Is this camp better to attend as a rising senior than a junior...Especially if 2014 hasn't taken ACT/SAT yet?
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My son went as a rising junior but the majority of the attendees were rising seniors I would say it is a 25/75 spilt....I think most of the higher academic schools are looking for rising seniors but it did help my son gett on a few radar screens.
Sat/act not a big deal if you go as rising junior but would think by summer of rising senior year you will have already taken them.
Sat/act not a big deal if you go as rising junior but would think by summer of rising senior year you will have already taken them.
jazzmik,
THe end goal is to be recruited & get an offer. Therefore most of the HF academic schools will be looking at rising seniors with ACT/SAT scores that can potentially be admitted and be eligible to play next year. For many of these schools, HF is their largest recruiting event. So, again their focus will be on rising seniors.
This ia a great experience for your son to watch and learn how they do things and to make some great coaching contacts for next year. There is no pressure on your son, and he has an opportunity to make a great impression on hundreds of coaches. Once the event is over, he should follow up with those schools he is most interested in to stay "top of mind" with those coaches & schools.
Your son will have access to the HF staff and all the coaches. Typically they pick some coaches to address the whole camp to talk about their school, the recruiting process, what it is to be a student/athlete, and college baseball in general. Listen to the speeches, ask questions and pick the coaches brains at the right times. Best of luck.
THe end goal is to be recruited & get an offer. Therefore most of the HF academic schools will be looking at rising seniors with ACT/SAT scores that can potentially be admitted and be eligible to play next year. For many of these schools, HF is their largest recruiting event. So, again their focus will be on rising seniors.
This ia a great experience for your son to watch and learn how they do things and to make some great coaching contacts for next year. There is no pressure on your son, and he has an opportunity to make a great impression on hundreds of coaches. Once the event is over, he should follow up with those schools he is most interested in to stay "top of mind" with those coaches & schools.
Your son will have access to the HF staff and all the coaches. Typically they pick some coaches to address the whole camp to talk about their school, the recruiting process, what it is to be a student/athlete, and college baseball in general. Listen to the speeches, ask questions and pick the coaches brains at the right times. Best of luck.
Thanks for replies.
Jazzmik,
Our 2012 attended HF camp in Jupiter, FL Nov 2010. I looked over the list of attendees and at that camp the distribution was almost exactly 50% 2011's and 50% 2012's or later.
The camp was outstanding and generated a lot of interest. It's a great camp for rising seniors, but also offers solid exposure for juniors, sophs. Good Luck!
Our 2012 attended HF camp in Jupiter, FL Nov 2010. I looked over the list of attendees and at that camp the distribution was almost exactly 50% 2011's and 50% 2012's or later.
The camp was outstanding and generated a lot of interest. It's a great camp for rising seniors, but also offers solid exposure for juniors, sophs. Good Luck!
My son and I are traveling from Montana for the Headfirst Camp III on August 8-9. If anyone else is going to be there let me know and I will say hi.
I just returned from this camp and can't recommend it enough. My son is a somewhat shy 2014 but he made an effort to talk to some of the coaches but more importantly he talked to some of the rising seniors about what they did as far as reaching out to schools and figuring out what how he will do in the coming months to determine a good fit for him. The coaches are definitely looking more at the rising seniors but that's not to say they won't look at rising juniors. It was a great experience for him and he wants to go back next year. On the way home he talked about the different coaches he liked (coaches are assigned to dugouts during games) and it opened his mind up to schools he had never considered. It was a fun process to watch. Good luck with your decision
The original question on this thread was whether this camp is better to attend as a rising junior or rising senior. My son just finished the camp as a rising junior so I will offer my perspective.
It was suggested by another poster that it was probably 75/25 in favor of rising seniors. In general I agree that it probably provides more immediate gratification for rising seniors as the coaches clearly are interested in filling holes in their rosters. I think, however, that applies more directly to pitchers. The coaches that we spoke to made it clear that pitching was their top priority and it was obvious as they crowded around each good pitcher with radar guns and notebooks.
Having said this, from my perspective I would encourage a rising junior, position player or pitcher, to attend for several reasons. One, the camp is specifically designed for player-coach interaction. The camp director makes it clear in the opening speech that the coaches are available for the players to approach. This does a couple of things. It teaches the players to not be afraid to talk to a coach. My son was understandably a bit shy at first to approach the Yale coach. He followed him around and finally got up the nerve to just walk up and say "Hi coach, I just want to introduce myself, I am ..." The coach was very pleasant and from there it got better and better for him. By the end, my son actually followed the Duke coach into the parking lot to introduce himself and again, the Duke coach was extremely gracious and talked to him for several minutes.
The other thing that is great is that the coaches are actually paying attention. Of all the coaches that my son spoke to, all but one or two immediately knew who he was and were able to comment on his performance. In other words, they are not just paying lip service to the younger players, they are looking at them for the future.
In addition to teaching the players how to approach and interact with coaches, the camp also gives the players a real opportunity to showcase talents. They go though a 60 yard run, then defensive and offensive showcases. At first I was a bit skeptical about the showcases as they don't seem to give enough time for evaluation. For example, the catchers got one throw to third and three to second for POP times. The players only cut eight total cuts in the cage in front of all 60 or so coaches. I spoke to a coach about this and whether that was enough time. He explained that the things they were looking for were not necessarily the actual POP time (though it doesn't hurt to have a good one) and the bat contact. He said they were lookiing for the players athleticism, position and approach. As a catcher he explained that he could tell who was "cheating" on their POP times, in other words coming out of their crouch early. As a hitter he explained that he was looking at hand position, front leg down, hand speed, etc. He knew immediately how my son did and to my surprise he knew with some amount of detail.
The point being, the kids get to showcase their skills and the coaches really are paying attention.
Finally, the games are good too, but I think those are primarily for the pitchers and to some extent the catchers. Certainly not for the hitters. All AB's start with a 1-1 count and really no coaches pay attention to the hitting. The games are the one area that probably don't help position players very much but they are fun for the players and they are still in front of a lot of coaches. The biggest benefit there to position players is that actual college coaches are in the dugout so it does give the players an opportunity to interact during a game with a coach. It seemed that those in-game coaches also would spend several minutes after each games pulling players aside who they liked.
The original question was whether it is better for rising juniors or seniors. In summary, while seniors get a lot of attention for the upcoming rosters, the juniors can get a lot of benefit as well. It gives the players a great chance to meet and interact with over 60 coaches of top colleges. I think moving forward then, it is up to the players to foster the relationships at the schools that they want to attend by following up with the coaches, attending prospect camps, etc.
So that is my feedback on Headfirst and in summary I recommend it.
It was suggested by another poster that it was probably 75/25 in favor of rising seniors. In general I agree that it probably provides more immediate gratification for rising seniors as the coaches clearly are interested in filling holes in their rosters. I think, however, that applies more directly to pitchers. The coaches that we spoke to made it clear that pitching was their top priority and it was obvious as they crowded around each good pitcher with radar guns and notebooks.
Having said this, from my perspective I would encourage a rising junior, position player or pitcher, to attend for several reasons. One, the camp is specifically designed for player-coach interaction. The camp director makes it clear in the opening speech that the coaches are available for the players to approach. This does a couple of things. It teaches the players to not be afraid to talk to a coach. My son was understandably a bit shy at first to approach the Yale coach. He followed him around and finally got up the nerve to just walk up and say "Hi coach, I just want to introduce myself, I am ..." The coach was very pleasant and from there it got better and better for him. By the end, my son actually followed the Duke coach into the parking lot to introduce himself and again, the Duke coach was extremely gracious and talked to him for several minutes.
The other thing that is great is that the coaches are actually paying attention. Of all the coaches that my son spoke to, all but one or two immediately knew who he was and were able to comment on his performance. In other words, they are not just paying lip service to the younger players, they are looking at them for the future.
In addition to teaching the players how to approach and interact with coaches, the camp also gives the players a real opportunity to showcase talents. They go though a 60 yard run, then defensive and offensive showcases. At first I was a bit skeptical about the showcases as they don't seem to give enough time for evaluation. For example, the catchers got one throw to third and three to second for POP times. The players only cut eight total cuts in the cage in front of all 60 or so coaches. I spoke to a coach about this and whether that was enough time. He explained that the things they were looking for were not necessarily the actual POP time (though it doesn't hurt to have a good one) and the bat contact. He said they were lookiing for the players athleticism, position and approach. As a catcher he explained that he could tell who was "cheating" on their POP times, in other words coming out of their crouch early. As a hitter he explained that he was looking at hand position, front leg down, hand speed, etc. He knew immediately how my son did and to my surprise he knew with some amount of detail.
The point being, the kids get to showcase their skills and the coaches really are paying attention.
Finally, the games are good too, but I think those are primarily for the pitchers and to some extent the catchers. Certainly not for the hitters. All AB's start with a 1-1 count and really no coaches pay attention to the hitting. The games are the one area that probably don't help position players very much but they are fun for the players and they are still in front of a lot of coaches. The biggest benefit there to position players is that actual college coaches are in the dugout so it does give the players an opportunity to interact during a game with a coach. It seemed that those in-game coaches also would spend several minutes after each games pulling players aside who they liked.
The original question was whether it is better for rising juniors or seniors. In summary, while seniors get a lot of attention for the upcoming rosters, the juniors can get a lot of benefit as well. It gives the players a great chance to meet and interact with over 60 coaches of top colleges. I think moving forward then, it is up to the players to foster the relationships at the schools that they want to attend by following up with the coaches, attending prospect camps, etc.
So that is my feedback on Headfirst and in summary I recommend it.
Catcher Dad,
I have read your comment and although I have completed getting my 2012 RHP off to a very nice DII school I am now working on the 2014 Catcher that has a goal to play at the next level. His grades are exceptional and I have thought about the head first camp but did not want to spend money if the 2014 players are really not looked at. My plan for the fall is to attend several selected college "prospect" camps that he has interest in and hopefully it will allow for some exposure. Then if it looks good possibly attend the Jupiter camp going into his senior year.
Now that you have lived this process what are your thoughts?
Thanks
I have read your comment and although I have completed getting my 2012 RHP off to a very nice DII school I am now working on the 2014 Catcher that has a goal to play at the next level. His grades are exceptional and I have thought about the head first camp but did not want to spend money if the 2014 players are really not looked at. My plan for the fall is to attend several selected college "prospect" camps that he has interest in and hopefully it will allow for some exposure. Then if it looks good possibly attend the Jupiter camp going into his senior year.
Now that you have lived this process what are your thoughts?
Thanks
You will get much greater exposure at the August camp. The August camp also comes at the start of prime recruiting time for the academic schools. IMHO Jupiter is a little late for seniors and a little early for juniors. A lot changes between November and August.
quote:leftyshortstop said...You will get much greater exposure at the August camp. The August camp also comes at the start of prime recruiting time for the academic schools. IMHO Jupiter is a little late for seniors and a little early for juniors. A lot changes between November and August.
Agree 100%. October/Novemember/December is late for the academic schools (D3/Ivy/Patriot) as a recruited athlete. Most of these schools will want you to apply ED/EA as a recruited athlete. If a D3 coach will allow you to apply RD or you plan to walk-on, then it could work. There are always exceptions, but I'd stick with that timeline.
My son went to HF in Jupiter as a junior, then LI as a rising senior. I agree with the comments re attending the summer before your senior year. The timing appeared to be excellent given his goal of playing for an academic D3.
thanks again for feedback.
I was considering the November one for son, but will proably wait until next summer.
I was considering the November one for son, but will proably wait until next summer.