Academic Showcase Recommendation?

Best overall and for the experience, hands down Stanford Camp.

Best value by far, Arizona Fall Classic academic game. 

Have heard good things about Headfirst. 

Others will have opinions.

The Stanford Future Stars and Stanford All Star Camp fit your requirements perfectly.Make it a family vacation and take in all the Bay Area has to offer.My son played in both of these camps and the memories will last a lifetime.My wife and I enjoyed every minute of these camps and all the other stuff we did outside of Stanford.

Ditto to what all these posters noted.  Stanford All Star and Future Star, Headfirst Honor Roll, PG National Academic, AZ Fall Classic Academic game.

As always, go where your schools will be.

We were in your shoes for our 2014, and we attended the Perfect Game Academic in Fla 1st week of June , so right after our son's Junior year. HeadFirst has camps in Long Island and I know players that received offers from their showing in that event but the dates never worked for us.

Stanford has a great rep; as well.

Feel free to PM me if you have other questions; we are also based in Texas and we first had to prioritize schools and geographies .

We will be offering 2 High Academic College Bus Tours.  We will see nearly 20 campuses on each tour.  Tours of each campus given by the coaches of each school.  2 workouts on each tour.  Our goal is to give kids 1st hand knowledge so they can figure out what they are looking for.  A perfect example is Georgetown vs George Washington.  Both have DC address & separated by less than 2 miles.  But they are worlds apart how they look & feel.  Very different 4 year experience.

Here are the 2 itineraries… 

High Academic Mid-Atlantic

Mon. August 18, 2014

Villanova

Haverford

St. Joseph’s

Swathmore

University of Pennsylvania

Tue. August 19, 2014

Johns Hopkins

Catholic

Georgetown

George Washington

McDaniel

Wed. August 20, 2014

Gettysburg

Dickinson

Franklin & Marshall

Lafayette

Thurs. August 21, 2014

Muhlenburg

Lehigh

Princeton

High Academic New England

Mon. August 25, 2014

Babson
Northeastern
MIT
Harvard
Tufts
Tue. August 26, 2014 Wheaton
Brown
UConn
Trinity
Wesleyan
Wed. August 27, 2014 Yale
Fairfield
Vassar
West Point
Thurs. August 28, 2014 Bard
Williams
Amherst
Holy Cross 

35 guy maximum.  Essentially private tours & private workouts at some of the most elite schools in the country!

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

I totally "get" that nobody wants to pay a lot of money for college.

But isn't college an investment in your most treasured possession…. your children!?

Do you live in the cheapest house possible?  Do you drive the cheapest car possible?

Again, I "get it".  But seems like some folks out there forget college is an investment in your kids future.  If it is not important to him or you, then perhaps consider bypassing college and head straight to work.  Don't "spend" money so your kid can play college baseball.  "Invest" in their future…. and if baseball is part of it be thankful!

Getting off my soap box now.  And again, I "get" that people don't want to spend $250,000 on college.  But to expect free is crazy.  

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

Boy I hope the poster was kidding...

Little things like freshman retention rate, graduation rate, expected earnings potential, etc.  These might have some input to the "total cost of ownership".

The great news is that the schools on Rich's tours and the schools (many are the same) at the showcases listed, have great financial aid, plus retention rates, grad rates, etc.

At what level of college ball does he have the potential to play? 

@ RJM - we are still trying to figure that out.  He is a centerfielder, pretty fast, accurate arm, bats 3 on summer and school varsity team, still growing.  My brother played LSU in the early 90's (Howser award winner) - my son is NOT that kind of power hitter.  More the lanky athletic type.  With my younger brother no one really new his potential until senior year of high school so I really don't know his college ball potential yet.  So far the couple of showcases he attended as freshman were encouraging I'd say but I really don't know athletically where he belongs - I do know academically he needs a challenging school. 

The reason I ask is you want to focus on the right showcases. I've seen people spend money on showcases where the kid had no chance of playing at the attending colleges. Then they complain about the showcase.

Kbaker - 

There are only 1,000 jobs in the MLB.  And all of their dad's post here!  Just kidding.

If his athletic ability is good enough for pro ball, he'll be found.

If his athletic ability is good enough for the Top 25 of college baseball, those programs will let you know.  Not the other way around.

Keep your kid focused on those top tier schools and if a top tier school that also happens to be top tier at baseball pops up then great.  

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

What may be unknown is that at most High Academic schools the amount of aid available is almost unlimited.  If a player wants to go to one of these schools and has a demonstrated financial need it will almost always be met--more so than at many other schools.  My recommendation is that players/parents of strong students really check out the top academic schools and I think they'll find the cost to be much less than expected.

I know this is slightly off topic, but if I had it to do over again, I would be carting my son to see various colleges during his freshman and sophomore years. I would also be taking him to DI, D2 and D3 games, to get a sense for the experience. I say that because which showcase makes the most sense depends on where your son wants to (and can) play.

Academic schools vary considerably.  Peoples definitions of academic schools vary considerably.   There is a vast spectrum of true academic baseball schools.

My suggestion would be attend an academic camp that is closest to home (TX) first to see how he does and establish if you are fishing in the right pond.  This may save you time and money up front and in the long run.  

If he is competitive as a soph and works hard to improve his game then I think he may be ready for the larger academic camps such as Stanford or others when he is a junior. I would also urge you to consider getting a jump on SAT/ACT early in his junior year IF he is considering Ivy or Patriot League schools.  If he stands out on the field and stands out with his board scores he has a great chance of getting their attention.  The coaches want the best baseball players they can get through Admissions.  Always keep that last sentence in mind as you deal with true academic baseball schools.   JMO.

PS...In addition I would do the things that twotex mentioned above.  It is really important to know what pond you are fishing in because those most likely will be the fish you catch or don't catch.

We're attending the Stanford All Star II Camp in July and are considering Headfirst in Nov - FL.  We're excited about Stanford but in terms of shear number of schools represented, HF and Showball do offer more.  Stanford just sent us the list of coaches that will be there.  Roughly 31 in addition to Stanford.  HF normally has 50-70 and Showball sent an invite that listed 80 schools.  I'd have to say the quality of the schools for both HF and Showball, in terms of academics, is also better than Stanford's.  That said, Stanford itself only appears to attend Stanford, and you only play on Sunken Diamond so all coaches in attendance are watching the games.  I know with HF, in Long Island and in FL games are played on 4 fields, in Sacramento 2, so the coaches are dispersed among those fields.  Stanford plays games on 2 of the 2.5 days.  HF plays games on both of the 2 days.  Showball plays games on the 2nd of 2 days only.  We're also looking at PG Academic but know less about schools that attend and the format.  

Go where schools on your player's vetted list will be.  A player needs to be seen by coaches on their vetted list. 

The number of schools at a given showcase may or may not matter.  Stanford and PG National Academic had far fewer schools than Showball...but they were schools that mattered most to us.  HF had the most.  But it's an individual thing. 

He's interested in many top academic schools...Stanford, Ivies, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Wash U, Emory, NYU, Amherst, Pomona, Swarthmore...quite a few more of that ilk.  

Only Stanford, some of the Ivies and Pomona will be at the Stanford camp.  Nearly all of them minus the Chicago schools will be at both HF and Showball.  So for us, it will be necessary to attend Stanford to get in front of Stanford but other showcases to get in front of ALL the Ivies and many other schools of interest.  If you have the resources, getting in front of more schools and as many times as possible certainly translates into more potential opportunities.  Only after mutual interest has been established does it make sense to us to narrow down to a few schools.

Ripken Fan: Thanks for your thoughts.  I'm glad we've revived this discussion.  I learned a few things from the earlier posts in this thread and wanted to offer what we have experienced and seen, albeit through communications from the camps thus far and not in person yet.  I do appreciate the feedback though and we know this will be an ongoing learning process.  We started gathering input from friends with older sons that had successfully gone through the process years ago and have pretty deeply immersed ourselves in it the past year or two.  My soph, Kyle, plays in a competitive Houston 6A district, saw varsity action as a frosh, plays for a well known travel team, the Houston Heat, and has had a great spring this year.  He's a 4.8/5.0 gpa student so far, will take 5 AP classes next year and then we'll see how he does on SAT/ACT.  He's a 6' 170 primary RHP and while his ERA this year and historically hovers around 1 - 2, we don't know yet if he'll be a big D1 baseball program prospect.  He tops in the low 80s and is still growing and trending up on velo, but...we'll have to wait and see.  And I know velo isn't everything.  I don't mean to open that debate.  We know both sides of the argument but the bottom line in our opinion is that more velo is generally better...especially in terms of getting schools' initial interest.

With all of that said, he/we definitely place academics first and baseball second.  That's why he's interested in top academic schools, whether D1 or D3.  Location, weather, and many other factors play in but academic quality is going to be the leading factor.

We've had a lot of communications with coaches - particularly D3's since they can communicate with us at will with him being a soph while D1s can't yet.  They've been great at helping guide expectations, especially regarding academic requirements.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has gone to the PG Academic events...number of schools, number of campers, number of fields played on, number of workouts and games, etc.  

Thanks again for your input and for the good luck wishes!

My point about a vetted list regarding the showcases is not whether a player has interest in the schools (that is important) or whether the family has the resources to go to as many showcases as they can (that's fantastic). 

A vetted list means a player isn't throwing darts and hoping something sticks.  It means there's some "outside the family" information that gives insight as to whether that player could be accepted into a school AND could be on the baseball roster.  My 2016 can not play at Chico State.  But he could probably be accepted to the school.

A PG rating, for example, is a respected third party evaluation of a player's skills.  That isn't the be all end all, but it is a great data point for helping a player narrow a list of schools.  Similarly, a player's PSAT/SAT/ACT score and it's relation to the admitted 25%-75% range of a school is one data point to determine whether a player might fit academically.

For a 2017, it is not necessary to hit all the academic showcases this Summer.  It's definitely good to get to one of them to see, objectively, where a player measures up against that peer group.  Again, just another data point.

There are a lot of different strategies and we'll all have our different opinions on them.  I have to disagree with your point on a PG rating though, and especially doing it early.  We personally know a kid that went to a PG Showcase his freshman year, scored a 7.5 rating.  He hadn't developed physically enough yet to be there in my opinion so why get a 7.5 tagged on you when it's too early?  That was a waste of time and money for the family.  Same kid, 9 months later had grown, gotten stronger...went to an Air Force camp and just entering his soph year received a verbal on the spot.  If he went to another PG showcase then, he'd probably receive an 8.5 but my guess is that by summer before his senior year he'll be a 9+.  So why get tagged with a 7.5 when eventually you might be a 9+?  And I realize that coaches might see a 7.5 freshman and think "there's a chance he'll project" but in my opinion that isn't enough bang for buck.  We go to PG tournaments with our travel team and get in front of a lot of coaches.  There are also a plethora of kids that make it to high academic D1s and D3 without ever going to a PG showcase.  If we go to one, it will be the summer before his senior year, when we know he has come close to his HS peak and if we feel confident that he can score 8.5 or higher.  

We'll attend these camps this year prior to and at the start of his junior year to hopefully get on the radar of schools. A few have expressed interest and stay in contact with him and there's a mutual interest in him working out in front of them this summer/fall.  There's also merit in getting in front of schools multiple times.  We know a kid that is at Stanford now and he attributes part of his success to attending several Stanford camps.  

Branson Baseball: I've read some of your other posts.  You obviously know your stuff having had one son go through the process already and another currently going through it.  I definitely respect and appreciate your input...just splitting hairs on a few items above.

I did not say anything about doing a PG rating "early".  I said a PG rating is a respectable third party opinion.  One of many, and one that we valued greatly as did every college coach we encountered.

I did say (or imply/infer) that doing a lot of academic school showcases early is not necessary.  That is in the context of how/when academic schools recruit.  Generally, they don't recruit "early"...Stanford being the exception to the schools you listed (and about a million miles away baseball wise from NYU and some of the others on the list). It's also about time and money, but that may not be as much of a concern for your family.

You can definitely take whatever approach you choose.  This is a message board where opinions are shared.  There's a lot of great feedback from a lot of different sources.

Some of us have been through the academic school recruiting process before.  Just trying to be helpful.

We realize most D3s don't recruit until rising senior summer.  We've experienced a few that do engage quite a bit early on, however.  Agree, Stanford a million miles away in terms of baseball - and a fair amount of disparity in academics as well.  For a RHP though, we don't know at his age if he has peaked at 83 (in which case he can forget nearly all D1s) or if he'll climb to high 80s+.  And at this age, one day a kid can be on and hit 85 and another day be off and be at 81.  We can't afford to go to every camp and showcase out there but we can afford a few per year so we think he should go to a few, starting this year.

I realize many on this board have been through the process and will appreciate all input, even if I don't always agree.  I'm new as a poster but have read comments here for years and differences of opinions are fairly common and can lead to more info coming to light. I'm not completely new to the recruiting process either so I'll share my observations as well.  Thanks again.

Anyone familiar with Top 96 ?   They seem to emphasize instruction,

but one of our target schools is listed as an observer only. Most schools listed

more prominently and site said coaches from those schools are paid to be there.

They think that a plus since they will show up and observe, but I wonder

how much a paid attendee is really looking for players vs a job ? Thoughts ?

BL:  You didn't indicate year (or how far along you are in recruiting process). My 2015 had good experiences with Top96 (previously affiliated with DeMarini, now Under Armour). They were really good at waiving change/cancellation fee when son was injured night before showcase. We went to different locale later in summer. One of showcases he attended was "area based" the other academic.Was able to add OF video with not much extra cost (son is MI/CF).

Anyone of the coaches there can interact with players--many are in the dugouts though one is "manager" of the team during games. Players get a write up/ranking at the end from one of the coaches who "follows" player, of the measurables, such as speed , batting, arm strength. Look at the website you'll see that some schools (such as BC & Pitt) that participate regularly.

Definitely worth a go if a number of your "target" schools are in attendance. Between 4-6 schools with mutual interest were at the two we went to.  The price of the showcase depends on number of colleges represented and their divisions(the WHICH schools are attending). The instruction is good--mix of head coaches and assistants, and the assistants often work with their specialty (MI/P/C, e.g.) at their schools. Don't get fooled by their titles--they are ALL recruiters, especially for certain players they know are going to be in attendance. Son was in regular e-mail communication with coaches in advance. Son was able to talk with coaches regardless of whether their role was instructor, observer, or one of main point of contacts for that event. He went during summers after his sophomore and junior years.

Another thing we liked about the showcase, is you knew what grad year players were, along with their primary position. (2016 may get gray shirts, 2017 black shirt, 2018- white, etc). MI may have a number 603 (shortstop--3rd one), an outfielder (all 800's), pitcher (107), etc. Finally, if your son is not a PO, be ready for the 1-1 count batters start with in a game. (pitchers love it batters hate it). Good luck on your recruiting journey.

Just attended headfirst.  Was pretty good, remains to be seen if it was worthwhile.
Had some success with contacting coaches directly and arranging camp or 
visits on our own.  Maybe got an extra school or 2 interested, helped eliminate some

schools via their frank feedback !

We went to Headfirst and Stanford this summer.  Here are my takeaways: Stanford was a great experience because you're at Stanford.  But if you're looking for the best bang for buck, and I would define that as the most eyeballs on your son the most times over a two day period, then Headfirst was by far the better camp.  Not even close.  

Caveat: if your son wants to play for Stanford and has what it takes to get there…go to the Stanford camp.  The biggest drawback at Stanford is that you play a few games over 2-3 days but they are spread among local high schools and Stanford, with only one game being at Stanford.  The majority of the coaches, including Stanford's, are at their field.  At the high school fields, there may be 4-5 schools on site.

At Headfirst (we were at the first session on Long Island), there were between 70-80 schools there and they are all right there at the same complex.  Four fields organized in a clover leaf with concessions in the middle.  Between coaches in dugouts or behind screens setup behind home plate, you'll typically have 10-20 coaches on the field, closely watching each game.  Outside the fences, there are typically another 20 or so coaches roaming around, watching and taking notes.  Over the course of 2 days, if your son wants to meet a particular college coach, he absolutely will have the chance to do so.  If that college has even the slightest interest in your son, the coach WILL see your son play.

If you want feedback, you can get plenty of feedback.  There ARE offers made or at least the beginnings of them being made on site.  I witnessed it.  As for D3s not recruiting rising juniors (someone above mentioned this)…wrong.  My son is a rising junior and he is now being "recruited" in various degrees by 5 D3s.  Four of those 5 were at Headfirst.  Two of them had not seen him before Headfirst and after the camp sent him "official" recruiting emails, basically stating that they had watched him perform and have a sincere interest in him joining their program.

He was able to meet coaches of several prominent D1 programs at Headfirst and they watched him play.  As a reference point, he is a 6'1", 175 lbs RHP, rising junior, topping at 84 but that's up about 8 mph over past 12 months.  A few of the D1s told him "he looked good" but in one way or another indicated that he'd need to add 3-6 mph by next summer to be a good prospect for them.

He plays for one of the better known travel teams in Texas and we see D1 commit talent very routinely throughout the summers…see a lot of it in HS spring ball as well.  I would say that at Headfirst there were only a few players that I saw who looked like potential D1 talent.  That's just my observation for what it's worth.  There were about 230 kids there.  I am certain that I didn't see all kids play so there were likely a few more D1 prospects there.  All of that said, I saw what looked like a lot of very good D3 prospects.  That's why there are many more D3 schools there scouting.

My overall impression: if your son wants to attend a top academic school and play ball, and is ok with it being D3, I'm not aware of a camp that offers more opportunity to connect and be seen than at Headfirst.  Several coaches I talked to there overwhelmingly agreed.  On the other hand, if your son is a bonafide D1 prospect and isn't' interested at all in D3s, Headfirst is probably not for him.  He'd be better off playing top travel ball and attending top showcases/tourneys like PG's.

I hope this helps and I'm happy to provide more feedback if it can help anyone decide on where to allocate resources for these various camp options.

I think this is a relatively new phenomenon, even for a D3 to show interest in a rising junior. Since they can't even verbally offer an athletic scholarship, there isn't much they have to offer other than interest. Sounds like smart recruiting by the D3s who are talking to your son. Develop a relationship, keep in touch, and if your son doesn't commit to a D1 by this time next year, they are ahead of all the other D3s who might want him.

Mid, I think you're exactly right.  It's just smart recruiting.  No downside.  Get your hooks into a kid and show him some love earlier than others.  I can tell you with my kid, and I don't think he's much different than others, he is now highly interested in a few of the D3s showing interest in him, and he would barely even know who they are and would never consider them were they not showing interest.

KWT,

One differential to your thoughts about Stanford and Headfirst is the fact that the Stanford Camp, in general, offers a coach the opportunity to see players with some D1 skills, but who is not a clear cut D1 recruit, compete against those who are clear cut D1 recruits.  With Headfirst being so focused, that opportunity might be marginalized for both a D1 and D3 coach and how they view certain players.

Our son's former college coach now only uses Stanford and a few other camps (not Headfirst) where he can see players with top academics  and where he can judge their ability against players who solidly project at the D1 level.

From there, he can isolate a group to recruit who have D1 skills but may fall through the D1 level, for whatever reason.  From that group, he knows a number will sign a D1 NLI in November. For those who don't, he then focuses his recruiting toward them.

BOF's son is an example.  That coach has built a national D3 power from the approach, but he also has a keen eye for judging talent and the type of player he thinks is D1 but may not end up D1.

Can't disagree with that.  We did see a few more potential D1s at Stanford than we did at Headfirst.  And, Stanford is where Trinity saw our son and seemed to like him.  As you know, they don't attend Headfirst so from that perspective, glad we went to Stanford.

Very interesting thread.

My 2017 RHP plays for a D1-laden 2016 Travel club and they play the major events, eg., PG WWBA, Cincy ToC, Super 17, etc., typically against rosters filled with D1 talent.  He also plays in a pretty strong high school league.  Since our son is interested in high academic D1 schools, we did HeadFirst CA and NY.  Our travel coach, and our son, alerted key schools ahead of time, and thus some coaches were able to see him, in addition to those who might have seen him in tournaments.  Unlike PG etc., however, he (and I) had ample opportunity to get acquainted with the coaches, who genuinely embrace the interaction at the event; you can learn a great deal in a very short time.  My son opted not to do Stanford because he didn't think it would help at this stage, as he throws low -mid 80s.  He can go next year.

The HeadFirst team is extremely tight with the NESCAC programs, and so if you are looking for a forum to see and be seen by them, HeadFirst is uniquely advantageous.  There is also strong D3 representation across most of the high academic west coast and Midwest programs, so you can showcase your skills for many programs at HeadFirst without having to do their individual camps.  It can also help focus camp plans for the summer after junior year.

I was was also pleasantly surprised by the level of participation by DI high academics, beyond the Ivies.  Vandy, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Navy, UVA, and others also attend, on one if not both coasts.  Still, the balance of talent leans D3, so they will identify fewer prospects.

One practical reality is that the skill level varies across the player cohort, in some cases markedly, so you might be playing w/against players of significantly less/greater ability.  Pitchers throw 2 innings (5 batters only) back to back days, so arm care is a consideration.

In sum, in our case, the balance of D1-level tourney play with his travel club and HF interreaction provided complementary benefits, especially vis a vis high academic D1s, though it made for a busy summer.

Consistent with what others have experienced, several D3s kindly followed up with our son expressing interest in him for their programs.  I do think HeadFirst provides a great opportunity to establish relationships with D3s that can then be built on during junior year.

We had planned to attend Showball, but had to withdraw due to another baseball  commitment.  Most of the feedback we heard from families that attended both Showball and HeadFirst, however, was that the latter was superior.  The coaches we spoke with expressed a similar view.  If forced to pick one of the two, it would be HeadFirst.

Hope some of this is helpful!

Lots of great comments, particularly wrt Headfirst. 

I believe we've done our last showcase, which is bittersweet.

Headfirst NY was an incredible experience again as it was in 2011 for my 2012.  Those guys do it right.  100 college coaches including 10 of the top 11 on my 2016's list.  While every school is not a fit for my son and vice versa, the depth and breadth of schools is pretty compelling.  If you're fishing in the right pond with the schools represented by Headfirst, it's nearly impossible for a player to be overlooked.

Access to the coaches was phenomenal again.  A player can pretty much talk to any coach across the two days. 

We've had some solid showcase experiences at Stanford, Headfirst, Top96, and PG over the years.  I've come to understand and enjoy this process, particularly for an academic kid with D1 or D3 skills.  There are some great people and organizations out there. 

Good luck to all of the 2016's, 2017's, and 2018's players and families who we met this Summer and certainly all of you posting here!