "Cooper Johnson 2022: 6'3"/185, RH/LHH, C/OF, 33 ACT, 7.0 60", or "Charlie Johnson 2024: 5'10"/145, RHP/RHH SS/UT, 87FB/96EV, 3.95 GPA" Make sure that you highlight anything that should be highlighted in subject line and then can get deeper in email. 2. Great opportunity to meet some coaches. Parts of it are cattle calls (roughly 30 min at end of day 1 to...