My 2024 has the opportunity to play in both the Junior and Senior AZ Fall Classic. We can't do back-to-back weeks in AZ and need to choose one to go to. Is there a big difference in the colleges coming to scout or the quality of talent between the Junior and Senior? Thanks for any advice.
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In my view it is generally better to play with your class when you are recruiting events. This gives the coaches apples-to-apples look at the players and keeps everything clear as to grad year. However, I think in the case of the AZ Classic it is more of a senior year event, so he may get more looks playing with the seniors. If he does this he should email coaches in advance and make sure he's clear on his grad year.
Agree with above. One thought: High academic schools (d1) will more likely be at the junior event than the senior event. Their class of 22 group is pretty set by now.
Echo the above. Senior event will concentrate on filling D3 rosters. Even if your son ultimately wants to got the D3 route the coaches won’t be looking at his class. There is a Fall Classic for sophomores that we did (pre-covid). The thing that sets the jr year and sr year events apart is the all star game—if you think he will make that (top 5-10 percent) it would be worth your time, otherwise advice is to go with class year.
The lists of coaches who attended are available on AZFallClassic.com. I would ignore the 2020 list, as many of the coaches "signed up" were virtual, but the 2019 is still there. And of course the list changes from year to year. I will say this, with a 2022 player, maybe not HA or P5 but in California, D1s are still filling in gaps. We've had multiple D1s coming to scrimmages and games as of late looking at teammates of my 2022. Pitchers and position players. Recruiting, not checking on recruits. Maybe it was a last sprint before the quiet period, but I think that virtually every school in CA will be at both Sr & Jr FClassics. The key will be to making sure they know he's a 2024 in advance. I think the two year gap might help by playing with the Seniors- competing with the big boys but that's hard to tell.
You could also look at the schedule your program has (those were just published on the AZFC website). Pick the team that has opponents more likely to attract attention
one of our guys is hopefully about to verbal with a great baseball program. Interest started when he hit a triple off a pitcher that was being scouted by that school. lol
Thanks for all of the advice. Very helpful. Thinking we will go to the Jr event as that team is very well regarded and will likely be getting a lot of attention from coaches.
