Has anyone gone to the one week camp that is at Rutgers? My boy is graduating 8th grade and is hoping to make the JV team his freshman year.
I know Fred Hill has a good rep, but how about his camp? $250 for 4 days...
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Knowing Coach Hill personally I can tell you that the camp is a no lose situation for your son
Tom - thanks! We're sending the paperwork out tonight. Hopefully he won't be too overwhelmed since he's only getting out of 8th grade now...
My Son, now 12 has attended the last 2 years. The different age groups go different weeks, but he has absolutly loved this camp. It's very close by for us and it's always great to see Coach Hill. (Played against him when he was at Montclair 
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Sadly, at the younger age groups coach Hill is not so involved as I had hoped. His staff and players involved are great thoug... Not to be missed!!!
)Sadly, at the younger age groups coach Hill is not so involved as I had hoped. His staff and players involved are great thoug... Not to be missed!!!
Send him!!! My son who was in 8th grade last year went and loved it! He's already signed up for this year. It helped him a lot.
My son just finished camp this past week. He was a little disappointed. Coach Hill was not involved at all from what he remembers. It did not seem as well structured as in the past. Turnout was very low, Perhaps because it was the week of the 4th. He usually is geared up for a second week of camp, but he does not want to go back. 
my son went the week of 6/27. lousy weather all week, but they made it through.
I went as much as I could (full day monday, half days the others), and was a little disappointed.
the mornings were for drills, which was fine, and the afternoon for scrimmages. the problem was, to me at least, was that during the scrimmages, there was no instruction. for example, man on first, batter hits a bomb to left field corner. SS went out for cutoff alone. I'm thinking "this is a great time to explain the tandem-relay, and how the 2nd baseman should run out and backup the SS, and the firstbaseman is the cut for home, and the rightfielder should cover 2B." But nothing.
Also, the coach who was pitching (a good lefty pitcher with about 6 different pitches) never talked to the kids about what kind of pitch to expect, what kind of plan to have for the at-bat (for example, if a man was on second with no outs, you'd try to hit to the right side to move him over). Nothing like that. The coaches just yucked it up every time they could get the hitters to look silly on off-speed pitches.
Single to left with a man on 2nd. 3rd basement lines up even with 3rd base for the cutoff. Does coach say "you should be closer to home, about even with the rubber". NO. nothing...
Lots of opportunities to "teach", but not many taken...
Coach Hill was there on the first day, rarely saw him after that...
He calls everyone "Moose". Kinda funny...
My kid is going to be a freshman, so it was good for him to play with older kids. It gave him the feeling that he could compete with these kids, which was good. Not sure he wants to go next year, though.
I went as much as I could (full day monday, half days the others), and was a little disappointed.
the mornings were for drills, which was fine, and the afternoon for scrimmages. the problem was, to me at least, was that during the scrimmages, there was no instruction. for example, man on first, batter hits a bomb to left field corner. SS went out for cutoff alone. I'm thinking "this is a great time to explain the tandem-relay, and how the 2nd baseman should run out and backup the SS, and the firstbaseman is the cut for home, and the rightfielder should cover 2B." But nothing.
Also, the coach who was pitching (a good lefty pitcher with about 6 different pitches) never talked to the kids about what kind of pitch to expect, what kind of plan to have for the at-bat (for example, if a man was on second with no outs, you'd try to hit to the right side to move him over). Nothing like that. The coaches just yucked it up every time they could get the hitters to look silly on off-speed pitches.
Single to left with a man on 2nd. 3rd basement lines up even with 3rd base for the cutoff. Does coach say "you should be closer to home, about even with the rubber". NO. nothing...
Lots of opportunities to "teach", but not many taken...
Coach Hill was there on the first day, rarely saw him after that...
He calls everyone "Moose". Kinda funny...
My kid is going to be a freshman, so it was good for him to play with older kids. It gave him the feeling that he could compete with these kids, which was good. Not sure he wants to go next year, though.
quote:The coaches just yucked it up every time they could get the hitters to look silly on off-speed pitches.
Yes, I agree. I came back early for the scrimmages and the big lefty was a bit of a jerk. He was constantly balking with men on so he could pick them off.... My son bats lefty and he through him breaking ball after breaking ball....
The scrimamges were more like sandlot games.... the kids did everthing except pitch and unmpire.... no coaching!
