Just got back from Stanford. Having read the All Star Camp thread, I thought it might be helpful to start a Futures Camp thread.
Camp was for 2017 and 2018s. Most of the 200 kids were 2017s but I'd say 20-30% were 2018s. Best guess, anyway. The format sounds much the same as the All Star camp, but with half the number of kids (200) and teams (12), the 30-35 schools in attendance had an easier time watching the kids. 2 out of 3 games were at the Sunken Diamond. The third game was at Palo Alto HS across the street. The hs field was nice (by our local standards), and at my 2017s game there, coaches from Kansas, Cal Tech, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Stanford's very own Coach Marquess were the ones I recognized. There were at least three other coaches in attendance but I couldn't tell where they were from. Despite not being at the main field, I thought the game at the HS was better represented by coaches than I heard it would be.
After the opening day 45-minute talk by Camp Director Coach Stotz, (which was pretty good, discussing the odds of playing college, minor league and in the majors, how to prep for the SAT and ACT (get a baseline score, target your weakest areas and be prepared to take it several times), how competitive admissions are at the more academic schools, how to look for a good fit in the college search, and other academic info, the daily format was the same content wise, though its sequence varied depending on the team. Teams are coached by one of the coaches from the school the team is named for. 2017 played for Harvard at the camp, and his coach was a Harvard assistant. Other teams were coached by head coaches. Daily schedule included an hour of defensive work (outfielders and infielders in two groups), an hour of conditioning (one day of which had timed 30-yd and 60 yd. dashes), and an hour of hitting. Two teams did each station at the same time throughout the day.
Defensive work: 2017 is an outfielder so I didn't see the infield drills. Outfielder had a day where they were filmed catching fly balls and throwing home, as well as grounders. Film and instruction was focused on footwork, ball transfer, receiving position. On another day the boys were timed from the instant the boys broke toward a hard hit grounder right to them to the instant the ball was released.
Hitting: wide variety of soft toss, tee work, and live pitching. Kids were filmed hitting live pitching from several angles, and there was one station where they attached a small device to the knob of the bat and measured all sorts of metrics that were supposed to help the batter know whether he should swing a 33 or a 34. I have no idea how it works, but we're supposed to get feedback on it.
Parents can watch all drills, but are usually separated from the group of kids by a fence. The kids are far enough away that hearing anything being said by the coaches is difficult.
Not sure if this was true for each team but our team had its three hours of practice before each of our games.
Game format: counts start at one and one. Each games was ten innings, six hitters maximum per inning, and game ended after two hours.
Batting order for our team was simply by position (pitcher was first hitter, Catcher second, first baseman third, etc.) the first two games.
Both of those games ended with two kids only getting up twice, so for the third game, the coach had those two hitters bat 1 and 2 so the abs had a chance to even out. Son got up 8 times in three games, but one of those at bats was a walk, which allowed him an extra at bat. If you walk, a designated runner takes your spot at first, so you can try to still get a hit. A second walk in the same at bat allows the batter to go ahead and take first.
Son was one of only three outfielders on the team, so all three got to play every inning of the camp. There were many more infielders/catchers so coaches moved them around during the game. I couldn't tell how many innings kids were getting at particular infield positions, but one mom complained to me after the second game that her son had only played 2 innings at his best position. She was upset but I'm not sure if it led to anything. Our team had 4 first basemen, so the most innings anyone got there in a particular game was three.
Games were very competitive and low scoring for my son's team. Highest score was 5-4.
highest velo pitching I saw: 84. Most pitchers were around 80, or slightly less.
We were fortunate to have the Saturday night game, the second day of the camp. There were no other drills/practices going on, so there were a lot of coaches in the stands for that game, all busy writing notes. The Sunday afternoon Sunken Stadium game (the last day) did not have any practices going on at the same time either, but there were very few scouts in the stands. Not sure why.
Meeting coaches did not happen unless the coaches ran the kids' drill. Then there was some discussion but mostly just instruction.
Son sought out three coaches he had written to before hand but as others have said the coaches are there to analyze and not schmooze. Coaches non committal when talking with kids. I saw very few parents approach coaches. The only contact I had with coaches was when a few, individually, would ask the group of parents we were with what school our caps represented.
We were happy with 2017s experience and so was he. Strongly considering All Star Camp for next year. Happy to give more info.
SCHOOLS AT FUTURE STARS CAMP
ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ARMY
BROWN
BUCKNELL
CHICO STATE
COLUMBIA
CORNELL
DARTMOUTH
EASTERN MICHIGAN
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL
GEORGETOWN
GRINNELL COLLEGE
HARVARD
HOLY CROSS
KANSAS
LEWIS AND CLARK
BUTLER
MISSOURI
NAVAL ACADEMY
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
PENN
PENN STATE
POMONA
PUGET SOUND
SANTA CLARA
STANFORD STAFF
TRINITY UNIVERSITY
UC DAVIS
UC RIVERSIDE
UNIVERISTY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
UOP
USF
WAKE FOREST
WASHINGTON COLLEGE
WESTMONT
