Talking to Coaches at Showball

They have a meet-greet after both the morning and afternoon session on the first day. 

@NotABaseballGuy posted:

Attending Showball next week with my son. He has reached out by email to at least twelve schools that will be there. He's hoping to have conversations with as many of those twelve as possible. We have not attended Showball before. Is there an appropriate or inappropriate time during the Showball schedule to initiate a conversation with a coach. It sounds like they don't have designated meet and greet sessions like Headfirst does. Does the boy need to just grab a coach as he's walking by? We'd welcome any insight and/or tips. Thank you!

My son and I attended HF many years ago.  We didn't attend a Showball camp, but my understanding is they are very similar.  There are going to be hundreds of kids there.   You want to make a positive, memorable impression on as many target coaches as possible both on the field and off the field.

Off the field, you may get 30 seconds with one coach, and with other coaches you may get 5 minutes.  We had 2 Ivy coaches who had recruited my son who wouldn't give him the time of day at the event, and two new Ivy coaches who wanted him to come to their campus as soon as possible for visits.   We had another Ivy coach track him down in the parking lot, and talked for 15 minutes to our family.   It is an emotional rollercoaster, and you just don't know what is going to be thrown at you.  So, my first bit of advice is to keep a level head with everything going on at the event.   Second, your son should rehearse a quick 30 second "elevator pitch" with a coach hitting the highlights of his academics and athletics.   Practice that pitch until he has it down cold.   Rehearsing will give him confidence when he is face to face, and hopefully he can extend that 30 seconds into more one-on-one time with that coach.  Third, I've known people to provide handouts (a resume of sorts) that contains academic and athletic highlights.....one person had it laminated.   You don't have to go to that extent, but I think you get the idea.    My son did not do that, but I think a handout can be useful for the right situation.   Fourth, it is a good idea to incorporate something about the school (why your son wants to go there) into his elevator pitch.   My son mentioned the engineering & materials science program to the RC for the school he ended up going to.  The RC remembered that and arranged for my son to meet with the engineering dean when he visited campus.  Once you have your 30 seconds or 5 minutes make it into a personal relationship with the coach, and always follow up.   

JMO, and good luck!

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

They have a meet-greet after both the morning and afternoon session on the first day.

Thanks, @Dadbelly2023. We're going to be in the afternoon session. Do you know whether we'd be allowed to participate in the morning meet and greet? Did you walk around with your son during the meet and greet or did he fly solo?

I go to a lot of showcases and I talk to a lot of kids. Sometimes what makes a good impression are the small things. Assuming the requisite level of talent is a given, here are some things that are separators for me - a firm handshake, maintaining eye contact, speaking confidently, and talking like an adult. Don’t wear sunglasses when speaking to coaches. Look them in the eye and let them see yours. The eyes can tell you a lot.

Adbono mentions a key point, the player has the requisite level of talent. If the coaches are responding to emails the talent the are looking for is probably there. If they are not responding you need to wait until the event to figure out what they look for. SB does their meet and greet on day 1 so the coaches haven't seen much of a player's ability yet.

The conversations outside of this meet and greet and in the dugouts and off the fields are much more valuable than the meet and greet. A coach from the school my son committed to was in his dugout during his game last year.

@NotABaseballGuy posted:

Thanks, @Dadbelly2023. We're going to be in the afternoon session. Do you know whether we'd be allowed to participate in the morning meet and greet? Did you walk around with your son during the meet and greet or did he fly solo?

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure if you are there early you could go to the session over the lunch hour. The kids all do it by themselves.  You'd stand out if you were there with your kid.  We had him email the coaches of the schools he was most interested in and work hard to meet those particular coaches.  He'd try to write something in his emails that might be remembered when he talked with them.  One Ivy coach treated him like dog water even though his cousin was an all american athlete there.  That stood out to him vividly.  He has had follow up from 2 D3 coaches.  One who was in the dugout with him and he also met at the meet greet.  And another who just saw him throw but he did not talk with. 

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

If the coaches are responding to emails the talent the are looking for is probably there. If they are not responding you need to wait until the event to figure out what they look for.

Some coaches have been responding to his emails like this:

Thanks for the updates [name] – see you at Showball in Boston!

and

Thanks [name], look forward to seeing you at Showball.

and

[name],

Coach and I will both be at Showball in Boston, we look forward to meeting you.

Safe travels,
-[name]

Any sense for what interest level we can read into responses of this nature?

@NotABaseballGuy posted:

Some coaches have been responding to his emails like this:

Thanks for the updates [name] – see you at Showball in Boston!

and

Thanks [name], look forward to seeing you at Showball.

and

[name],

Coach and I will both be at Showball in Boston, we look forward to meeting you.

Safe travels,
-[name]

Any sense for what interest level we can read into responses of this nature?

Not much meat to those replies, but at least they are replying. As I mentioned above, I think your son asking "what do you look for in a 3b" or "how many of X positions are you recruiting this year" can help him. This is a very direct approach, but you don't want to waste your time with a program you have zero shot with. If a school is requiring a 1500 SAT and your son has a 1380, he should probably cross them off the list. If the coach says they want catchers under a 2.0 and running a 7.0 and you're a 2.15 and a 7.5, it is probably a stretch.

Most of these coaches are going to have an idea of your son's ability if they've watched his video (this is also something that is easy to track if you are using the right tools). They will then need to verify in person what they see in the video. A coach specifically told my son "I have a spot for you if you pitch in the game tomorrow like you did in those videos". No pressure!

Something mentioned above, make sure your son knows his test scores and GPA (w and uw) and his STEM grades (if he's targeting STEM schools). The very first question one coach asked was "what is your SAT". If a kid wavered in his answer or it was too low the coach thanked them and walked away. Worth mentioning, that coach is at at "test blind" school. Test scores are going to matter whether the school is test optional or not.

@NotABaseballGuy posted:

Some coaches have been responding to his emails like this:

Thanks for the updates [name] – see you at Showball in Boston!

and

Thanks [name], look forward to seeing you at Showball.

and

[name],

Coach and I will both be at Showball in Boston, we look forward to meeting you.

Safe travels,
-[name]

Any sense for what interest level we can read into responses of this nature?

Your son is on a list to see if he has the goods.  If unable to meet that particular coach in the dugout or at the meet and greet, it's ok to introduce yourself if the coach is showing up or leaving.  My son had prepared - he went on his own mission.  After a couple of meetups with coaches they asked to meet mom or dad; really quick intro and saying they'd like to get him to see the campus.

Adbono is absolutely spot on above!

We did SHowball a few times.  A lot of the coaches know each other and room together. (yes, from competing schools, so, "they talk".)

My 2c FWIW...I do not work for Showball nor am I affiliated with them.

The best thing about Showball is the schools that attend and the direct player-coach interaction.

Day 1 is a combine with position-specific drills, workouts and evals. There is also a coach meet and greet - highly recommend attending this. Everyone, including parents, is invited.

Day 2 the coaches run live games where they are in the dugouts and on the field at all times. They will also be behind the backstop and mulling around the Gatorade dispenser. They are everywhere. The ratio of Showball staff to coaches is probably 1:4 (way more coaches).

Side note: Day 2 is actually one long approx 15-inning game - basically play until the pitching runs out. The website says the pitchers throw in 2 games on the same day - that is inaccurate. It's one long game, with pitchers throwing 2-3 innings each and position players rotating on and off the field.

Knowing that the players have been screened for academics, the coaches in attendance are genuinely there to look for new recruits. This is unlike most tourneys and showcases, where the coaches go with a list and almost never look at anyone who is not on that list.

So if you perform well at SB you should expect to get noticed.

As always, it's easy to identify the 10% who are not college-level players and the 10% that have D1 talent. But the 80% in between is more difficult to discern, and that's where performance at the event and a personal relationship matters.

One thing to keep in mind: the coaches are provided with metrics during the Day 1 drills/workout/evals: pop times, exit velo, 60 time, etc. so it's not just in-game performance that matters. Sometimes these metrics will be verbally called out to someone recording them so everyone can hear them, sometimes not. I've seen both. Pitchers are radar'ed as they throw. Many coaches bring their own guns...so if your son is a pitcher, you get to cheat a bit and tell who's interested by who holds up a gun and who doesn't.

With 100s of players in attendance it's difficult to stand out, so @fenwaysouth's suggestion of bringing a paper profile/handout is a good one. But, you know, be judicious. If the Harvard coach is sipping Gatorade and talking to the Lehigh coach while your son is at bat, don't embarrass yourself and throw your child's profile at him. He's already let it be known he's not interested in your kid. Same idea with the meet and greet - not a bad idea to ease yourself to the sidelines while your son works the room.

Coaches definitely talk amongst themselves. You will see groups of them arrive in the same rental car. Even the smallest colleges you've never heard of often have a head coach who was previously an assistant at a bigger school you have heard of. Everyone knows everyone.

Good luck.

Our experience from 2 years ago was this:

1. We had the most success with responses from email that had Subject lines like the following:

"Cooper Johnson 2022: 6'3"/185, RH/LHH, C/OF, 33 ACT, 7.0 60", or "Charlie Johnson 2024: 5'10"/145, RHP/RHH SS/UT, 87FB/96EV, 3.95 GPA"

Make sure that you highlight anything that should be highlighted in subject line and then can get deeper in email.

2. Great opportunity to meet some coaches. Parts of it are cattle calls (roughly 30 min at end of day 1 to go meet coaches in the middle of a baseball field) and it is luck of the draw on a coach your kid wants to meet being in your dugout or even able to watch because he might be coaching another team on another team at your field.

3. The metrics portion of the program are weak at best except for the pitching part. Might not even be worth doing if you have PBR/PG data out there.

4. Prioritize the coaches your kid wants to meet and he should do his best to get in front of those coaches asap or to end the coach time. Also see if those coaches already have kids committed in your sons class.