2017 Headfirst camps schedule released

Oh, gosh, the move to Woodland is very bad IMHO.  I wonder why?

I have not been there for a few years, so some of this could be mitigated, but some cannot.

Woodland is turf and it's a very hot area, so that  is not good.  S*cc*r field markings all over the turf, which is annoying at best. But the worst thing is the temporary mounds -- last time we were there they had those really small ones.  If they have not upgraded I'd be worried about my pitcher showcasing there.

On the plus side, they do have 3 contiguous fields, which may have been a factor in the decision. Also, unlike the facility in Sacramento, there's a fair amount of area you can use for warm ups.

trees? as in, are there any?  Plus, not excited about three fields.  Will water down the coach/player ratio.

I do recall a dad or two at the second Headfirst Sacramento event  last summer complaining about the dirt mounds on the second day. 

Yep, those markings are annoying. No trees in sight and no permanent mound.

We northwesteners like turf though, since almost all high schools converted to turf here and kids can't handle the non-turf bounce anymore. I did send them feedback last summer about the dirt field at Sac State. Maybe they took that too seriously.

smokeminside posted:

Plus, not excited about three fields.  Will water down the coach/player ratio.

 

I hope it goes the other way -- because of three fields, they can invite more coaches (and of course, more players $$$)

Softball turf (infields)? Make sure to pack the 'tenny's' for pitchin' off the fake mounds......

LOL-Those fields look awful

People gonna pay a grand for that?  Ouch-

Also, as you can see the fields are in the middle of nowhere, and even in town, there is pretty much nothing around  except for a couple of good Mexican restaurants. Campers probably need to stay in Sacramento or Davis.

Oddly enough there is a cool, very old city park field they use for legion tournaments. Good snackbar! 

DesertDuck posted:

Softball turf (infields)? Make sure to pack the 'tenny's' for pitchin' off the fake mounds......

LOL-Those fields look awful

People gonna pay a grand for that?  Ouch-

I'm guessing between 150-200 kids will pay for that.  Ouch, indeed.

Used to live in Davis.  The Mexican restaurants in Woodland were legendary then.  Glad to hear they are still some good ones.

Took a quick peak at the Ivies for the July HF date.. 7 of 8 --not Penn. Penn seemed to do a number of Top96 showcases when son was vetting schools.

Penn RC told us they just don't do HF.  No need in their minds.  

Twoboys posted:

Penn RC told us they just don't do HF.  No need in their minds.  

Did he say which camps they do rely on, besides their own?

Ripken Fan posted:

Took a quick peak at the Ivies for the July HF date.. 7 of 8 --not Penn. Penn seemed to do a number of Top96 showcases when son was vetting schools.

Hmm? They haven't released the 2017 coach list yet. The current list is what they had on 2016 camps. They usually release a very limited list in January, but there will be a lot of changes until the camp day.

Twoboys posted:

Penn RC told us they just don't do HF.  No need in their minds.  

For the life of me, don't understand that?  World renowned and historic institution with highly competitive baseball program in a great city that could only benefit from being there?  Of all the Ivies, I would say Penn was the school son saw the least at any/all showcases and tournaments he attended. 

Saw Penn one time, I recall, at a UVa camp several years ago in a blizzard.  I think that was the only time son saw them unless he was on their campus at their camp.  Never saw them at HF, Stanford, Dynamic.  In final stretch considered seriously going to a Top-96 camp for the sole purpose of getting in front of them, but decided on doing their on campus camp instead.

I do believe for an impressionable 15-17 year old, that "name brand recognition" in the marketplace is something that has to be built over time.  Looking back, I wish Penn was more visible on the path that my son traveled.  Their paths never crossed.  Yet with the 7 other Ivys they did on multiple occasions.  Mostly at HF and Stanford.

Concur that it's frustrating you have to go to a completely diff venue to find Penn, they probably view that as advantageous. 

That is the coach list from last year - for the first event at Sac they have a few coaches listed that are no longer at the school.  Duke's former Volunteer AC Al Morris is no longer at Duke.

Penn apparently decided several years ago to stop attending HF.  No idea why.  A few years after that, there was a dust up between HF and Penn over Penn allegedly acquiring HF's camp roster list without permission and using it for misleading invites to Penn's own camps.  My son got one of the Penn email invites and we later got a very strongly-worded email from HF criticizing Penn's tactics.  Different Penn coaching staff now, but the incident may provide some context as to why Penn does not attend HF.

Penn, Yale, Cornell, Georgetown and a couple others started their own "GPA Baseball" camps after leaving HF awhile ago.  Those camps were poorly run and very expensive.  Only 6 or 7 schools represented, but a must do if a player was interested in those schools.  GPA Baseball stopped a couple years ago if my memory serves me, and all but Penn appear to have returned to HF.

First round of coach list released for Headfirst camps. The California camps already have same amount of coaches as last year. New York camps are nowhere near last year's amount. And yes, the July camp have many coaches in common with Showball coach list. I'm wondering if those coaches really attend Headfirst one day and Showball the second day; or Headfirst in the morning and Showball in the afternoon?

Anyone registered yet?

Bogeyorpar posted:

First round of coach list released for Headfirst camps. The California camps already have same amount of coaches as last year. New York camps are nowhere near last year's amount. And yes, the July camp have many coaches in common with Showball coach list. I'm wondering if those coaches really attend Headfirst one day and Showball the second day; or Headfirst in the morning and Showball in the afternoon?

Anyone registered yet?

Nope...lots of scheduling to do before we commit to any specific date.  The MIF spots are the first to go, but that occurs 3 months prior to the date (typically).

Early on you'll see the same coaches at both events, then as the camp date nears, the colleges will make adjustments on exactly whom will be attending.   

Smoke, any idea why Amherst not coming to any Headfirst event?

JCG, some question for CMS?

Dunno, Bogey. They were not there last summer either, though they were at Stanford #2.

Just to correct/add a few things on this thread.  Penn has traditionally attended Stanford -- last year they had THREE coaches there.  Info above is wrong -- they were there and have been there at least the past two years in full force.  So perhaps with that, the other showcases they do, the fact they attend Diamond Nation events, and their own camps, maybe they see HF as redundant.  We also saw the RC at a PG event too.  Not sure why they don't do HF, but the RC told us they see no need.

Re Amherst, we saw them an awful lot last year too.  RC/HC or both seem to be at every big and even small camp and showcase.  Maybe they will be added to HF, as HF often adds quite a few.  Maybe they are waiting for HF to settle their law suit with former partner who is Amherst alum?  Maybe the law suit has been settled? Maybe it is just an oversight?  

Re CMS, they have not attended HF NY for the past few years.  

TwoBoys knows more than I do.  Thanks for the info on Penn, especially.

I do know 2017 was seen at HF #2 by Amherst last year, and I think they followed up with him at Stanford.  Amherst was also at Jupiter last fall, and may have seen him there, though he wasn't interested in Amherst at that point.

I keep wanting to ask Coach Hamm, or any coach for that matter, where they get their guys.  I'm assuming its a wide variety of places, and that it's different every year, but it would still be fun to know what events worked out for them (and the kids) for their recruiting class.

Some of these coaches won't attend HF because of previous dust up (e.g., Penn, CMS...formerly the Cornell HC, et.al.).  They had a falling out with HF, wanted to pocket the $ directly and run the camps themselves so they did their GPA Camps, and that didn't work out.  That said, a few of the schools, e.g., Yale, have come back to HF. 

In addition to their camps, son also met with Penn at a couple of Top 96 camps.