Announcing: Virginia College Bus Tour

2 updates both associated with price.  Basically, sign up with people and price goes down.  Wait to long to sign up and price goes up.  

Group Discounts:
3 or 4 players signing up together will receive 10% OFF per player!
5 players signing up together will receive 15% OFF per player!

Contact me directly if you have a group you'd like to sign up.

Updated Payment Info:
$1,500 if deposit received by April 1, 2013.
$1,600 if deposit received after April 1, 2013.
$1,700 if deposit received after May 15, 2013.

Visit this page if you are ready to put down your deposit...

http://www.playinschool.com/bus_tour_info

Also, if you or someone you know might be interested in being a chaperone feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

what a great idea! does pis do sports besides baseball? Like the banned word soccer?

hey, its not banned anymore

BCB3 - Thanks for the compliment.  No word on any other sports right now.  But possible announcement on another state coming soon that could be epic.

Feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to discuss a soccer tour though.  

Remember that if you are interested in the Va College Baseball Tour to get your deposit in by April 1 to beat the price increase.  And groups of 3 or more get discounts.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

Breaking News:  We are headed to Texas!

Same concept as the VA College Bus Tour.

The final list of schools is not out but its about 90% there so I thought I'd go ahead and announce the trip.

The list of schools already on the tour is legendary.  It includes perennial power houses & up and coming programs.  

Please click the link to see the full list... http://www.playinschool.com/texas.html

As always, contact me with any questions.

The VA Tour is going to be awesome too.  If you are on the fence for what ever reason (tight schedules, etc) contact me.  I'm more then happy to work with families 1 on 1.

Thanks

Rich

PlayInSchool.com

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

We are still looking for a few kids to round out the VA College Bus Tour.

If you are on the fence, have questions, concerned with schedule, concerned with price.... pick up the phone and call me.  

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

Had to pass this on.  Too appropriate not to.

A father tells me his son has things "narrowed down" to 3 schools.  If true, he is not a candidate for the Bus Tour.  Out of curiosity I ask which schools...

Keep in mind that there always seems to be 1 outlier in a kids list of schools.  For example, most kids will tell me they are interested a strong D3, a small mid major D1 and a Top 10 D1.  Easy to pick the outlier.  

The father I was talking to told me his son has things narrowed down to a

- public D3 near the beach of average academics

- private high academic D3 in country

- military based D1

I respectfully told him that his son is actually a perfect candidate for the Bus Tour because his son has absolutely no idea what he wants out of college.  He could not have listed 3 more different schools.  The only reason he "likes" those schools is because they have given him the time of day.

While none of those schools are bad choices, I'm not convinced that the kid or his family has done their due diligence.

The Bus Tour will give this kid or any other a first hand look at everything in the state to be able to knowledgeably speak about what he actually likes or doesn't like.

There are just few spots left for this years tour.  If you are concerned about schedule conflicts, call me.  If you are concerned with price tag, call me.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

This will pretty much be the last call for the Virginia Bus Tour.

I have a group I am very happy with, but would consider just a few more guys.  

If you have any questions please email me directly at info@playinschool.com or check the website.  I will have limited phone access until Wednesday night.  I'm headed to the land of shortstops to film.  This marks my first trip to the Dominican Republic!  Should be awesome.  So accept my apologies if it takes me a few days to get back to you.

Thanks

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

Holy cow!  What a trip.

I can unconditionally guarantee, with out a doubt, no kid in the country got more work done this week then the guys on the 1st ever Play In School - Virginia College Bus Tour.  Period.

We ended up with 16 great kids.  Not 1 problem.  We had a true cross section of student athletes.  D1, D3, high academic, avg academic, players at every position, etc.

I'm a little groggy from the week but here are some of the facts.

We met coaches at 20 schools (Longwood's acting head coach, who is also an alum could not find even 1 person to be an ambassador for his alma mater or his program... I know 16 boys who are not applying... too bad because I hear they have hot chicks... seems like even I were bring a school of the blind & deaf that they would want to show off their school).

In total I think we talked to 27 coaches at those 20 schools.

We met 1 college president.  2 athletic directors.  Several admissions people.

2 workouts... 1 at W&M.  1 at VMI.  10 coaches saw us workout.  Let me emphasize that... 15 guys workout (1 player had broken foot) in front of 10 coaches.  That means 2 coaches for every 3 kids.  Find me another event with that ratio I and I will promote it to every kid I know!

1 parent meeting on 1 of those D1 campus with one of our guys.  Offer has been out there... nothing to do with this tour.... but parents got to have that serious conversation with coaching staff.

If you want to take a virtual tour of the trip you can go to my twitter page.  Back up to June 24 at about 7:30am and you can follow it all the way to last night.  You do not actually have to like or use twitter to see this.  My wife, father, and all the parents were "with us" the entire trip.  Lots of pictures, etc... www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

I know people were hesitant to send their children because this event was new or they thought they were busy.  I may move the date next year to try to avoid conflicts.  But I also want to remind people that sometimes you need to see the forest through the trees.  How many coaches did your son meet this week?  How many coaches did they actually talk to week?  I'm guessing none because they can't at these events!  How many class rooms, dorms, weight rooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, court yards, basketball arenas, auditoriums, players lounges, presidents house, etc did your son see this weekend?

We saw it all.  Again, unprecedented behind the scenes access to 20 colleges & universities in the state of Virginia.

Will all 16 end up at 1 of the 20?  Probably not.  Not the point.  Do 16 boys now have the knowledge and information to intelligently articulate what they want out of college?  Absolutely.  Their decision making process will now be made with facts, information, and real world experience.  Not fantasy.  

WIth the exception of the 1 school I mentioned above, every college coach understands just how important it is to get as many kids on their campus as possible.  They understand that recruiting a kid is just not enough.  The kid has to be comfortable in his surroundings to be the best player he can be!

1 coach put it best... "Every college looks awesome on their website."  

Remember that every baseball field is 90 feet home to 1st.  

Next summer, look for another Virginia trip.  But also, keep a look out for another state near us as well as possible regional trips.

Keep in mind, I did not "sell" the boys on any program.  Many of the things we saw were brand new to me.  I probably had the most fun of anybody.  I cant wait for the next one!

If you think you are interested in next summers tour I'd suggest contacting me sooner then later because I honestly think it will sell out next summer.  And I want to stress that I do not believe the Va Tour will ever be a D1 exclusive trip so that means no try outs necessary.  First come, first serve!

This article was written prior to the trip... http://virginiapreps.rivals.co...tent.asp?CID=1518547

Wow!  What a ride.

My phone just beeped with 2 more texts from coaches thanking me for getting guys on campus!  Pretty cool.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

Glad to hear it went so well for you and the players.  As I mentioned a little while back, hopefully we'll see you next year when 2017 is eligible.  We've been in a few areas of VA over the past couple of years and he'd love the opportunity to play there one day.  We'll see how it goes...

Thanks NYdad2017 - 

Registration for Summer 2014 is now open!  The trip will once again be 1st come, 1st serve.  We see a cross section of schools (academically & athletically) which means the trip is open to a cross section of players.  I'd expect this trip to sell out this year.  Call me with any questions.

1 change is that we are moving the dates to the 1st week of August.  That should eliminate some of the conflicts with events in June. 

The details can be found here... http://www.playinschool.com/virginia.html

Thanks!

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

Play In School is headed south!

We have just added a North Carolina College Bus Tour!

Aug 11-14, 2014

We'll see almost 20 schools.  Workouts will be held at Wake Forest & Duke!  

Format will be the same as the Va trip.  Behind the scenes looks at both the academic and athletic sides of campus.  Tours will be given by the baseball staff from each school!

Full details here... http://www.playinschool.com/bus_tour.html

35 player maximum.  First come, first serve.

Registration is open.

Open to 2015, 2016, 2017 grads.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

We are headed south to NC and now we are also headed north!

We will be offering 2 High Academic College Bus Tours.  1 trip will be from Philly to DC.  The other will be in New England.

The list of schools is absolutely elite.  No other way to describe it.

Full details on the website.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

In the event you want to put a face to a name, here is a 3 minute film of me discussing the Bus Tours…

Enjoy.

Registration is open.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

The two seconds of video at the 2:10 mark may be the key to the whole thing!

You made me nervous. Thought I might have a booger for 2 seconds. 

You may notice the lack of sports action. We really wanted to show "college". Hopefully we captured it. And hopefully we captured a few shots that the softball players will like too!

Rich

www.PlayInScool.com

Interesting idea, can't wait to see how it works out.  Good luck PIS.

Nah, that part was earlier in the video.

Really well done, and a good idea. I'd have to think that both the schools and players find this valuable.

Emanski - 

On last summer's trip I noticed 1 common thread at all 20 colleges we visited… construction.  100% of the schools we visited were doing some level of improvement.  Why is that important?  Bright, shiny, new stuff is attractive.  Schools are in huge competition for students (read as money).

Coaches absolutely want us to come.  I had a D1 head coach tell me that if the president of the school found out they'd turned us away he'd be fired.  Perhaps thats an exaggeration. But the point is that for a school to get a captive audience on their campus is like gold.  Even if my trip doesn't have a "prospect" for a particular TEAM, maybe a kid falls in love with that school, applies, pays full price, etc.  Or maybe they go back to their buddy that is a prospect an tells them how awesome the school is.

Next summers 4 trips should be awesome!  Tell your friends.  

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

Apparently it is customary to offer discounts during this time.  

This weekend all Bus Tours will be $150 off.

http://www.playinschool.com/cybermonday.html

Thought I'd bump this up now that baseball season is finally starting… despite the snow outside my window!

Itineraries for all 4 trips are finalized.  

I want to reiterate, these trips are not cattle calls and are not for everyone.  But if you think your son could benefit or you know a kid that could have them reach out to me.  

I can be and have been very flexible with payment terms so nobody should miss an opportunity because of a financial issue.  

Full details & itineraries on all 4 trips are online.

Thanks

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

Done.  We're in.  

My son and I have discussed a trip like this many times.  After looking through the diversity of schools, they're offerings, cost, time savings, and "white glove treatment" by 20 Virginia coaches to show & tell us about their programs & schools; we decided to do it.  For those schools we are most interested in, we'll follow up with specific Fall camps.

Late summer is the perfect time to do it. I've been through college baseball recruiting twice before with my older son's, and I think this is a unique opportunity to condense everything into a few days. My son is really looking forward to it, and I think it will really focus him on his future options.

See you in a few months PIS!

I'm super excited to have FenwaySouth's son join us this coming summer.  The VA College Bus Tour is shaping up to have a great mix of players.

Last years group told me we should have entered in a tournament because they thought we'd have a good team.  This years group looks like its going to have a pretty darn good pitching staff!

Space still available.

Give me a call to discuss if your son (or daughter… we have a softball tour too) might be a good fit.

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour