ABCA - Chicago (January 5 -8)

Thanks. There are a couple of threads posted on another forum about this convention. I am looking forward to this year's lineup, especially Saturday's high school breakout with four HS coaches from around the country speaking on different topics relating to HS ball. Should be fun.

One of the best High School coaches that I personally know is being awarded the:
2005 ABCA/ High School Division III
National Coach of the Year:
Rich Hofman, Westminster Academy H.S.
Congratulations to a great guy and even better person!!

ABCA- American baseball coaches association

SO.....whats up at the ABCA, ballfan?

soxnole, huge attendance, over 4,000 coaches. John Mallee (marlins) and Gary Gilmore (coastal) gave the two best presentations in my opinion. Coach Gilmore was really impressed at how hard Froelich was working. Tom House (pitching), Your friend at Wake Forest and head coach from nebraska just to name a few today.

Terrific convention. My personal favorites were Brian Shoop, Birmingham-Southern College, Rick Mathews, Colorado Rockies, and Augie Garrido from Texas. Augie said that his outfield has no equal. He will be starting 3 center fielders and that Drew Stubbs will be the smallest and slowest (6.5 speed) of the three. It doesn't seem fair. He also said that his time spent at Illinois and in the Big 10 was like coaching an indoor sport. No subsitute for getting the players outdoors, on a real field, getting ready for the season.

I too enjoyed my day there and wish a would have stayed longer. Got to meet a few of the fellow websters....Also enjoyed seeing some of the coaches from this summer away from the recruiting grind.

It was good to see many old faces , the hardest thing to do was recognizing the guys without their hats ... My wife called as I was walking around, and the first thing from her mouth was, "your in baseball heaven arent you?" Anyone that made it down there had to be. Good Stuff!

Not only enjoyed the lectures but boy, I could have spent a fortune. lots of great new "stuff" on the market.

Coach,

You are right on there. Being I didnt have to get on a plane with my stuff, I purshased too much. Pretty amazing though. Kept looking for that special ball that gets guys out at will, not there...

Wish I could have been there. I had a basketball game in a "shootout."

Deucedoc...I know what ya mean. I arrived in Chi with one carry on and got back to NY with 3. I looked high and low for the bat that was guaranteed to hit the ball every swing.

Awesome...First time at the convention. There were some great speakers. I wish this would have been more publicized in the area. Meet some great coaches and spent a small fortune. I will probably spend 3x as much when I go next year out of town.

There are conventions to learn more baseball? You mean some coaches actually want to learn more....on thir own accord?

WOW! I guess that dispells the rumor on this board that has been spewed by a few websters that coaches are only in it for their egos!

Wish I could have made that one

LTBB47, HS coaches meet every month at Home Run Inn pizza in Darian. I think the next meeting is on 1/18/06, you should come chenck it out. There is a different speaker every month. The Dec meeting was great, learned a ton about vision training. The dates are listed on the IHSBCA web site. It would also be a great way to get support for you showcase. Talk to you soon. Great seeing you this weekend.

Glove.......

Detroit nice seeing you again, hopefully tonight as well at Comiskey. If not see you on Sunday in Rosemont. Did you make it to the wake? Saw a large group of people from this board at the convention and at the wake.

Coach Merc and those I talked to at the event...it was nice to meet you. Hard to believe the event has come and gone already. Next year's is in Orlando, so it will be nice to wear a short-sleave shirt outside in the middle of winter!

e....I've been to Orlando plenty of times when you couldn't wear short sleeves in the winter time.

If you want to wear short sleeves, go to Acapulco and into Mexico. Only "guarantee" of warm weather in late December, early January.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by eBaseball:
Coach Merc and those I talked to at the event...it was nice to meet you. Hard to believe the event has come and gone already. Next year's is in Orlando, so it will be nice to wear a short-sleave shirt outside in the middle of winter!

e...I've been to Orlando plenty of time when you couldn't wear short sleeves in late December or early January.

If you really want WARM weather, have to go South into Mexico, to Acapulco, Cancun and Cozumel.

ebaseball

There are no "guarantees" in life much less for a baseball convention--and why do you want to go to Mexico?

I like the great USA

e- it was nice to meet you also. Your product look good and I wish you luck with it.

Coach Merc - Thanks for the support and good luck to you as well!
I did not say anything about going to Mexico TR. There was an error in the website's system that crossed my comments with Been's.
Also, I am from Chicago, so to me almost any weather is better than our weather in January, although it has been exceptionally warmer here lately. So for me, after several months of cooler temps, even 50 degrees in Florida will be nice.

Sorry...everyone....didn't mean for the Coaching convention to go to Mexico, only that "short sleeve" weather is not guaranteed in Orlando in late December, early January....

Beenthere, done that.

Short sleeve weather in late December or early January is likely found only in Mexico.

Juan

Short sleeves were in vogue on sunday in Tallahassee.

73 degrees and no clouds made for an enjoyable afternoon. The 8th ranked Seminoles will have that weather all week!

Now for February.....we shall see.

Pretty nice weather here for January - golfing Wed & Thursday. Probably light sweatshirt on Thursday - in the upper 40's.
Also decent weather for Bears on Sunday. Who knows what to expect this spring with record cold in early December and unusual warmth & lack of snow here in Jan.

I hope to meet some of you next year in Orlando. We had 2 days of 58-65 last week but mostly in the 70's, which is normal. Occasional cold front but they never last. Less than a 1/4 inch of rain the last 2 months also. I hope coaches post more about the great speakers they heard and some tdbits about what was said.