My son is a 2019 6'4" 205lb hit and hit-for-power 3B/RHP with 7.2 speed. He attends an academically rigorous independent boarding school and is a solid student (3.2/ACT~25) who has taken seven AP and/or IB courses, as well as Physics, Chemistry, Calc, Econ, Stats, and Spanish 5. He's also a very mature kid and has travelled extensively internationally. He's been a three sport varsity athlete since his freshman year and quarterbacked the football team this past fall. Coaches/Scouts say uniformly that he can pitch at DIII level (fastball tops out at 84 right now) but that DI coached will want him exclusively for his swing).
At Headfirst last year several DIII coaches told him that they would be very interested in having him on their team but that they wouldn't hold their breath, so to speak, on him not playing DI, given his size and swing. For college, though, he's very interested in getting out of the Northeast, perhaps to the Midwest, West Coast, the Carolinas, or Texas. So while there are some DIII programs that would be potentially good fits, he'd like to at least try his best to get some interest from DI schools with better academics in those regions (even including large, academically sound state schools.)
That's worked to some extent already. After his HS coach sent out an email/video following last spring's successful season, several coaches responded enthusiastically. Because we didn't yet understand the importance of national travel baseball at the beginning of last summer, he played for a local team and we focused exclusively on going to college camps, plus a PG showcase and Headfirst. A number of DI coaches have asked him to send his 2018 summer schedule as soon as it's finalized. We're trying to do that now and could use some assistance from all the knowledgable and experience folks on this forum.
I think we've found a decent travel team whose 16U team last summer was very successful at WWBA in GA, but we have two big open questions:
1) PG 18U WWBA Memorial Day Tournament (East or West) as a mercenary, Yes or No? (Is there a large contingent of college coaches scouting these early tournaments despite the fact that many of their teams are still competing in conference tournaments that weekend? It would entail missing a day of school and our financial resources are not unlimited, but maybe it's relatively more important for him, since he's 2019, to be seen earlier in the summer?)
2) What to do in July after PG 17U WWBA in GA? (Current Option 1: Two NE regional tournaments with summer travel team + Stanford All Star Camp and CA school visits; or Current Option 2: Two NE regional PG tournaments with summer travel team + PG BCS National Championship in Ft. Meyers as a mercenary player; or Current Option 3: Stanford All Star Camp + other college camps of interest)? Other options we should consider?
If PG 17U WWBA in Georgia is the only national tournament he plays in, would that be enough?
We're not planning to do another PG showcase this summer and it seems like it doesn't make sense for us to do Headfirst again because it's so late in the summer it seems probable that he'll have an offer (or if not, have decided to try and walk on to whatever good-fit school he chooses) and the rather large expense might be for nothing (They fill up so early!). Also, if he does do the Stanford showcase several weeks earlier, there would be quite a bit of overlap. We also thought about the Showball showcase on Long Island, though it would be the same issue: expensive, late in the summer, and NE heavy in attendance.
That said, we are planning to do a Dynamic Baseball one-day showcase in late May and a two-day PBR regional showcase in mid-June, since he's not done anything with either organization and both advertise coaches attending from schools of interest.
Thoughts?
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