The best advice I can give to parents going to Jupiter is to let their son enjoy the experience and not to buy into the environment, because chances are the son might too.
As I said, I was fortunate enough to go to the Jupiter tournament for two years. The first year, I was one of the youngest kids on the team and had no parents with me. I flew down with the team, stayed with the team, ate with the team, etc. I was fairly oblivious to everything that occured, and was very awestruck at the level of talent (watching Rick Porcello pitch and Jason Heyward hit on fields right next to each other) and the level of exposure available (literally HUNDREDS of scouts, coaches and agents roaming the premise for hours on end). I believe my ignorance was a blessing because I was still a young kid down there who was there to just play.
The following year, the fall of my senior year, I was fully entrenched in the recruiting process. I had been speaking to schools and was incredibly nervous about the Jupiter trip. My father came with me after I raved about the tournament to him for a whole year, and I think that helped me a lot as well. Instead of staying in the room, or in the pool, or walking through Palm Beach all day/night like I did the year before with my teammates, I spent meals with my father and he provided me with a lot of normality that I felt back at home. He very rarely talked about baseball and if he was bought into the scouting hype that surrounded the event, I surely didn't notice.
Each year featured two very different emotions and different ways of going about things. Regardless, the experience of going to Jupiter was second to none and one that I'll probably never forget. Whether you are a player or a parent, enjoy every minute of the event because there truly is nothing else like it.
