Stanford All Star

Welcome.

Go to the Golden Threads forum and read through the Stanford Camp thread, tons of information there.

My son is going so maybe GFJr will end up catching him... My son has sent emails to the programs he is interested in many have responded that they will look for him there, some have asked for him to email his team and pitching schedule once he has it.

To answer your question, programs can talk to your son after July 1st and it is not an accident that this camp starts on July 1st. I have heard that if a program is really serious about your son they will talk to you. That said I would not be disapointed if you did not get an "offer" as this is just the start of the summer/fall recruiting period for 2011. See you in Palo Alto soon!

Welcome, Gone fishin'!

My 2011 catcher will also be there, and has been talking with Ivys. But really, he is zoning in on something nearer to home. He has let some of his interest schools know he will be there - and needs to send some more emails. (Argh! Do all busy juniors have a hard time just sitting down and spending an hour or more taking care of this stuff? Or just mine?)

I don't know that offers are necessarily coming at the camp for my son, but I have heard of it happening, and of phone calls when they get home.

I hope we all cross paths while there. I'll be staying at the Sheraton. And by the way, don't believe the "short walk to campus" they advertise. Yes, if you aren't carrying baseball gear - especially catching gear - but it's more of a "short drive to the stadium". If they're even playing there.

See you guys soon!

Thanks. See you there

Just returned from Stanford and I have to say it was more than we could have dreamed. A half dozen schools that were never really on the radar told him they'd be in touch soon. Couple others stopped just short of making offers.
I would definitely recommend this camp if your son is looking at higher academic type schools. Been to a LOT of camps and showcases of both local and national types and I would rank this experience at the top.
Very well run and plenty of opportunities for a kid to show his stuff.
Lots of chances to interact with coaches.
Was a very special experience with lots of great memories.

My son and I also just got back from Stanford,and I agree with you 100%.One of the best run camps we ever attended, it's a great meeting place for both coaches and players. "Gone fishing" I believe our sons were on the same team #4 HolyCross,I was the Dad from Northern NY who sat next to you on Sunday.

Welcome gonefishin and the others to the hsbaseballweb! I can just feel the tremendous excitement in your posts...and with good reason. This is fun stuff!

I wanted to share a few thoughts/experiences with you as an 'oldie (but goodie?)' about this and things moving forward. First, just a little bit of background...other 'oldies' know some of this. Our older son attended the Stanford all star camp as a rising senior and ultimately lettered at Stanford for four years...including a trip to the College World Series. He now plays in the minor leagues. Just background so you know I've traveled some of the road you're on (also, have a 2011 son 'committed' to another school).

We live about 15 minutes from the Stanford campus and so they already knew some about our older son before he ever attended their camp. His camp experience was kind of a 'dream-come-true.' Early in the camp, he pitched about 3-4 innings at Sunken Diamond. He was immediately called over to talk with one of the assistant coaches who told him, "If you don't come here I'll kill ya." He was pretty much sold from that moment on. Pitched 4 years there...ups and downs, mostly ups...looking back it was a great experience.

One of his CWS teammates at Stanford had a different Stanford camp experience. Middle infielder...got no notable interest during the camp...evaluation that came in the mail said, basically, 'not a D1 prospect.' Late in the recruiting game he was contacted again by Stanford with an offer for a guaranteed roster spot (at least thats what it sounded like from his dad)...and so he took it and played at Stanford as well. Slowly worked his way into some situations as a freshman, played in a CWS, then started at a middle infield spot in years 2 and 3 and was drafted...now in the minor leagues.

Two different players, two totally different camp experiences. Similar end results.

I guess my point is this is just the beginning. Excitement rains upon you now...and you should rightly feel VERY excited! But its kind of like being a baseball player...its a journey, not a sprint...and there are ups and downs to come. Take each one, process it, ask questions, try to understand it...but there are many twists and turns to come. Enjoy it.

All the best! (And keep us up to date!).

justbaseball, Thank you for your post. My son and I got home last night. He had "a really great time" at the camp - but not so great too. He was really sick Sat. night with a fever. (I found out the next day - I knew that in the evening he wasn't feeling well, and we thought it was maybe dehydration and the hot, to us, weather)Unfortunately, his playing showed it the next day. And now we know that he has -ugh!- hand, foot and mouth disease! He had one game that showed his abilities pretty well. The 1st game he looked tight to me. And he said he wasn't very comfortable behind the plate, or at it. Such is life. You sign up for something months in advance and hope and pray that it comes together for you, and you're healthy, when the time comes.
I feel so badly for him. It just doesn't look good to me. My son says he did what he could given how he felt, and he's not bummed. I said something tonight, about his game 3 at-bats - explaining something to my husband who couldn't go down with us. My son said, "It's baseball, I'd already forgotten about those at-bats." He has always seemed to move on from bad innings or games so well. I just hope that his future aspirations haven't been ruined by this last weekend.
Thank you for giving me hope - my son never stops hoping, or working to make his dreams a reality.

emeraldivy - No way that his future aspirations ruined last week...no matter what he did.

Just encourage him to keep playing the game, one day at a time, and let the chips fall where they may.

Good luck!

@BBD15 - yes, that was me. Good flight home?

@JB - Thanks for your encouraging words. It is indeed exciting. I wish I could bottle the thrill in his voice when he called me today to tell me he had gotten his first call. It was a minute that made a memory that will last a lifetime.
PM headed your way

@EV - keep your (and his chin up)

@emeraldvlly ...

No need to worry. Just a little bump on the road. He won't be in this camp if he doesn't have a future. Sometimes coaches would like to see a player on a bad day and how he conducts himself.

Hope he recovers well from his sickness and get back to it the rest of the summer.

RR23

For those who attended the Camp, justbb is offering terrific input.
The experiences and results are varied. There is no one size fits all. That is why so many terrific coaches from all levels of college baseball attend.
Each one of those coaches, from the top DI to the DIII and NAIA has a goal. They want to find qualified players and students.
Our experience is more varied than the options justbb presented.
For our son, the experience was a bit like peeling layers from an onion.
Heading into the Camp, he had Pac10 aspirations.
For reasons beyond his control and ability, that didn't happen.
He ended up with an Ivy league coach and a DIII coach, who were/are good friends, both liking his skills. Ultimately, the Ivy coach ranked him behind a player from Fla. The DIII coach ranked him above every player he was recruiting.
As the onion peeled back, the academics and baseball options at the DIII were different, and better, than anything we knew existed for him the day before the Camp started.
As justbb confirms, this is a marathon for most, not a sprint.
It is where they end next Fall 2011, that is important, not where they started when the Camp ended.
Ours ended up with his B.A. in 4 years from a top tier University, he played every game for 4 years and became a fine, fine player along that path, he played and succeeded in top Summer league teams, got drafted, played well after that, and is now pursuing his passion, to be a top DI baseball coach and scout the Stanford Camp.
With few exceptions, this is not a sprint. We would have loved for our son to play at Cal or Stanford or other local schools where we could have seen all his games.
To be candid, though, the Camp is not about "us." It is about our sons and the opportunities it can provide for them.
It is about what they do with the opportunities they create, even those options that are totally different than what we or they hoped would happen when the Camp began.
Good luck to each of your sons
I sincerely hope the range of results provided by justbb, myself and others can help provide reasons to see the future may not be what you thought it would be, but to know that what is important is the future created by that Camp and your son's efforts there... and to know you are not alone in feeling you would like the answers before they can occur.

Great (and accurate) post infielddad! (And not because you referenced me. ).

At this point, there is just a lot of road still to be traveled. Do your best to not travel it at the speed of light...or you might miss something you wish you hadn't.

Thanks for all the advice. We've done a lot of homework and are well aware that this is just the next segment of what has been a long journey. A highschool teammate of mine that was an SEC basketball recruiter is advising us as we go. He is proving priceless in translating the coded language many of the recruiters speak. I've learned that what is not said can be just as important as what IS said.. Again, thanks. Hopefully sometime this fall we'll be able to post good news. If not, well things have a way of working out for the best. Gotta keep the faith.

@gonefishin..sent you a PM.

I just got back from the camp and the Area Code tryouts yesterday so this is my first opportunity to post in a week. My take on the camp is similar to what has been posted. Excellent event, very well run – a pretty amazing machine really, lots of opportunities to be seen and in general a starting point for most players. In many cases the chance of being seen by the exact coach you want to see you is very much a c r a p shoot since games are played around the area and at various times. For pitchers there are generally 2-3 per team that get the chance to pitch in the Sunken Diamond, and only a few teams get the ideal 5/7PM time slot where the other teams are not playing. My advice to players is to make the most of your opportunities play your best and have fun.

Lots of talent…here is my take FWIW. 15-20% are potential D1 players all the way down to limited chance to play college ball. Average pitcher was throwing 85, a handful were throwing 86-89, and a number at 81-84. All counts start at 1-1 and coaches call all “out” field games and umpires at the Sunken Diamond clearly have been told to have a big zone so as a hitter you better be swinging at the first hittable fast ball you get. Count goes back to 1-1 and fastballs only after a walk, and a runner is put on for the batter. The smart pitchers were either going with a fastball away or then all breaking pitches or breaking pitches with an occasional “show me” fastball for the gun. The elite pitchers were just throwing gas as 80% of the hitters were outclassed by them. Clearly the pitchers have the advantage in the format, but it keeps the games moving along so the coaches get to see more kids. In the end the talent becomes visible pretty quickly so I see why they use the format. All games are 9 innings. I could see that a “pitcher only” has a chance to be disappointed in getting an away game with a poor time slot. That is just the nature of the event so it is one of the risks you take coming here…or any event like this for that matter.

In Jr’s case he is a two way player and his team only had three outfielders so he literally played every inning, except the one he was warming up to pitch. He also got lucky and had a 5PM Sunken Diamond game slot. He only pitched 2 innings, which was just fine, as pitching 2-3 more would have made no difference in his visibility. He played for a program that is interested in him so they got a very good look at his abilities, he made sure to meet the coaches he had been in communication with at the "meet and greet" and he met some new ones. His only disappointment was that he was supposed to close the Sunken Diamond game and it was called short on time. He learned some things in the training sessions and politely told me his HS coach does not know much about outfield coaching. Between the workouts and lots of playing time he was exhausted after the event and slept like a dog for the next day and a half. IMO if money is an issue I would not come as a rising Jr, and wait for the rising Sr year. Most of the Jr’s I saw were generally overmatched.

Was it worth the time and money and would we do it again? Absolutely. Was it the magic bullet? No, but it sure is a great launching pad for a very busy summer.

Everything that BOF said. Nice summation.

BOF - We were there and find your summary of the camp accurate and very well said !