Showcase confusion

Coaches are there for one reason. They are looking for players they can sign. This is basically true of college and pro showcases.
Occassionally they will se great younger players but they have to concentrate on the business at hand. One 3 day show case they told all the non seniors not to come.

Forgive the newbie, but now I'm confused. Nearly every poster on this forum seems to suggest that the summer after junior year is the most important time to go to showcases and college camps. Many even seem to imply that the junior to senior year summer is a player's last best chance, if you will, to get some exposure. Are you saying that college coaches and scouts in the summer of 07' will really be more interested in players that graduated in May/June 07', than those planning on graduating in 08'? I would have thought that by this coming summer the 08's would be garnering most of the attention.

O'Brady,
You're getting the wrong impression. The recruiting process starts much earlier than the senior year of high school. College coaches start contacting players on July 1 after their junior year of high school. In order for these coaches to contact the "right" players wouldn't it make sense that they had an idea of who these quality players are? They have already been looking (at showcases and other places) and making out their wish list. If things don't fall into place for a few players it doesn't mean the whole system is flawed it just means this player(s) haven't found their fit. This recruiting/exposure process is different for different players. A few players can play anywhere, many can play at many colleges, some can only play at a few colleges, and there are those that cannot play at any college. If every player I mentioned went through the same exposure (showcase) process, the results would be different for each player. Where or how often you showcase is just a small part of the formula for getting to the next level. Talent is by far the major factor that controls a player’s baseball future.
Fungo

The summer after your JR year is good and early signers will get interest. The average guy who is not going to sign early will get most of his interest as a senior. This is a generalization and there are always exceptions. If you can afford the showcases earlier they can be a great laerning experience but the coaches do not always have the resources to follow younger players they like. Too mant things can happen between now and when they can sign.
My son did a showcase put on by his team at 15 and only did one more summer prior to going to school. Our marketing was already underway and we didn't see the need to showcase at that point.

quote:

Are you saying that college coaches and scouts in the summer of 07' will really be more interested in players that graduated in May/June 07', than those planning on graduating in 08'?

Someone may have said that but most will disagree ---I know I do.

Bebee, There is an old saying that a good scout and a good coach are ALWAYS looking for talent.

Let's separate scouts and college coaches. College coaches are most active beginning the summer after the junior year looking for prospective players. Pro scouts on the other hand get VERY active during the spring season of the player's senior year. Neither will ever go dormant but you will see activity increase and decrease at specific times.
Fungo

Early verbals are already involving 08 grads!

I was at a D1 camp with my son (2010) two weeks ago, and there was a verbal with an 08 grad while we were there.

After talking to his dad, I think he agreed too early and didn't look around enough. JMO.

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
The summer after your JR year is good and early signers will get interest. The average guy who is not going to sign early will get most of his interest as a senior.

Interest from whom, did you know that over 80% of all NCAA D1 & D2 signing is done in the early signing period? Most of the top D1 programs have already signed (NLI) their recruits for 2007.

Panther, the two D2 programs we've talked with (top programs within the Lone Star Conference) do not typically sign anyone by November of senior year. One program says they hand out the vast majority of scholarships in April, May, and June of senior year. Another invites all their prospects (with the possible exception of a few pitchers) to walk on and hands out scholarships at the end of the freshman fall season. I believe you're right about the D1's and there may be many D2's that sign early, but there are also many that do not.

I guess the 2 schools you mentioned would make up the other 20%. Here in Florida all the D1 schools are finish with the 07 graduates, and many of the D2 have basically secured over 50% of their 07 recruits. The problem with many D2 schools here is that come April they will have little athletic money left to offer.

Ok so far in this thread we haved the following opinions
-Showcases don't look at anyone except Sr'
-You need to showcase early to be seen
-80% of D-1's & D-2's are done by early signing period
-Coaches are only looking for kids they can sign.

I guess the one thing that we can agree on is that there are a lot of opinions. I might as well add mine.

- In most case IMHO schools are not going to just look at Seniors for the first time and invest their money and their job on seeing a player once. They will have seen them at least a few times...showcases, tourneys, school camp etc...

- The top tier teams may sign most of the their players early but I don't believe 80% are done by the early signing ( I've seen % thrown out there before much lower) maybe geographically it varies as well??. Look at the early commitments on this site as a small unscientific sample. There seems to be a fair number of players still out there.

-Finally every coach is different, I'm sure thre are some generalities but I would start earlier than later.

Just because everyone has differing opinions doesn't modify the truth. If you sit around until your senior year of high school most of the recruiting train will have already passed you by. “Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened”.
Fungo

I just read a story on one of Clemson's signees from Vermont.
The coaches have been watching him for many years.

In Jupiter, I know son's coach was there to see his players who would be signing, but his main objective was looking for his next recruiting class of '08. I understand some already have committed. He is essentially done for 07, and most likely need to fill in for those signees that will not get drafted.

I have always felt that junior year is the most important, with strong emphasis on senior summer as this is the time coaches are watching before they make early offers. For the larger D1's, many have verballed summer for fall signing. Not that seniors are not going to be noticed,though most likely by smaller programs. Schools that know they will lose some signees in the draft, will be out watching for unsigned seniors to take their places, but usually will head to JUCOs for replacement.

Take advantage of the prime recruiting months. If you are a sophmore, junior summer is important as well as junior fall, HS season and senior summer.

quote:

Originally posted by Fungo:
Just because everyone has differing opinions doesn't modify the truth. If you sit around until your senior year of high school most of the recruiting train will have already passed you by. “Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened”.
Fungo

I totally agree with Fungo that if you are not a high profile player and you wait until your SR year, you will be wondering what happened. (going to have to steal the saying!)

It is not to say that a school is not going to be effected by the draft and monies will not come available but most top schools will compensate for that.

quote:

The most recent event I saw several possible D1 junior infielders and yet in a conversation I had with the head coach he said he only saw 1, maybe 2, D1 players. While I am by no means an expert talent evaluator, I didn’t see that 1 guy who was head and shoulders above the rest. SO what do you think? Showcases for juniors is just to start the process, it’s when you are a senior that they pay attention!!?

I have a very different impression of that information.
IMO, it readily demonstrates the vagaries and subjectivity of the college talent evaluation and recruiting process. I don't think it means you start showcasing later. It is a great illustration, I think, of how coaches can look at a group of players and see nothing, see something,and everything in between. That is why this process is so frustrating and inexact, for many. For that group, they need to do everything possible, as early as feasible, to minimize the risk they are in that group described in this thread where observers think they are all DI and the coach, who has the only vote that counts, has a totally opposite opinion.
I agree with the posters who advocate starting the process early, especially if you are not a recognized top tier talent.

Infieldad, so true. Someone on this site recently commented that Perfect Game is all about objectivity, whereas college coaches and scouts are all about subjectivity. Talent is truly in the eye of the beholder.

quote:

Originally posted by PANTHER:
did you know that over 80% of all NCAA D1 & D2 signing is done in the early signing period? Most of the top D1 programs have already signed (NLI) their recruits for 2007.

I don't have any statistical data to back up my thoughts (and I know that nobody else does either ) But I'm inclined to believe this number but would imagine it needs to be qualified. You said "80% of all signing is done". I'm more inclined to believe that 80% of available scholarship money is spoken for at this point. To illustrate my point, it seems like programs (in general) sign their top prospects like Pitchers and MIF and possibly C in the early period and I would imagine these would be the signees getting a 40% - 75% offer. Then, in the spring, more will sign but for less money (books - 20%?). And then if they lose a player or two to the draft, and scholly money is freed up, the last couple of players are signed as needed.

A coach recently told me that they do a lot of scambling after the draft to replace lost players and they use the freed-up money to sign guys.

obrady - That is true, but a more proactive approach by the player ?may? yield the intended results earlier in the Fall. Do you really wanna sit back and wait for the freed-up money in the Spring if you could've achieved that earlier?

Things are happening now earlier and earlier...too early IMO in some cases. But it is what it is and one must approach the process understanding how its done.

BTW, another use of freed-up money is to entice the college senior-to-be back to school rather than sign for medium/low draft money. Something to think about.

o'brady, some colleges do look for players during the summer after high school graduation. That is not an easy option for many players. You may not have visited the school, met the players and all the things that go into "fit" determinations. In effect, to do that you are placing baseball above everything else in choosing a college. When our son was presented that option, the more we looked at the benefits and negatives objectively, the less attractive it was as an option. My own view is a student/athlete and his family want to be very careful if the school is late recruiting because the school/coaches are scrambling.
Certainly, there are exceptions with Chris Lambert and BC and those should not be forgotten if that type of opportunity with that type of school, coaching staff and program surfaces.

A smart college coach will cover his angle during the early signing period. Example: XYZ College has 5 graduating seniors and signs 8 during the early signing period knowing that he may lose 1 or 2 to the draft, may lose another one due to admission criteria, so that leaves him with 5 to replace 5. Worst scenario all 8 will show up next season and this is where the dreaded word "Redshirt" comes into play.

When I used the 80% number I actually set up a spreadsheet wwith 10 different schools (both D1 & D2) and look at the seniors and knew what the need was going to be in 2007. Since most of the schools have announced their 2007 signing class I compared it to my list and based on that came with the 80% number, also realized that many schools over recruited which was explained above. Granted in the spring the majority of the signings will be with NAIA and D3 schools, you will see less signing with D1 and D2 schools..