Stanford Camp

Norcalmom, welcome to the board and congrats on your first post.

I suggest that you take a look at your son's list of colleges/baseball programs that he is interested in. (If he hasn't made a list yet, now is the time. You can find a recruiting timeline on the site’s homepage.) Your son’s junior summer is very important, so you both should be looking for events that will provide the most exposure to the schools on your list. If you were referring to the Stanford All-Star Camp, this invitation-only camp is a great opportunity to be seen by many colleges, but look closely at the list of schools that attended. Since you are from northern CA, is your son interested in schools on the west coast? If so, than maybe attending again is not the best choice as most of the schools that participate in this Stanford camp are NOT west-coast schools. Just something to consider when you make your choice. Do your best to get in front of the right audience. A prospect camp at your son’s number one college may be the better option.

Thanks for the response, RHP05Parent! Actually, last summer Stanford WAS his number one choice. He's since included several others, especially "anyone-who's-willing-to-give-me-a-full-ride!" Seriously, I think last summer, and the resulting letters from out of state, has broadened his horizons, which I'm glad to see.

He should go back to Stanford.....Because of this camp, my son had offers from two D-1 schools back East, and flew back there twice on offical visits. From this camp he recently received phone calls from other coaches. Other college are now interested in him because big schools back East wanted him. This all happened because of the Stanford camp. Because of Stanford it looks like he will play for the college that was always #1 on his list.

norcalmom...Stanford likely does not give 100% baseball scholarships of any kind...even if your son is truly a scholar. If you get 33%, you've done well...that coupled with the fact that you have to be a very good student to get into the school.

norcalmom -
You're quite welcome. If Stanford is #1 you cannot go wrong by attending again. It is a great camp, our son also enjoyed it, and as you know the exposure is first rate. But, consider that they have already seen your son and you have the advantage of being local! Have your son keep in communication with the coaches, let them know of his interest in Stanford and provide them with his spring schedule. That way the coaches can follow your son’s progress if the interest is there. This summer you have an opportunity to continue to broaden your son's exposure. My suggestion is still to view all your options and decide which venues will get your son in front of as many different college coaches on his wish list as your schedule and $$'s will allow.

Good luck to you and all of us here in 2004! Many of us can use all the luck we can get added to our son's baseball talents.

RHP05 - Your son doesn't need a lot of luck to go along with his talent. He's for real.

Have fun with this upcoming summer!

Thnaks for the advice, everyone. I appreciate it!

justbaseball - Thx . Son's going full-tilt with off season conditioning. Looking forward to the season starting next month. Send me a PM and let me know if our sons have played with or against each other.

I cannot recommend strongly enough the Stanford Camp. My son called this camp the best baseball experience he has had anywhere.

o5...Yes and Yes and Yes.

Send in the money asap so they reserve a position for you.

We were shut out one year but made up for it the next.

I also highly recommend the Stanford All-Star camp. Many top colleges will be attending to help run the camp. An excellent opportunity for exposure to many schools as well as a top instructional camp. It fills up fast and usually for most positions it closes by the end of this month! Don't delay responding if you are interested!

O5dad: Mail in the check now.


The Bullwinkle would like rhinoplasty for Christmas!

Gotta agree on going to the Stanford Camp if for no other reason than the exposure to so many college coaches. As someone mentioned above, if a west coast school is your goal, there were very, very few there. However, I believe every Ivy school had a rep there and there were dozens of schools represented in all.

I would estimate that my son received contact from about 6 schools after the camp and none were ones he had considered before hand. His number one choice became a D3 school that saw him at the camp. He has verbally "committed" to the coach, he is now just waiting for acceptance by the admissions office.

My son called it the brainiac camp. The first question almost every coach asked him was what his SAT score was. There is an amazing amount of talent at this camp, great instruction. In many ways, good and bad it was an eye opener as to what college sports is about, the amount of work, competition, coaches attitudes etc. If you can, you gotta go.

A lot of stuff on here lately about the Stanford Camp. I can say our experience was great.

But what other college camps offer a similar format? Camps with many colleges there participating in the coaching and evaluations. I heard that Cal-Poly did when Richie Price was there, but I don't think they do anymore.

Anyone know?

Norcal,
My son went to try out in Houston for Youth National Team a few years ago. Although he did not make the team, we learned that this was great exposure for him and was seen at the time by some coaches, scouts who had followed his development. He was also very young but was able to keep up with the pitchers who made 2002,2003 first two draft rounds. He is an 04.
Key word is development, if he continues to mature and shows great player potential from year to year, AND excels in class he has a bright future.
My son also had the attitude "I will go where ever I get a full ride". This is not the norm in baseball scholarships. You will notice that as he matures so will his thought process on that subject.

Don't know if Cal Poly was there in 2003 but Coach Price now at Kansas certainly was.

As to Cal Poly- Coach Price left there after 2002. He was at the Stanford 2003 camp as the Kansas coach.

Not aware that anyone from Cal Poly was at the Stanford '03 camp and I'm quite certain that no one from Stanford was at the Cal Poly 03 camp (as they had been in the past when Price was at CP)

the 03 Cal Poly camp was actually a disappointment in terms of other school involvment. It is/was run in a very similar format to the Stanford camp and was advertised that many, many schools would be there. Unfortunately, with Price leaving, they must have lost many "connections". the only other schools present that I saw at the Cal Poly camp was one coach from Tennessee and a coach from UCDavis. The rest were local high school personnel and mostly Cal Poly's staff and some folks from the local semi-pro SLO Blues.

The camp was fine instruction and otherwise, but if your hope was to be "seen" at the Cal Poly camp this past summer, there was very, very, very little exposure other than Cal Poly's own people. It was nothing like Stanford in this respect. For that matter, I think Stanford's camp is unique at least on the west coast. My son has been to camps at SC, UCLA, Pepperdine and others and it is always just there own people. Only at Stanford did we find representatives from other schools and there were dozens.

Several people in fact left early from the Cal Poly camp making alot of noise that it wasn't as advertised (and it wasn't).

Kansas University runs a similar camp. Our kid received an invite after attending the Stanford camp. Looks like KU used the Stanford attendee list as a mailing list. Most of the schools at the KU camp were also at Stanford, including Stanford. A couple Big 12 schools not at Stanford were at KU.

Our boy might have gone, but we ran out of showcase money. If I had to do this again I'd still pick Stanford as #1 recruiting camp to attend.

Word to the wise - your player's grades need to stack up to Stanford admissions requirements to ensure an invitation.

On an earlier thread I discussed College Camps and recruiting. Mentioned was the fact there are several very good College Camps.

The Stanford Camp might be the #1 College Camp in the country. All players should attend if at all possible.

There are many other outstanding College Camps.