Showball?

Look at top of page and hit the find button and type in snowball....you wil find some posts that might help you

I did actually look there, but would like maybe something more in depth and conclusive other than the mixed reviews in the other thread. There seemed to be a split decision then arguments. also, Has anyone actually beein recruited from there? have any players of not attended it?

Got it can't help you there my son never attended this showcase

Our son, a 2013, also received one. We might be interested in the academic camp in NY. From what I've read here, HeadFirst might be the better (safer?) choice. Though the over $400 difference and the fact that our son is interested in a large number of the colleges attending the Show Ball Camp in NY, is making us consider an alternative to Head First. We'll see.

I'd love to see a competitor to HeadFirst appear so they think twice in increasing the cost as they have over the last three years. $1000 seems like gauging (sp?) to me. JMO.

Still can't help with Showball but son did attend Headfirst and it was worth every penny but that was three years ago and it was a few pennies less than a thousand dollars....

Headfirst has tremendous amount of schools and there was great access to the coaches between games to talk to them

PG has an academic showcase as does Demarini. There's also GPA, but you get exposure to just a handful of schools for hundreds of dollars.

My son attended Headfirst last fall and I can't say enough good things about it, especially for position players. The price is high, no arguing about that.

My son went in the summer prior to his junior year in Tampa and again on a freebie from a friend who dropped out last minute in December 2011 in Ft. Myers. The showcase is well atteded by a very attractive list of schools BUT most of the coaches attending are the volunteer assistant level. These coaches are legit and I do not mean to dilute their place in college ball but of all tne showcases we attended 2009-2011, Showball provided no value or activity in recruiting we did not have already. My sons last appearance at Showball was a bit late in the recruiting process for a 2012 and he had no pressure since he was 95% sure of his college choice for baseball but he dominated on the mound and did not receive any new recruiting interest. I would put Showball in a lower tier showcase level relative to the Stanford Camp in July, Perfect Game showcase and tourneys and Headfirst. All of these generated much interest and opportunity for my son and resulted in a D1 scholarship for baseball. This is from recent personal experience. It would have the highest value for you if the target school of your son was attending IMO.

Thanks.

DunkinDD, I completely understand your point on WHICH coaches from a given school are attending. Show Ball's academic camp in NY seems to include more HCs and recruiting coordinators (Vanderbilt is an exception in that it sends a volunteer assistant) than does the camp in Tampa. Many of the schools at Show Ball are also on our son's list (though HF definitely has still more that are on his list). We'll see what we decide, but it looks like the $1000 for HF might be the better investment both from your comments and the comments of many other contributers on this site.

One other question: Others have noted that paid coaches at for-profit camps (in contrast to on campus camps???) sometimes are not even paying attention. I noticed this at a camp our son attended where there was a lot of socializing among the coaches. Seems like this is not an issue at HF. Does any one have any thoughts on this issue as it relates to specific camps? (BTW, I do not expect that our son will attend Stanford. HF looks like a much more likely option.)

Thanks to all.

By and large, a showcase with a large population of volunteer assistants is more likely to be a place for instruction rather than recruiting or meaningful college exposure.
The NCAA does not allow, by rule, any volunteer assistant to be involved in off campus recruiting and/or talent assessment.
This isn't to say it isn't done. It is to say doing it would be/is an NCAA violation for the school.
When our son was a volunteer assistant, his University would NOT allow him to attend any off campus camps or showcases out of concern for and compliance with the rule.
On the other hand, the pathway to college coaching is usually through a volunteer assistant position.
Many of them know the game and how to teach and coach it successfully. They have to if they want to move into paid positions.