Is it the end of the world?

Dooer,

quote:

He felt he was not ready.

This appears to be nothing more than confidence. Your son may feel as if everyone at the showcase will be better than he is. When I first decided my son should showcase he was against it. But he did fine and gained confidence in the process. The first time I suggested he go to a pro workout he said no but I convinced him he should. We were one of the first to arrive but he was the last one to take the field.

quote:

One of his summer coaches (a former D1 head coach) told me that it was not necessary for him to participate in showcases.

Sometimes people give bad advice and this appears to be one of the better examples. Of course your son should showcase.
Best of luck,
Fungo

Dooer,

My son is an 06 and we decided that due to his HS and summer travel team (money too) that he wouldn't showcase either. While it may have hurt him with some colleges not being able to see him, he has verbally committed to the college of his choice with a very nice schlorship.

Each of the past 2 summers he has gone to a free professional tryout camp that is held at a local college. They will give you a true evaluation of your sons talent level at no cost.

Always remember, there is more than one way to get where he wants to go.

If he wants to attend college locally, he probably does not need to attend a showcase.

However, if he wants to go further away he needs to be seen(unless he isa bluechipper, which you say he is not). Really a matter of what he is looking for.

My son wanted to go to school out East. Believe it or not, not many schools from the east coach send recruiters to Wisconsin, so we had to take the steps to get him seen.

I would venture that more schools will send scouts to Northern Iowa then to Wisconsin so your son will get more exposure anyway.

Fungo,

You are correct about the lack of confidence. It arises from the fact that he felt he did not play enough during the summer. At the risk of being labeld "HM", A possible mistake in the choice of summer teams by us was part of the problem. His team played on ave. of 1 game everyother week with 1 tournament a month of 4-7 games. There were 3 or 4 practices during the summer. Couple that with the fact that he primarily played positions that he does not play during the HS season (catcher). Most, if not all, of the other players on the team played with other teams during the summer. We did not have that luxury.

He was used to hitting almost every day and pitching once a week during the HS season. He was missing those repetitions. Thus the lack of confidence.

Dooer,
We live not too far from you. My son had received similar input when he was in high school. I can assure you that while it might be well intentioned, the advice that high school play and summer league play is adequate to develop exposure for recruiting is inadequate advice. If your son has any interest in going to college outside the Bay Area, he has no chance of developing interest without showcasing. For the several schools in the Bay Area, the chances are slim.

Dooer...infieldad is giving you great advice.

If you can send your son to a showcase, like a Perfect Game or Team One, YOU SHOULD DO SO.

Can only help. No downside.

Dooer -
If your son wants to stay very close to home, then you may be seen by local college coaches, especially if your son is on a team with a "blue chip". However, most northern California programs are very competitive with lots of local talent to choose from! Your HS coach's advice is outdated and will severely limit your son's chances to play baseball in college. If you can budget the $'s, go to a showcase or two.

Dooer

The two most important elements of a young player during his HS and college years...playing time and exposure to the right coach

The right coach will provide that "peer-level higher authority figure" that has the respect and connections to get your son evaluated.

You can not count on your HS coach to be that figure unless he has a long history of doing so, with a history of placing many players at the next level.

Contact the showcase operator with the best reputation for doing just that and let your son compete against the best. It will help him to gain confidence and give him hope...we did that with GWS.

Attend the college camps, and showcase at the MLB open scouting tryouts...

Even though my son hasn't done the MLB tryouts yet he will after this year since he is now at 19yo and starting to come out of his awkward stages of development. He is now throwing the ball hard enough were he might be of some interest to a scout.

I found that you need to manage your son's exposure based upon where he is in the stages of his development.

I guess I come from a slightly different direction from some of the others.

What is he telling you about his skills right now? Is he saying he's just not ready, or does he want to do something specific before showcasing? Where is his mindset regarding college at this point? Is he tired, mentally or physically?

Perhaps a semi-local college camp might be a better place to start. A pro workout would be the best, since they are free, but tis not the season. Are there the means/availability to do some private instruction from someone who is connected?

If it's a confidence issue, put him in a venue where he'll feel good about himself or even stand out a little.

Showcasing is important, but not showcasing well can set you back a little. Step back for a moment, look at the situation, then plan accordingly.

Good luck.

Thanks for the responses everyone.

He has played very good competition for a # of years and can compete. His HS team does have a probable bluechipper on it. He is probably on the next level down.

The plan this summer/fall was to include at least one showcase. Finances not being the greatest for us at this time, I went a long with my son's wishes not to participate without trying to convince him of the need for it at this time.

Is he right or wrong to feel that his skills are not at the top of their game if he has not been playing reguarly? His concern was in not showing as well as possible. I have read on this forum that one should try to be at the top of their game when attending a showcase.

I guess what I am asking is, can he still do the showcase thing following his Jr. year without a great penalty.

Dooer -
It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this. Sorry, if we jumped too hard on you but many of us have also heard the "if you're good they'll see you" type comments from well-meaning HS coaches. Summer after his Junior year is the best time to showcase. If continuing to play baseball after HS is his goal, he needs to work hard this season, get as much play time as possible and look for opportunities to showcase his skills. Now is the time to research schools and baseball programs that are a fit to his academics and baseball skills and start sending out contact letters. Its important not just to showcase, but let those programs he is interested in know where they can see him play. Good Luck to you both!

If your son isn't playing a fall sport try e-mailing Blaine Clemmens at T1. Evidently he has an october event. If your son ends up playing at the Bay Area World Series event (June event) he will probebely be seen by a lot of local coaches including cal poly and ucsb. Blaine may have already seen your son play and may be able to offer some help/advice.
http://eteamz.active.com/bcbayareabaseball/

quote:

Is he right or wrong to feel that his skills are not at the top of their game if he has not been playing reguarly? His concern was in not showing as well as possible. I have read on this forum that one should try to be at the top of their game when attending a showcase.

.

My son had a teammate that wanted to play at the University of Tennessee. I suggested to his mother that she arrange for him to showcase in front of the head coach or go to a camp at UT. She and her son were both fearful he would fall short or mess up and not be recruited. He wouldn’t go and display his talent. I know he had the talent to play at UT because he ended up signing with the Atlanta Braves. His dream of playing for UT died when he allowed his fear of failure to control his destiny.

quote:

I guess what I am asking is, can he still do the showcase thing following his Jr. year without a great penalty.

Absolutely! The deadlines are the early and late signing periods which are AFTER his junior year. Showcasing prior to that is all he needs to do. I agree players need to be in the best shape they can be but as Nike says...JUST DO IT!
Fungo

CollegeParent, I have been in contact with Blaine Clemmens and my son hopes to play in the BAWS next summer. He is not playing anything this fall, but is lifting and running. He won't be ready to hit a baseball with confidence until spring baseball starts up.

.

Doer...

Good advice your getting.

- BC? As I have said previously we would follow BC to the ends of the earth, have in the past, and still are doing so....

- Blaines Fall TeamOne showcase in the bay area is a door to the TeamOne West next June which IS a HUGE west coast event.

- The BCBAWS is a huge bay area event. 17 verballed already from the '06 class. We did '04 and '05 and found them extremely valauble on a variety of levels. Do this.

- Jump into the showcases with two feet. The league/region your son plays in is tough, you'll be surprised at how well he competes. Also coaches know exactly what they are looking at/for. YOu can't cram. I know a bay Area kid who went "0 for" a 5 day camp and still got a November offer and drafted in the fourth round 6 months later. You son may have what they want. There is no telling.

- The reality is that showcasing is how it is done now. Like it or not it IS the reality.

- Good advice from oldvaman...Make sure you assess your sons mindset.

- Fall '05, weights, workouts get bigger stronger. research schools on line, cheap to visit the local schools unofficially, SC, SJState, Stanford, USF, SF State, Berkeley, should tweak an interest, when you seee some of thsoe facilities, the interest level should fly.

- Fall '05, research some schools, send some letters, get on some radar screens. Choose some dream, some realistic and some fallback choices.

- Come ready to rock next summer starting with the BCBAWS...your still ahead of the "game"...

.

quote:

Originally posted by Dooer:
I guess what I am asking is, can he still do the showcase thing following his Jr. year without a great penalty.

Agree with Fungo. Very close to what our son did. He did 1 showcase (Alderete) in Fall of Junior year and didn't do any others until June after Junior year. Did attend some winter camps in the area over Christmas break and a tournament in LA in January (actually, that was probably the break-open point...by pure circumstance more than anything...right guy there are the right time).

My son's HS team was in a very tough district, the HS coach was not very knowledgable about how to coach or train players to get to the next level. You either have to stick it out or move to another County, we stuck it out.

son was fortunate enough to get on two very high profile summer teams from another State with some very, very good players. (one went in the pro draft in the second round and another in the 16th) just about every other kid from those teams is playing D-I or D-II ball today.

He learned more about the game from the coaches and players on those two summer teams his Sophomore and Junior summers than any HS coach he every had.

The summer teams along with a few select showcases got him where he needed to be. The HS coach was absolutly of no help whatsoever.

If the kid has the ability the parent(s) in my opinion, for the most part, has to step up and become educated about the process and look out for the son to get him the necessary exposure and training to get him to the next level.

CV

I would like to share my experience with you and I hope it will help.

First, my son was well known by many of the schools we played as a good athlete. However, we are not located anywhere you will probably find many scouts.

We sent him to a pro tryout and he got timed in the 60. The scout talked to him quite a bit. Then, we sent him to a local showcase. Once again people were impressed with his speed.

Next, he finally got on a team for the summer other than his local high school American legion team. It was in a large city with many scouts. And, once again he got some attention.

I firmly believe there are really good players that may never be offered a scholarship, because a scout didn't know about them. Even the pro scout told my son that he often tells colleges who call him looking for an outfielder about kids he has seen with my son's kind of speed. If your son has something to offer a college team, unless he is on a very well followed team it would be in his best interest for you to showcase him.

PS..My son didn't want to go to the first one either, but after the first one he didn't mind. The only thing he didn't like was they always made him chase more balls in the outfield than anyone else...lol.. We only did the in state showcases because of money. Like someone said the pro tryouts are free and the local school showcases aren't as expensive as the large nationally recognized showcases. And money was an issue for us.

I have to give the high school baseball web much of the credit for telling us what and how to do it. The only regret I have is that I didn't do it till his junior year.