Fall showcase season

Last year I knew a senior who had missed the summer season before his senior year (e.g., '05 player, missed summer 2004). Wasn't able to get on a select fall team as he was in rehab for half the fall. He was very worried as he hadn't gotten any offers.

Helped him find some late fall and early winter showcases. He worked his tail off to get ready. He ended up with an offer.

Another kid ended up with a D1 offer as a result of his fall season (fall 2004 for an '05 grad).

I am hearing the same thing, BTW.

Was the D1 kid already on the watch lists?

Before the D1 came along, he had attracted interest from a D3 and an out of state JUCO as I recall. So I would assume the answer to your question would be "no".

Great information, Texan. Thanks.

More! More!

What you described fits my youngest son's situation. He had his shoulder scoped in August and has been shutdown from showcasing this fall. He had a decent junior year (2nd team All District (10-5A), All City - Richardson). He is a senior this year (one of the team captains).

Good to hear all is not lost. He should be hitting in November and throwing again in Dec or Jan, I dont want him to rush it.

Hopefully he will put up some numbers beginning in Febuary (High School)and hopefully he will get some late interest before the end of the HS season (likely from a small DI, JUCO, DII or NAIA school).

I know a kid right now that is recieving offers based on his fall season. He's a young Senior, and played on a 16U team last summer when he should have been playing on a 18U team.

That brings up another good topic, KD -- would he have received more attention had he played with his "class", rather than his age group?

KD, are you refering to Hunter Nolan? What schools are contacting him?

KD are this players intitals J.K.

I think Hunter is entering his Junior year -- a fine catcher and leader.

Hunter is a Senior. Started school early

PD, are questioning my knowledge of the area players?

kirk... Nobody would even dare to question your knowledge of the area players! All hail kirk

quote:

Originally posted by txdad06:
kirk... Nobody would even dare to question your knowledge of the area players! All hail kirk

txdad06, by putting the smiley face after the question, I was trying to indicate a tougue in cheek comment. Since you did not make any kind of similar gesture, can I assume your response to me is a serious post?

My bad -- on Hunter -- I too am interested in his baseball path.

oops! oops!oops!

Didn't know you had rabbit ears

quote:

Originally posted by txdad06:
oops! oops!oops!

Didn't know you had rabbit ears

I asked a simple question, trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, based on your most recent post, you are one of those posters that feels like it is their responsibility to ruin message boards for other people.

Dear kirk,

I am sorry if I failed to put a smiley face on the end of my post, I wasn't trying to offend you in any way. I was also trying to be humorous as were you. I am not trying to start a war or even try to goad you into a battle of any kind. I am truely sorry if my post offended you, as that was not my intention.

Geez.....some people are so thin skinned

Even I knew it was humor

Let's ease up a bit

Let it go

quote:

Originally posted by txdad06:
Dear kirk,

I am sorry if I failed to put a smiley face on the end of my post, I wasn't trying to offend you in any way. I was also trying to be humorous as were you. I am not trying to start a war or even try to goad you into a battle of any kind. I am truely sorry if my post offended you, as that was not my intention.

No offense was taken intially or now. Was simply trying to clarify as some on this board do try to goad others into "post wars".

The player I was talking about is indeed Hunter Nolen, who is a Senior and one of the best catchers I have ever seen play youth baseball. Talked to his dad today, and he seems to be getting some interest from some schools, so I know the process is working for him.

txdad06, J.K. is only a Junior, and Josh will get plenty of attention this spring and next fall. I expect great things out of him, and expect to be watching him play ball for years to come. I've watched him over the years grow into one of the best all around baseball players in the area. I don't know of a position the kid doesn't play well. (well, first base, but that's only because he's never played there).

And Josh is like a second son to me, so I take great pride in bragging about him.

On a side note, I can understand the worry about whether this fall baseball thing really works. After a few weeks of watching these "games", I started to wonder myself.

And Kirk, I'd rather not say what schools are contacting him, as that might stop other schools from doing so.

I told his dad today that I have a vested interest in where he goes to school, because it might be a better than even chance my son and Josh will want to follow.

KD,

My son who is also a catcher at Northwest High School went to the perfect game south top prospect showcase at Baylor this summer and met Hunter Nolen. He is indeed a very good catcher. Had some awesome throws to second. Do you know if he is going to the WWBA tournament in Jupiter this month?

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
And Kirk, I'd rather not say what schools are contacting him, as that might stop other schools from doing so.

I told his dad today that I have a vested interest in where he goes to school, because it might be a better than even chance my son and Josh will want to follow.

KD, Thanks for the info.

quote:

Originally posted by lew:
KD,

My son who is also a catcher at Northwest High School went to the perfect game south top prospect showcase at Baylor this summer and met Hunter Nolen. He is indeed a very good catcher. Had some awesome throws to second. Do you know if he is going to the WWBA tournament in Jupiter this month?

From what his dad has told me, no, he's not attending. He can't miss that much school with 4 AP classes.

quote:

Originally posted by Panther Dad:
That brings up another good topic, KD -- would he have received more attention had he played with his "class", rather than his age group?

I would say yes, he should have played with his class rather than his age. But, "we" sure did enjoy having his skills behind the plate this year.

So -- other than this topic becoming a H.N. love-fest (well-deserved) -- a few have benefited from the fall -- and a few seem to indicate that the jury is still out.

Cade, Ken -- what do you think?

Shayne -- what kind of "direct" results are you seeing?

My experiences are getting dated, butI have seen the fall showcase process work; not for my son, but for others.

TCU hosted a fall showcase of DFW & Houston teams in 2003. Two of my son's teammates were signed by TX St after being seen for the first time at that showcase. I was talking with that coach that night. He was very excited about both of those players.

If you do not play ball the fall going into your junior year and going into your senior year. It is going to be hard for you to get what you want. You have to be extremely talented or put up HUGE numbers in the spring. Where the colleges say, "I have to go see this guy". College coaches are playing in the spring they do not have time to recruit. They all want to see you in the fall or summer. Also if you are not playing fall ball for any other reason other than an injury the big college will question your desire to play at the college level. I would not personally ever call a college coach in the fall and push a kid to him if he was not playing. Because the first thing he is going to ask me is where is he playing the fall.

PD.
We have benefited somewhat from the fall showcase season this year. My son has started receiving info and questionaires from some of the schools and coaches that were at some of these events. As my son is a junior, they are pretty much just the general info stuff at this point.

One of the benefits however has been for him to get to visit some good schools, see and play at their facilities, meet the coaches, see the campuses, etc. as well as play with and against some pretty good juniors and seniors. I think it will also help him begin to narrow his choices when it comes to making the decision on where to attend college, whether baseball is in the cards or not.

It has also been a more relaxed environment in which to play, which is a break from the summer season.

A question from my ignorance -- are coaches from other schools there during the fall showcase events -- or just the schools that host the games? This gets back to the question of playing in front of coaches for schools where the player has an interest -- whether it be from an education, baseball, or financial standpoint...or all of the above. If the answer is -- only the host coaches are present -- then does it make sense to play in Lubbock if you have no interest in playing for Tech (an example)?

I agree that the experience is good, in any case. And I think Cade hit on a key point -- ya gotta play!

How many games do fall select teams usually play? A friend that plays for the all mighty Dbat said that they have only played 5 games to date. So I really do not understand Cade's comments.

I would like to see a list of showcase events that players have attended, from this board? Also, to dove tail onto PD's question, what coaches from what schools are attending these events?

quote:

Originally posted by TimeToStepUp:
How many games do fall select teams usually play? A friend that plays for the all mighty Dbat said that they have only played 5 games to date. So I really do not understand Cade's comments.

High Level Select Fall teams usually play 3-5 Showcases in the Fall. In those a team will usually play 1-2 games per showcase, for a total of around 10 games per season give or take. Per his website - Cade's team is playing in 7 showcases Rice,Texas,Baylor,T-Tech,DBU,UTA and Jupiter in Florida. They should get in 12 games or so at the Colleges and 4-7 games in at Perfect game.

Trips to Houston or Lubbock are large commitments for 1 game. JMO. I don't want anyone to misunderstand, I'm excited about next year as we contemplate showcasing our group. I'm trying to become ejekatd here.

Kirk,
We played at Tech recently. There were representatives their from a number of schools
besides Tech(mostly some of the smaller schools) while we were their.

I think that the decision on where to play depends on a number of factors.(distance, scholarships available for any seniors that may be playing, cost, facilities, etc.)Many juniors have no idea on where they may want to go to school so by going it might open doors to things that they haven't considered.

Whether it is worth it or not, I think is dependent on the individual. (Is it worth traveling to a World Series event that you have no chance of winning? Is it worth traveling to a Super Series tournament if you know you will be playing USSSA? Does it make sense to spend thousands of dollars a year on lessons? Does it make sense to showcase out of state if you are not going to play out of state?, etc. etc. etc.)

Depends on who you ask. JMO

quote:

Originally posted by Panther Dad:
Trips to Houston or Lubbock are large commitments for 1 game. JMO. I don't want anyone to misunderstand, I'm excited about next year as we contemplate showcasing our group. I'm trying to become ejekatd here.

I think the norm is to play 2 games, but I have seen teams play 1 nine inning game a few times.

PD,
We typically play at least 2 games at each location and sometimes 3 depending on the distance. We have played at Grayson, Navarro, DBU, Weatherford, Houston, Texas Tech. We were scheduled to play at ORU (2 games), OU (2 games), And Baylor (3-4 games), but were cancelled for various reasons, weather and travel related.

We will also be going to Perfect Game WWBA the end of the month.

One thing that the coaches did however was combine the 17's and 18's so we always had plenty of players and everybody did not have to attend all events. This worked out very well.

Time2stepup;

We played at Rice, Baylor, and T-Tech. We played 2 games at each for 6 games. Texas was cancelled because of the hurricane but we may get it rescheduled. We have UTA and Jupiter coming up. We should get 13 to 15 games in. Our kids are also playing in other leagues as well.

Panther DAD;

Yes when we went to Baylor there were about 12 other colleges there and a number of pro guys. It was on the same weekend of the JC All-Star game at Baylor so a lot of coaches stayed to watch. Tech had about 4 other schools attend the showcase. PG will have over 200 college recruiters and 30 or so pro guys attend the fall event. I my experience and my experience ONLY here is a list of events that I have seen kids get the most exposure from or seen the most college coaches attend. Remember this is only events that I can say I have seen. I know there are more I just have not seen them.

1. Perfect Game Fall Showcase
2. Area Code
3. Perfect Game Summer Tournament (East Cobb)
4. Connie Mack Regional Tournament
5. Fall College Showcases
6. Connie Mack State Tournament
7. Head 1st Baseball (FL.)