Best summer events for 2015?

Confirming that you're saying your son is a 2015.  

If yes, then this Summer of 2014 is a very critical time.

I presume he has a vetted list of schools where he'd like to go.  Vetted meaning third parties (scouts, counselors, et.al.) believe he could play there and be admitted.  And it's ok to have a few stretch schools on the list.

My advice is for your son to go play in front of the college coaches that he wants to be seen by.  He should ask his desired schools where they will be.  I wouldn't waste time or money hoping to be found or going to events that won't matter.  

Good luck!

Batsmith,

Every player that has ever attended a Stanford Baseball Camp will start receiving Dean Stotz's famous emails beginning Sept.1st of their junior year.Your son is one of literally thousands that receive those emails.Stanford casts a very wide net for their annual 8-10 roster spots. The emails that your son receives from Coach Stotz are very informative and helpful regardless of whether there is any real interest or not.

I would encourage your son to email all of the coaches/schools that will be at Stanford All Star Camp. Start a dialog with them and get on their radar now.Send them some academic/athletic updates during the spring semester to keep them updated.Here is a list of all the coaches/schools that were "officially" at The All Star Camp last summer :

BRIAN HAMM?  AMHERST
ANTHONY DeCICCO  ARMY
ED KAHOVEC  BARD
MIKE LEONARD?  BATES COLLEGE
"DOC" BEEMAN  BENEDICTINE
MIKE MC CORMACK?  BROWN
PATRICK ROSE?  BUCKNELL
ANTHONY FERRO  BUTTE JC
MATTHEW MARK?  CAL TECH
PATRICK JOLLEY?  CENTENARY
MIKE DIAZ  CENTENARY
JEFF OPALEWSKI  CENTRAL MICHIGAN
DAN TISCHLER?  COLUMBIA
SCOTT MARSH  CORNELL
MIKE CLARK?  CORNELL VOLUNTEER
BOB WHALEN?  DARTMOUTH
RYAN ROMICK  DENISON
JAY ALEXANDER  EASTERN MICHIGAN
ANDREW MAKI  EASTERN MICHIGAN
CHRIS TERRY  EASTERN NEW MEXICO
STEPHANOS STROOP  GEORGE WASHINGTON
PETE WILK  GEORGETOWN
BEN COOPRIDER  GRINNELL COLLEGE
MIKE ZANDLER  HARVARD
NEIL GROAT?  HENDRIX COLLEGE
RON RAKOWSKI  HOLY CROSS
GREG DiCENZO  HOLY CROSS
RICHIE PRICE  KANSAS
IAN LAW  LAFAYETTE COLLEGE
MATT HOBBS  MISSOURI
TODD CARROLL  MIT
BRYAN STARK?  NAVAL ACADEMY
EDDIE SMITH  NOTRE DAME
MATT DAILY?  PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
BEN ADAMS  PALOMAR
JOHN YURKOW  PENN
FRANK PERICOLOSI  POMONA
NATE RASMUSSEN?  PUGET SOUND
JIM MCGONIGLE  ROLLINS COLLEGE
ALEX PRACHER  SAINT JOSEPH
NICK ENRIQUEZ?  SAN JOSE STATE
GABE RIBAS  SANTA CLARA
DEAN STOTZ  STANFORD
RUSTY FILTER  STANFORD
BROCK UNGRICHT  STANFORD
KRISTAPS ALDINS  STEVENS
JIMMY GULDEN?  SUSQUEHANNA UNIVERSITY
TIM SCANNELL  TRINITY UNIVERSITY
JASON TOWER?  TUFTS
JIM MEUEL  UC DAVIS
MATT VAUGHN?  UC DAVIS
JAKE VALENTINE?  UC RIVERSIDE
JOE MYERS  UNIV OF DALLAS
MIKE MC CORMICK  UNIVERSITY OF PACIFIC
JOE REINA?  UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
CHRIS HOM  USF 
BILL CILENTO  WAKE FOREST
TRAVIS TURGEON?  WASHINGTON COLLEGE
ROBERT RUIZ?  WESTMONT
MATT HUSTED?  WHEATON?

I don't think there is a lot of value in attending the JO's in AZ.Your son's 18U team will get a bigger bang for their buck at these two Southern California tournaments :

 1) The Firecracker Classic http://usapremierbaseball.com/

 2) The Under Armour Southwest Championships  http://www.teamonebaseball.com...aments/article/1570/

These two tournaments are loaded with really good teams.Very competitive and heavily scouted by the MLB, PAC 11,WCC,Big West,Mountain West,and a bunch of other schools.In fact,four of my son's teammates committed to schools that were at these tournaments.

Another good showcase  is the San Gabriel Arsenal SoCal.It's well run,light on the wallet,and very well attended.My son played in this one in 2012 and 2013.

http://community.hsbaseballweb...l-socal-cup-showcase

Another big California event I would try to get your son to is the Area Code Games tryouts.He will need to get an invite.Here is some info about the event :

http://www.studentsports.com/b...6/12/elite-baseball/

This event is free ! The only cost we incurred was the gas to drive from San Diego to Santa Barbara and back and lunch at Subway.This event had more scouts and coaches than any camp/showcase/tournament I have ever seen.There were 100 players and about 150 coaches and scouts.Incredible !

Personally,unless you have a lot of dough to burn, I would not bother with the big PG tournaments in Georgia.The expense for California players and families is too high and it's not necessary.The weather is way better in SoCal too

Good luck to your son !

Thank you for the very helpful information.

Bobby added a bunch of good stuff...I'll throw in a few more.  I'm assuming you may have interest in stronger academic schools given the participation at Stanford.

We were biased towards showcases when it got to our 2012's Summer before his Senior year.  Son did some travel team tourneys and games to stay in game shape, but focused on showcases where he could get exposure to his desired college coaches.

A few events we liked that Summer:

- PG National Academic Showcase

- Headfirst Honor Roll Camps (CA and NY locations in the Summer)

- Bay Area World Series (in NorCal)

- Stanford All Star (as you noted)

There are some academic colleges that have pretty good camps too where other colleges will attend, e.g., Princeton. 

There are other showcases that have "academic" schools (e.g., Showball, Top96) that we did not attend but may fit your needs (schools attending, location, cost, timeframe).

BB,

If you don't mind sharing, where did your son end up going to school?  And where did he make contact with that coach?  Game, showcase, tournament?  Thanks.

Sorry for the delay in responding...been doing baseball all weekend!

Happy to go through the details of my son's recruiting, but I'm not sure the specifics of where he ended up is as important as the journey.  Every school has different needs at different times...Every kid is different (athletic ability, academics, etc.).

Have a "realistic" target list of schools.  Then figure out where can your son get seen by the coaches on his list.

My son did the WWBA 17U back East.  He also did the Arizona Junior Fall Classic out West.  These are big tournaments with lots of teams/players, physical locations, and plenty of pro scouts and college coaches.  My son did not get a sniff out of either.  But I'm certain many players did.

My son also did the events I mentioned above (PG National Academic, Headfirst Honor Roll, Stanford All Star).  The vast majority of coaches on his target list attended one or more of these events.  He had zero offers from the Pac12 or SEC.  But he had offers from schools he desired in the Big East, Southern, Patriot, Ivy (using the term "offer" loosely here), Atlantic 10, ACC, West Coast, Big Ten, Colonial, etc.

Bottom line is he went to be seen by schools on his list.  That was overwhelmingly at showcases.  There were a couple of excellent camps too (Harvard was one).  Perhaps the big tourneys tended to be too big for his ability level, or were more difficult for exposure because of their size...who knows.

Zero colleges saw my son play at his high school games.  His team was a Top 50 national powerhouse.  Three teammates were drafted.  15 teammates are playing at some level in college.  Pro scouts came...sometimes a dozen or more.  But college coaches were coaching their teams so none ever came.

Sorry for being long winded.  My bias, based on my son's and his teammates' and his other friends' experiences:  If you go where your schools are, it's more likely opportunities will arise.  Showcases and camps worked best for us.  Tourneys did not, though they were valuable in their own ways.  High school ball was fun and helpful for my son's development, but he was not seen directly there.

Please let me know if you need any more info.  Want to be helpful and not verbose!

Agree 100% with Branson. I think the best summer events are where the colleges player is interested in and / or they are interested in you will be. For instance my 2014 had specific geography desires, He wanted to be no more than 4 hours from home. We are in SW Ohio, so for him it made no sense to go to Perfect Game in Juniper. The southern colleges that might have become interested in him were of no interest to him. We planned events that were where the colleges that were on his target group were going to be at. That meant he played in summer tournaments, he went to 2 showcases and went to 2 specific college camps. All were within a few hours from home. However one of his summer teammates wanted to go south to college, his event planning was totally different because he had a different target market to impress.

Add on, I really should read my posts before I submit, my typing is  terrible sometimes!!    

I'll toss out 1 more piece of info...

Our College Bus Tours will be taking kids directly to nearly 20 campuses on each Tour.  Coaches from each program will show the players both academic & athletic facilities.  2 workouts on each tour.  This is not a cattle call like other events.  35 guys maximum.

Virginia Tour:  Aug 4-7, 2014

North Carolina Tour:  Aug 11-14

High Academic Mid-Atlantic: Aug 18-21

High Academic New England:  Aug 25-28

These trips are designed to show players lots of schools in a short amount of time so they can begin to have a real understanding what they are looking for out of a campus environment.

If you follow some of the National College Baseball writers 1 thing you may be noticing more & more is players transferring at a record pace.  I'd go out on the limb that a lot of kids are picking schools because a coach like their swing, etc.

My goal for these trips is to empower players with 1st hand knowledge so they can pick the best all around school for them… academics, social & baseball included in that decision.

Take a look at the full itineraries & details here… www.playinschool.com/bus_tour

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

I have heard that the Phil Singer tourney in San Diego also has strong competition and lots of college coaches.

http://www.philsingersummerseries.com/

I'm sure there are some good ones, but it kind of bothers me when I hear someone say the WWBA in Georgia is a waste of time. Please take the time to scroll all the way to the bottom of the link below. Look at how many young players "wasted" their time in this event, Including those that played in the Major Leagues. Please find any summer tournament anywhere that has these kind of results.

http://www.perfectgame.org/Eve...ault.aspx?event=1983

Even more so when LakePoint is complete.  One stop shopping for college coaches.  All the talent they need in one spot.

Speaking of Lakepoint -  PG, can you give us an update?  Nothing new on the website. Thanks.

I believe they start turfing the first Quad (4 fields) on Monday.  At least 4 fields will be ready in June.  4 more shortly after that.

Here is a link that might help.  The photos really don't do it justice.  For example, the scout tower is gigantic.  The blogs include photos.

http://pglakepoint.com/

Thanks.  Look forward to completion, it looks great.