Summer plans-rising senior

To be honest you have it pretty much have covered in the first sentence. Can't get much better than that. I don't know much about the stuff in your second sentence so I can't comment on those. However, you may consider the PG Jupiter event held in October and maybe one or two college camps that your son is really interested in attending.

If you're waiting to be "invited" to the Stanford Camp, don't wait. You can get in without invitation, but there is a limit and it does fill up rather fast (if it hasn't already). This camp is as good as it gets and it very worth attending. And if your son is lucky enough to get invited to Area Code, that'll really be great. My son attended both of these and got a lot out of them (not just the exposure to college and pro scouts). He got to be with, play with and see what the higher level of talent was like.

My son also attended the NorCal World Series and the North-South Showcase. And based on our experience, it's hard to say just which is really "better." But, having to actually chose between the two, I'd lean a little more towards the NorCal World Series . . . for no particular reason other than it just seemed to be more enjoyable for both players and parents.

quote:

Truman said....My son also attended the NorCal World Series and the North-South Showcase. And based on our experience, it's hard to say just which is really "better." But, having to actually chose between the two, I'd lean a little more towards the NorCal World Series . . . for no particular reason other than it just seemed to be more enjoyable for both players and parents.

I guess I look at it differently since I know nothing about either event. I would advice my son to attend the event that hosts more college coaches that are either already interested in him or fit the profile of school that would interest him. Since these events are supposed to be about exposure (and you paying $$) that is the way I would look at it. Recruited = skill + passion + exposure + persistence + luck

The Norcal event is really good and the fact it's at a great venue (University of Pacific) makes it even better. Off the top of my head I remember UCLA, Oregon, Cal Poly, Portland, USD, USF just to name a few. There were at least 25-30 schools there plus a bunch of pro scouts.

Two or three years ago, I sat at the gate and collected either admission from ordinary spectators or business cards from college coaches and pro scouts at the Norcal event. I don't remember the exact number, but I collected or saw cards (collected by others) from at least 50 colleges. And I didn't get to see all of the cards. It is very good exposure.

Thanks! Looking at the NorCal website, it looks like it's an individual showcase rather than a tournament?

quote:

Originally posted by Blue10:
Thanks! Looking at the NorCal website, it looks like it's an individual showcase rather than a routnament?

When my son attended it wasn't just a "showcase" format. On day was indeed formatted as a "showcase" event where players were put through hitting, pitching and fielding exercises only. The next couple of days the players play a couple of games on the teams they are assigned. Then the top players are selected and put together on a divisional team resulting in what is more like an All-Star competition between two teams where they play a 3 game series (World Series) for a championship. The games let the scouts attending see players play in competitive situations and expose the top players even longer in the final competition.

And as I recall, and as one might expect, there were a few parents AND players that felt very disappointed and/or felt the evaluations to get onto the "All-Star" teams were not fair minded.

Well, that's the way it was then just a couple years ago (my son was in the RNWS II). I'm not sure if it's still formatted that way, but I expect it wouldn't be much different. And I and my son really enjoyed it. . . then too, my son made it onto one of the teams for the series.

Wow-thanks for the info!

As an East Coast guy I'm not all that familiar with those Left Coast events, but I would offer this:

It's one thing to go to specific college camps or specific showcases. It's quite a different thing to hop from team to team to go to various targeted team events.

The problem with the latter is, no one team's coaches have any skin in your game. I would want to find one team that was the right one for me, so that I could cultivate those coaches as my best sales representatives and references. Also, sticking with one team makes it much, much more likely that your target schools will be able to follow you and see/evaluate you several times. Your approach seems to proceed from the notion that you're likely to get offers out of people seeing you once here, other people seeing you once there. Unless you're a pitcher throwing mid/upper 90's I find this highly unlikely to succeed.

Like the Stanford All-Star Camp, the NCWS event doesn't have travel ball or any other teams participate. The individual players participating are pre-evaluated and then divided into teams to play in games in front of attending scouts (formatted a lot like Area Code, IMHO). Those teams are managed by various college coaches (yes, in this Stanford camp too). So, this isn't really about hopping from team to team any more than playing in Area Codes is.

Otherwise MD, you point is well taken.

My son just received Stanford invite...its very expensive!

For kids that are from the midwest and are probably going to stay within a maximun distance of a 5-7 hour drive from home is the Stanford camp worth attending. My 2013 has gotten quite a bit from coach Stotz and has exchanged emails with him, filled out their family finacial stuff, sent transcripts, etc...but probably has no desire to play that far from home(?). He got invited to it and we kind of choked on the price ($800 + airfare) but it has great reviews on this board. I'm sure it would be a great experience and all but the question is it mainly west coast schools and what would he get out of it?

Coach Stotz is awesome! My son loves his stories in emails. My cousin received a 4 year scholly from Stanford over 15 years years ago and Coach Stotz still remembers everything about him! (He ended up going straight to mlb)My son isn't sure this is a fit for him,but really likes Coach Stotz a lot. Hear nothing but great things about program.

These were the schools that made up the 24 teams that were there when my son went two years ago. I know there were probably another 10-15 who are not part of this list. (maybe more not really sure)

DICKINSON
UC SANTA BARBARA
KANSAS
HOLY CROSS
COLUMBIA
ARKANSAS
ST JOSEPH
WESTMONT
CENTENARY
CULVER-STOCKTON
AUSTIN COLLEGE
TRINITY
PENN
CRUSADERS
HARVARD
CORNELL
WAKE FOREST
BOSTON COLLEGE
EASTERN MICHIGAN
MICHIGAN
NAVY
STANFORD
GEORGETOWN
DENISON