Academic Showcases August/Black Bear Classic Question

Nothing wrong with going to Showball and/or HF twice within couple of weeks of each other.  It's a chance for the same coaches to see him twice.

It's important to look at which schools and coaches will be attending.  Match up that list with the list of colleges your son is interested in.  Also, make sure your sons grades/scores match up to accepted students profile.  From your sons list he should be emailing them indicating his interest as well as including video of his skills.  The coaches have time and are corresponding actively to prepare a list of players they'd like to see at the upcoming Showball or HF camps.

Remember, while the HC's may represent a high academic school, they will always be baseball guys looking for talented players. (They hope that player has the academic chops to get through admissions.)

Happy to assist more via PM if you'd like. I went through this process with my son who just finished his Soph year at a NESCAC school.

Cheers.

Agree with Gov, and when you email coaches, tell them you are going to Showball, and ask them where else they will be going to see players this summer. 

We've been to Showball before. It was a really good experience for my son. I have no issue going again in the fall.

Anyone know the etiquette around emailing coaches if the GM of the well-known travel program  he plays for does this as well? His GM is very well connected and sends out recommendation emails to target schools and will send video to all colleges on the program's contact list.

Is it still okay for my son to send an email to his schools prior to snowball and other showcases? I'd imagine it is. Just don't want him to over do it.

I think he HAS to do that.   Not overkill at all.  Coaches need to know a kid is really interested because there are plenty of other quality kids sending stuff in on their own.

my 2 cents.

p.s. what grad years are your kids?

@BaseballDad72 posted:

We've been to Showball before. It was a really good experience for my son. I have no issue going again in the fall.

Anyone know the etiquette around emailing coaches if the GM of the well-known travel program  he plays for does this as well? His GM is very well connected and sends out recommendation emails to target schools and will send video to all colleges on the program's contact list.

Is it still okay for my son to send an email to his schools prior to snowball and other showcases? I'd imagine it is. Just don't want him to over do it.

It's great a GM or club coach is willing to call on your sons behalf.  That conversation allows a lot of Q&A about playing ability as well as other strengths (coachable, leader on the field, strong field IQ etc.).

If your son is a 2021 he should NOW send his own personalized email indicating his interest, video, and GPA/ACT scores.  This opens the door for communication directly between College HC and your son.

Whenever the GM or Club HC calls that will be value added and a diff type of conversation.  Have your son mention that he's interested in the following schools and he's begun sending intro emails and videos out.  This person needs to know which schools your son is marketing himself to so that he can compliment the effort.

It's hard to control when your club GM or HC will call.....just make sure your son keeps them in the loop, and ask that the GM or club HC keep him in the loop as to when he's made  contact.

FYI: it takes effort and time to get video put together...don't wait for the Club guys.  Go to the Yale baseball site and look for Tucker Frawleys personal blog...he has a section on how to put together video that fits what the college coaches are looking for.  It may come up in the search button above...use the search button for suggestions on recruiting emails and videos.

Edit: You'll likely need to work with your son with editing the video and appropriate language for the email.  Suggest you create a new gmail account with his name2021@gmail.com, add that gmail to your master account so that you to, can beware of incoming email.  It takes the kids a little while to get accustomed to checking daily and responding within a reasonable time...a teaching moment.  You can teach and guide while he's doing the work so that it's his stuff!

Black Bear Classic is a lot of fun as a tournament.  It is based in Greenville, but it is not unusual do games 90 minutes away, all the way down at Presbyterian or Erskine College.  There are games at Clemson, Wofford, Furman, etc.  Most of the recruiting that  I saw at these tourneys are for programs in the southeast.  Colleges from NC, SC, GA, TN and Fl for the most part.  Many D1s mostly from the southeast are there -  ACC, SEC, Big South, Sunbelt, are there.  A lot of D2 schools from the southeast.  No real presence of D3 or HA that I recall.

I'll second PedalDad on the Black Bear.  My son played in it a couple times, and it was always good competition at nice facilities.They also do a good job of having staff at all the games to do live tweets and recaps of the highlights.

Yes, makes sense on Black Bear. Sounds like for my son Showball is the right choice.