Test of true interest.............

The rules seem to change every year - but I thought that an "official" visit meant that the recruit could only have his travel, lodging and meals paid for.

I dont think "camp fees" are allowable - but I am sure someone here with definitive knowledge of the allowable expenses will set it straight.

OS - Here's my opinion for whatever it's worth. It can be VERY difficult to gage true interest. IMO, the only way you can be sure a program wants your son is when you have an offer in hand.

When my son was a HS senior, his number one choice called every week. By the end of the "courtship" son would have signed for book money which is something we always swore we wouldn't do. However, they never made an offer. Lots of things involved in decision on both sides!

Jerry

Sorry Slugger - I didnt read it right.

Sure - if they think that much of him - they would use some money to pay for the "official visit".

IMO.

I do beleive camp is camp and an official visit is an official visit. You can't mix the two. If you don't understand this, then you don't understand the entre concept of the official visit, which essentially, for the coach seriously recruitng a player, is business.

Seems to me the coach wants them to spend their own money and court the player into a commitment with possibly an official visit after the fact, maybe hoping the player will pass it up since he was out there already.

Coaches love to save money, I'd wait for the official visit or move on.

JMO.

Wouldn't hurt to ask for an official visit but I also wouldn't read too much into their response. Haven't checked in a while but I think the number of visits allowed by each college is 25 visits so some schools are a little "stingy" with the official visits. My son had already been offered a good scholarship at this major D-1 with a timeline to accept and I requested an official visit. It was in August just as he was entering his senior year of high school. The college declined saying official visits were only given out during home football games. That alone would lead me to believe the college's stand on official visits may not be a good test of true interest. True interest to me is not an invite to a camp or even an official visit but a scholarship offer, especially for a D-1 rated '07.
Fungo

Fungo,
Nothing like the craziness of a football weekend to make the recruits think the school is awesome.
The bigger schools do rely heavily on football weekends for the visits. 25 is the max.
I think official visits should be allowed in the spring of a players junior year, during BASEBALL season.
Just gets me how those football guys are courted, visited at home, scholl, etc and our baseball players get invited to camp!

TPM, I'd talk with Coach Sully. There at Clemson they utilize the same fall showcase camp and they do sign players and get commitments from the camp. It also is a way to allow a player to see the Campus and also a way to allow the Staff to work with that player for a few days to gage Aptitude.

I remember a recruiting coordinator asking Jr. to come to "pitcher catcher" summer camp the summer before Sr. year for 3 days in July. He had already done a Xmas camp there and was bored stiff. He had more fun playing with the summer travel team anyway, so that's what he did.

JMO but I think there is more value and eficiency attending a well run, well scouted showcase.

Vance national crosschecker,
The post was regarding inviting a prospect to camp and incorporating it into a paid official visit.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know most camps are used for recruiting, that has been discussed here several times...duh!

If you really know coach Sully, you would know that he doesn't depend solely on camp to rely on recruiting. And Clemson camp in the fall (winter actually) is way past the early signing period. I find fall camp before signing period pretty odd, don't you? You claim you know Sully well, in another pm you said you never met him. You need to make up your MIND!


Are national cross checkers not busy this time of year? Seems that you do spend lots of time here, posting every hour on the hour during the day. For me that's strange, a national crosschecker posting on a HSBBW. Asking questions about players (don't you have scouts to find out that info)and making comments about other players, nasty to posters who do NOT hide their identity, seems so unprofessional.
Your past comments made about PG and your constant calling TR a troll, seems to me you are lacking something there. I would think that national crosscheckers would appreciate organizations like PG, not put them down.

It's very easy for someone to make others think they are important using a name from cybersapce.

Does anyone else find this strange?

Come on you fellas who say you are involved in the professional baseball world, how about coming up with who you are, who you work for, or who you worked for, where you have been to school, where you really went to college or what experience you have had playing in pro ball, instead of hiding behind a name in cyberspace, making some of our posters think you are important, and when they don't take your word, you get nasty.

A national crosschecker trashing Perfect Game and College Select on the High School baseball Web???

Uh...please. Not bloody likely. Take it outside Vance.

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4631074461/...571002471#7571002471

Did someone trash us?

Please stop!... We're not very smart, but we mean well!

PG,
A while back, sorry to have brought it up. We were trying to make a point. Just can't see a legit national crosschecker trashing your organization. I would think they have more savy than that.

Wow, I feel badly that I didn't follow the thread from June-July that Dad04 linked above.

Not to take this thread off track, but I just wanted to share that PGStaff is absolutely correct in this quote from that thread:

"Not once have we asked for anything on this site. We do want to help it survive if we can. I told Julie it would be fine with me if there were no PG ads. We would donate to help this site without having a PG ad and we did long before there were any forum sponsors. That's the absolute truth!!!"

I will repeat what Jerry/PG said, "That's the absolute truth!!!" Perfect Game has supported the High School Baseball Web since before I took over, and has never asked for anything in return. I am the one who asked Jerry for permission to place his sponsor banners in some of our forums.

I'm proud to have PG represented on our site, and lots of our members post praises about Perfect Game. Why? Because they have direct experience with PG events, and know that they are a first class organization with maximum credibility.

Does Perfect Game need to "advertise" here? Heck no! I am very thankful that Jerry does choose to post here, and I know that many parents and players read all of his posts with great interest and learn a lot from him. Thank you, Jerry and Perfect Game.


Julie

Julie,

You forgot to mention one other thing about Jerry.

He "cuts a dashing figure" on the baseball field - a cross between Gary Cooper and Clark Gable.

Every time I go to a PG event - I try to say hello - but he is surrounded by women and paparazzi.

I'm jealous Jerry.

Getting back to the original question - at the D1 level I believe that an official visit cannot include any kind of evaluation. Coaches cannot pay the expenses to have a player come in and play while they watch. My son's official visits were football, good eating, tours and meetings to go through offers - no baseball.

Sorry, off-topic again, ignore this if you are trying to follow the real topic of this thread...

itsinthegame,

You are absolutely right, Jerry does "cut a dashing figure" on the baseball field. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him at one of my son's college games, and he WAS surrounded by women and paparazzi! His lovely and very nice wife Betty was on one side, I was on the other and next to me, my son's very cute girlfriend. Other females seemed to gravitate to the spot from time to time! And nearby was Rick (the creator of Prospect and Showcase movies) with video camera rolling!

Did you secretly observe all of this, or does it really happen EVERY time Jerry sets foot on a field?

Julie

Julie,

I have seen it several times.

The last time - I was at the PG Underclassman event in FT Myers last fall.

I got to meet Jerry's wonderful wife Betty - who was working at the front gate. Meanwhile - there was Jerry - watching a game - and surrounded by paparazzi.

The crowds were going wild. Flashbulbs going off all over the place. Chants of "Jerry - Jerry!!!" resounding through the ballpark.
It was like being at the first Beatles concert.

I walked up to Jerry to discuss the game he was watching - but I must have done it too quickly - as I was immediately pounced on by his security force - and beaten to a pulp.

Fortunately - Jerry saw the beating I was taking - he waved off the security guards and said in a voice (that resembled James Earl Jones) - "Spare itsinthegame"

They let me up - but I was too woozy to carry on a conversation at that point.

Jerry then went back to his spot behind the backstop - and did an interview with ESPN. I tell you - that guy is cool as a cucumber.

It warrants repeating as Fungo was spot-on in his advice:

quote:

True interest to me is not an invite to a camp or even an official visit but a scholarship offer, especially for a D-1 rated '07.

And the rest of this thread has been fun to read too. Great post itsinthegame!

Where did the original question go?