Researching “National” showcase teams, I noticed a few issues. Many of the teams play only 3-4 events per summer. Is that enough baseball?
Some of the rosters are over 30. Is it better to play a couple of innings per week with a top team or play every day a notch below? This all assumes that the player skills fits the team.
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What age, and what's the goal?
3-4 events was not our experience. It was more like 5-8
We had 30 guys and it never seemed like we had enough. When you go down to the WWBA and other weeklong tournaments you need a legit 25+ man roster to go deep.
My son’s team played six tournaments. It left two open weekends for important, individual regional showcases. Maybe teams only playing four tournaments are leaving more open weekends for individual tournaments.
I could see a player doing two regional, a HeadFirst and/or another academic and a PG individual showcase over the summer. A kid could play all travel team tournaments. He could play locally and guest for a handful of travel tournaments. There are multiple routes to the end result.
100% agree with @anotherparent. What is the goal? Does your son really need national level exposure? If so, can you explain why?
If you follow college baseball money, you understand that a lot of the national powerhouse schools are public institutions and have a (financial) preference for in-state or sometimes "next-door" state players because their limited (11.7 for 35 players) scholarship money goes farther. For example, let's look at the super regional matchups; Notre Dame, Tennessee, Connecticut, Stanford, Auburn, Oregon State, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Texas A&M, Texas, East Carolina, Mississippi, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas, and North Carolina. By my count fourteen of sixteen are public universitites. Additionally, you better have more than baseball skills to get into the two private universities on the list Notre Dame or Stanford. I'm not saying these public universities don't recruit out of state. They do. But all things being equal, the public schools have a preference for in state recruits. So, understanding whether your son's exposure strategy (budget $$) is better suited for national or regional goes a long way to understand where the likelihood of an offer can come from.
I was as guilty as the next parent in keeping these national showcase teams in business. Looking back, in his case it wasn't needed for baseball reasons. But it did help with national level academic schools. Once we figured that out, we targeted different showcases, and camps.
Just my experience. Good luck!
DC;
please request the objectives of the National Showcase teams. #1 is to make a profit to survive. #2 is to enlist as many players as feasible for the tournaments. #3 Are any of the teams players subsidized?
A MAJOR QUESTION: Are the Team's Coaches trained to teach?
Bob
DC,
I would have a somewhat different perspective. If you are playing on a "National Showcase" team where you are not subsidized you are probably not at the right place for what you think you are getting.
JMO
@old_school posted:DC,
I would have a somewhat different perspective. If you are playing on a "National Showcase" team where you are not subsidized you are probably not at the right place for what you think you are getting.
JMO
Yeah I want to add that it was free, or very low cost. I think it was $200 for the summer but that was more of a spot holder/uniform deposit. They gave the option to give the money back or sponsor a younger player in the organization. Pretty much everybody put it towards sponsoring a player.
As mentioned, depends on what your goals are. If you are an uncommitted 2023 then I believe 4 tournaments is fine. Enough to stay sharp and get some reps but not too many where you can still get out to prospect camps if needed.
I think you need to define National Showcase Teams. All the ones I would put in that category which would only be about 25-50 total play 5-7 tournaments but they are almost all full week tournaments so they are gone for 5-8 weeks of the summer. Name a few of the National Showcase Teams please so we can see if we are on the same page.
Let me start with the top. Canes National, Canes American, Team Elite, East Cobb Astros,
You can go here. If they are not in the top 25 they are not a national showcase team.
A lot of variables mentioned here and some not:
1. My kids "national team" was not necessarily a "showcase team" but was one that played 6 tourneys last summer (summer between JR/SR year). Of those tourneys the biggest was the PBR 17U national champ at Lakepoint in Atlanta. The East Cobb PG tourney was the week before for 17's and the 16's was the same week as ours. The big P5 and early commitment peeps were not at our tourney scouting unless they specifically wanted to see one of their own commits to check on them. 2nd biggest was the tourney the prior week at Grand Park in Indianapolis. Not as many D1's but definitely well represented by most schools from Ohio thru center of the country into Missouri. More D2/D3/JUCO at that event. We also played in KC 2x schools from TX/OK/KS/IA/MN/IL/WI/IN/MI/SD/ND (also many JUCO's from IA/IL/KS/MO) and Milwaukee 1x. What was interesting about Milwaukee is that it was the last tourney of our summer (less D1 but they were definitely there to follow up on kids they had seen earlier in the summer).
2. My kid is from Minnesota. While there are some really good players who have come from here it is not a hotbed for D1 recruiting and virtually ZERO schools outside of MN/SD/ND/WI/IA (6 D1 total) recruit any tourneys here. National tourneys are the only way to potentially be seen if your kid is interested in going to school in a certain part of the country or certain type of school. My kid was very interested in High Academic non Ivy League schools in the Mid-Atlantic like Davidson, Richmond, Wofford, William & Mary, Washington & Lee, Emory, etc. He had to get to Atlanta or camps those schools were going to be at in order to be seen in person.
3. Marketing is slick and our national team did a great job on having a page for each kid with relevant/verified data and video. This was how my son was first noticed and followed by the school he committed to attend. Here is an example of what my kids club has done for their 2024 class. LINK to page
4. Video from anywhere can be extremely helpful in this process. We led with important info on emails to targeted schools that would matter to that school. An example for my son was: 2022 LHH C/OF, 33 ACT 6'4"/195. Another example might be for another kid: 2024 switch hitting SS, 5'11'/155, 6.52/93 EV. Schools then might know right away from something to open and explore email or not.
5. Assuming you have something to market make sure that you contact (or have your coach) whomever you are targeting. There are so many games at Lakepoint (at least they have 8 fields in the same place) or all over Atlanta for PG 17U Natty's that unless you are on a team that your target schools will be scouting you must let them know you are interested in them and get on their radar.
