College Coaches Show Case Camp

The answer is "it depends."  If any of the schools that will have coaches at this camp are schools of interest to you/your son its well worth the cost - as this is not an expensive event.  Even one session for $179 is not bad just for the experience.  If your son does well he may get on the right radar early on.  On the flip side, if you have no interest in any of these schools (and you don't need the showcase experience) then its a waste of time and money.

We've gotten the same emails and the same letter in the mail.  These camps are worked by the volunteer coaches.  It is a way for them to make some extra money.  There won't be any RC's or HC's there from what I can tell.  We have been getting email after email from Ohio and Iowa about the camp in Memphis.  Friends of ours have too.  It is pretty clearly a money grab.  

D-MAC, l checked a few locations and Ohio is is a lot of them. makes me wonder.

Couple of other kids at least in our school that I've talked to also got the same letters.

Welcome to the site.  In the coming years, your son will likely get flooded with camp, showcase, tourney and try-out invites, especially camps.  This site is a great resource for sorting out what makes sense to consider for each player's situation.  First, he needs to start putting together a recruiting plan (if he is starting to feel ready to attend some of these events).  It won't make much sense to pay for and attend an event if he has no interest in the schools present, except for the exception someone mentioned about getting his feet wet with an initial event to get comfortable in the setting.  You can search the threads on this site by topic and there is a wealth of info on these particular topics.  I think it is safe to say this is the best resource there is in that regard.

A short, general rule of thumb is that it is time to go when the player has something worth showing to the given audience.  If he is not yet starting for his V HS team, this is usually an indication that it is not yet time but you mentioned the program is very competitive so this would possibly be an exception.

My son attended this particular showcase in our area. The only reason he went was because he was already speaking to a RC that was going to be there and they hadn't seem him yet aside from video. I do think it was a money grab though. They were supposed to get one on one feedback from the coaches running the showcase, however, in my son's case, he was a pitcher and they had coaches trade off when they were watching the bullpen. So only one coach actually watched my son. I ended up sending an email to the director later to ask how is the information shared? If only one coach witnessed my son throw a bullpen, how did the other coaches know how well he did or didn't perform? The response was they share the information after the camp and IF there was something they were impressed by, they would reach out to the prospect within days. The only email my son got was in response to one that my son had sent to the RC that was in attendance to tell him it was good seeing him. But the interesting thing was - within about a month after the showcase, my son and I both got an email saying that based on the coaches review and his performance at said showcase, he had been invited to the National Showcase in Virginia (I think). So basically, he didn't have any coaches there that were interested enough to reach out personally to him, however they thought he had what it took to be invited to National Showcase? Red flag. But this was just our experience in the Midwest.

Julio posted:

Good afternoon, my son is a MIF sophmore at very competitive HS Program in So. Fl. Coach has diffferent Colleges visit our schools workouts frequently throughout the year, and takes the school team to couple of Tournaments a year including PG Worlds in Jupiter, Fl.

Son is already in varsity, and gets some playing time, but not a starter yet. Should Start as a MIF his Junior Year.

My son recently got a letter to an invite from an Ohio University Coach asking him to attend to this Camp/showcase (letter sent to school addressed to his name) to register in the Jacksonville FL event in early November.

 http://www.collegebaseballprospects.com/

 I just wanted honest opinion from forum members if this is worth it or a money grabber. Couple of Jucos and  D1s are listed as attending. 

Thanks.

Ohio is relentless on the e-mails for these camps they collaborate on around the country. Thousands sent every year.

Also, look at their roster and where they sign their players from. Teams like Ohio typically are not fully funded at 11.7 scholarships, so they tend to recruit home-grown talent or talent from border states. Couple of kids from California and one from Texas (outliers) but everyone else is from the rust belt.

hopefulmom posted:

My son attended this particular showcase in our area. The only reason he went was because he was already speaking to a RC that was going to be there and they hadn't seem him yet aside from video. I do think it was a money grab though. They were supposed to get one on one feedback from the coaches running the showcase, however, in my son's case, he was a pitcher and they had coaches trade off when they were watching the bullpen. So only one coach actually watched my son. I ended up sending an email to the director later to ask how is the information shared? If only one coach witnessed my son throw a bullpen, how did the other coaches know how well he did or didn't perform? The response was they share the information after the camp and IF there was something they were impressed by, they would reach out to the prospect within days. The only email my son got was in response to one that my son had sent to the RC that was in attendance to tell him it was good seeing him. But the interesting thing was - within about a month after the showcase, my son and I both got an email saying that based on the coaches review and his performance at said showcase, he had been invited to the National Showcase in Virginia (I think). So basically, he didn't have any coaches there that were interested enough to reach out personally to him, however they thought he had what it took to be invited to National Showcase? Red flag. But this was just our experience in the Midwest.

Happens all the time.  Where do you think the showcases get their mailer lists?  Largely from school camps and other showcases.  A player is tagged to have attended "event A".  Mass invites are sent.  "We saw you at "event A" and liked what we saw.  We would like to invite you to "event B" for another look and an opportunity to ..." blah, blah, blah.  That's also why so many get this note even when they ended up not attending "event A".  But how did they see me when I wasn't there? ... is a question asked here several times over.

You did it the right way.  It us usually only worth while when there is some specific dialog with HC or RC from a school prior to an event.  Even then, sometimes the coaches are still looking out for their assistants and trying to fill the events, so will encourage attendance.

Thanks to all that replied, great info and much appreciated.