Now that the dust has settled, literally, I thought it might be helpful to some to describe our experience with the AZ Junior Fall Classic.
2017 went with a state wide select team of Juniors to this year's Fall Classic as an outfielder, one of 6 or 7 on the team of 24 players. He has good grades and test scores so we also applied for the All academic game. That tryout consisted of a timed 60, two throws to 3rd, two throws home, and two rounds of hitting, seven balls each round. Son's arm was unspectacular in the defensive drills, he had a very good round in the first hitting round, and a not as strong second round of hitting. Was NOT selected for the All Academic game ( there were 37 outfielders trying for 12 spots on the All academic roster).
Though he didn't make the all academic game, he did get several new contacts who were watching while he was hitting during the academic tryout. He was able to make these contacts because I was spying on who was watching his defensive and hitting tryout drills and had him write those schools immediately after we got home from the classic. We were able to make five new contacts because of this. I have no idea how interested they are, but they have written nice emails back to him, asking him to stay in touch.
Besides the new connections, he continued discussions with four or five other schools that he had been in dialog with from earlier events. He saw these coaches after a couple of his games, approached them and said hello. To a man, they told him they couldn't talk to him other than to greet him but that they would continue to stay in touch after the event. I'm not sure if they were politely deflecting his interest, or REALLY couldn't talk to him, but their emails since have been personal and cordial.
Event structure: Our team had one game Thursday afternoon, two games on Friday, one each on Saturday and Sunday. Weather-lots of lightning, and a big duststorm-- played havoc on this year's schedule but the team was able to get its five games in. (I heard that many teams are actually scheduled for four games but if a team was willing to pay extra, they could get a fifth game).
Because we had so many players on the team the games were platooned and son got up a total of 9 times in the five games, which was about average for his team. The games are played on fields set up in a four leaf clover design, one set of fields on each side of the main stadium, with a couple of extra fields on each side. The stadium and the extra two fields on each side of the complex saw fewer scouts than the fields in the four leaf clover.
AZ Fall classic website recently posted list of colleges that attended this year's event. This list is NOT available before the event, which is really the only quibble I have with how the event is run.
OH, and Parking is FREE, which I thought was pretty funny.
Would I have son do it again? Yes, but I would let him go alone with the team. I was window dressing. It's a well run event that managed terrible weather really well.
I expect he will be at the Senior Fall Classic next fall.
