TPX Top96 at FVSA

Costly

Very

Yeah I was thinking 200 for a one day camp (without THAT many schools attending) was a little too pricey.

I'm searching for the right words so that this reply serves the purpose of informing, rather than self serving. Playball2 last spring when I informed you that FVSA was hosting the August Top96 event, I was looking for your feedback, and you responded the same as today. Your opinion as a coach and instructor is valued and our respect for you (over the last 15 years that we have known each other)in the coaching fraternity is unconditional! But price and value is highly subjective and a personal decision that each player and his family have to determine in their best interest for development and exposure.
To review, over 150 players signed up for the August event. Several of their testimonials can be read on FVSA's website or Top96's.
To be honest, I was shocked that 150 players responded from 5 states, and that colleges from as far away as Harvard, Memphis and Georgia Southern! The goal of the event, is to provide hands on instruction and allow the players to be evaluated by those colleges. A variety of levels, Juco, DI, II and III and NAIA were there instructing.
When we're asked about the choices players have from our hundreds of lesson students, we recommend all that are free as in the Stevenson/Plainfield showcases (if invited), and any that don't require more dollars to travel than the actual cost of the showcase/case.
Not every player gets to play for the best coaches/programs, so these events are essential to their future.
We never would have gotten involved if we didn't think Top96 was reputable or good value was provided!
Currently there are over 125 players signed up for the two days with a balance of 60 each day. Space is limited to 100 per day. For the event format please contact myself or Doug Henson from Top96 directly!

Bill Downing
President
Fox Valley Sports Academy

stevenson and plainfield ARE NOT free.........i know i know something like "only" $75

Sorry, I based that "free" comment on erroneous second-hand info. We're securing fundraising options for developing scholarships for our summer camp program (8-12 yr. olds). If necessary, I'd be willing to set it up for an individual who feels deserving and can't otherwise afford the Top96 or our 7th Annual Advanced Camp.
I just did a hsbaseballweb search on the topic of Top96 (just as I did last winter) when I was looking to bring in an outside company who specialized in exposure opportunities for college bound prospects. My findings were as they were last time. Most posts mentioned great value, and very few resulted in dissatisfaction.
Exposure costs, either in dollars or in time for finding the right programs to play for.
We'll gladly assist anyone deserving that opportunity!
Bill Downing
FVSA

The amount of camps varies all over the place. And, I agree, it's the choice of the family as to what is spent as well as determining value. Compared to other camps, for instance, spending $125 to throw 13 pitches at a one day event, TPX Top 96 is of greater value by far.

ELGINKLU, my response to the ILBaseball10 was an honest response, it in no way was a indictment of you and your staff at the Fox Valley Sports Academy. You are a class act and run a class enterprise. That has not and will not be in question. Regardless of your beliefs that does not change the fact TPX events are costly. TPX is a top name in amatuer baseball. It is a wise business decision to team up with them. However, my response with regard to price and value is highly objective. It has to be. As a head baseball coach I receive at minimum five informational pamphlets per week on exposure/prospect/showcases etc. I am asked by parents daily who have a certain allotment of money set aside for development and exposure and I have an obligation to state a well informed opinion. Simply put, the best exposure camps are those that provide the most amounts of exposure in time and opportunities. While I understand these decisions are subjected to individual families. Athletes will have no greater exposure than their season. I believe that a better investment may be in a series of individual lessons preparing the athlete to perform on for the daily rigor that is his season. I have spoken to the TPX Top96 rep a number of times and voiced my concerns with relationship to cost and the amount of exposure/instruction/showcase a participant will receive.

I wanted to get my 2 cents in on this since we have been through the process and are wrapping up recruiting trips this weekend. This is not an indictment on anyone or business out there. Obviously, everyone wants to get as much bang for their buck and there have been many businesses coming out of the woodwork to give your child all these opportunities for exposure. No matter what you do it is going to cost some money, but there are some tricks so you don't have to feel like you are being bludgeoned at every turn. First off, don't feel like you have to attend every "event" that comes down the pike. There are many orgtanizations willing to take your money all in the name of exposure. Another trick is have an unbiased scout give you his opinion of your son's talents, believe it or not most of us parents have a slanted view of our son's talents. If the report you get from the unbiased source isn't as good as you would like, that should be an incication of the money you might be better off keeping in your pocket. You can send him to the best exposure camps around and it still won't make him a great ball player or fool any of the schools in attendance.
Get your son on a reputable and good travel team. If it is a good team they will be playing in the tournaments that will get your son plenty of exposure. The coaching should be top notch and the coaches should be there for the kids, not to make themselves look good. Do yourself a favor and get out to see these good travel teams and coaches in action. I can't hammer that home enough and please believe me on that one, there are programs out there that will paint you a picture of blue skies and green grass and then when you see the coaches in action you will be kicking yourself of the embarrassment of how those coaches and eventually the players carry themselves. I would say getting on a good travel team is more important than the exposure camps because the scouts can watch you in a game atmosphere as opposed to throwing 15-20 pitches off a fake mound with no batter. For my money and I know others on this site would agree, the Cangelosi Academy and Bill Copp are about as good as it comes in this area. Bill is always working the phones and have NEVER heard a bad word said about him and many scouts I have talked to have said Bill is in it for the right reasons. You can't fool scouts!
Go to the tryout camps for the major league teams or ones put on by the major league scouting bureau. They are FREE! You can't beat that price with a stick. College recruiters also show up at these camps, although they might not be from the colleges your son wants to attend. If there is a certain college your son does want to attend look to see when they are having a camp and go. I know it seems like you are throwing yourself in front of them, but if it's where your son wants to go, they are sure to see him.
Fianlly, teach your son that it takes a long time to build a reputation and only a second to tear it down. What I mean by that is, everytime he takes the field to come ready to play and not ever "dog it" out there. Bad things are going to happen to everyone on the field at some point, it's how you handle those bad times that says something about you and your character that ALL the scouts will notice. Most of these guys want to see you fail out there sometimes to see how you handle it. If you aren't at the top of your game when a showcase rolls around you might be better to just stay away, cause you might get noticed for the wrong reason as well.
Last but not least, if your son is playing fall baseball and he has all the tools make sure he is in Jupiter, FL for Perfect Game's WWBA at the end of October. You can't walk five feet without running into a scout or college recruiter.

Please let us know when Nick makes a decision.

And another 2 cents: It often seems that costs are disproportionate to exposure and results. Best events for exposure are often the least expensive or free. Several that come to mind have been Stevenson\Plainfield Showcase, Silver and Black, Area Code tryouts, Pitch and Hit Club. Each of these are truly invite events, and not open to anyone who can write a check, so they are somewhat selective, but attended by up to one hundred schools and scouts.

Get on the best Summer and Fall team that you can prior to your senior year (17U). Best exposure comes in the Summer and not during the High School season (sorry Playball2). College coaches are looking at seniors to be during the summer. Make sure that this team goes to big, competitive tournaments with large fields of 17 and 18's. This past summer some of the 17U teams that fit this description were Top Tier, Cangelosi, McHenry, Sparks, and some of the tournaments were run by Woodly in Carbondale and Bloomington.

Try ot get to Jupiter, or one of the other truly National events if at all possible. Much of this is certainly at some degree of expense, but that seemed to be the way to be seen, and then let the chips fall where they may.

Diamondfan, what about teams like the Lakeside Cardinals and the Norwood Blues?

My son attended The TPX Showcase in Elgin this summer. I don't remember it being expensive but maybe it was. My son had an average performance there, but I do think it was well run and he didn't have to go to Florida to participate and had a decent list of coaches there. He did travel to Florida for one showcase, but the weather was poor and no matter what was done to try to get the kids seen the condtions didn't help anyone. That was expensive! Whether it costs money or not, if you don't do well or show some tools it won't matter.

A lot of what happens is due to being seen or doing well in front of the right person. My son did not play on an "Elite" Travel team this year and was not invited to many of the top events like Silver and Black, Area Code etc., however he was fortunate enough to go to Stevenson and made a lot of contacts from what he did there. It ended up that one of the coaches who saw him there and also at his own College Camp made a very nice recommendation that helped him end up where it looks like he will be going. We didn't spend much money on Showcases, but rather on College Camps at schools we targeted. Camps were generally cheap, but of course travel is not. That was somewhat offset by making visits to the schools while there.

Seedthrower made a good point as to a parent not being the best person to evaluate his son.....that makes it tough for us to decide just how far to go with the money and travel. Playball2 made the seemingly obvious but overlooked point that instruction to get better is the best money spent. Being seen is great, but what good does it do if you aren't ready?

The last few posts may be the best from the differing points of view as I've read in the last month. Keeping everything balanced in terms of instruction, exposure, networking, work ethic, and high end game situations are the way to go. Seedthrower, couldn't agree with you more about Coach Copp and Cangelosi's program. JArthur, thanks for the additional mentions of opportunity for exposure! Playball2 (the invitation to teach at FVSA is there into perpetuity), it's hard to teach, coach and market your elite player's from your program, and tend to the needs of all player's on the roster, when they're trying to find the right fit themselves for the future. Speaking of which, yours is pretty bright if the winners of our Fall League are any indication! I think most of them will be feeding into your school in '14, '13,'12,'11, '10, '09 ....! LOL

oops! Diamond Fan, not JArthur! Sorry!

As my son sort of just appeared on the radar last summer (2007 class), and didn't get invited to Stevenson, I researched ways to get him some exposure. It was already too late to get him on a top level travel team, even if I knew of one, which as an outsider, I didn't. We chose a couple of showcases to go to, mostly based on which schools were scheduled to attend that he had interest in. TPX in Illinois was sold out, so we wound up at TPX in Michigan. Not trying to rip anyone here, but as an honest assessment from a parent, it was a waste of money. My son did very well there, (RHP), threw 89 (highest at the event), and threw strikes. When we signed up for the event, one college of particular interest, was scheduled to have their head coach and volunteer assistant there, and another we were interested in, thier assistant. Well, at the event, the head coach wasn't there, and the assistant from the other college never showed. I understand that things happen, but I can honestly say that of the remaining coaches there, most seemed disinterested and many just talked and walked around not paying attention to the field.

IMHO, I would not recommend a TPX unless you had some specific schools that you had interest in being there, and you had had some substanitive conversations with the coaching staff before the event and they showed genuine interest in your son.

In their defense, they did run a nice event, and were well organized. I do believe they genuinely want to help the attendees. That being said, I think the coaches, many of which were the volunteer assistants, were there for the money.

Your opinion and response would be of great value to the director of TPX Top96, Doug Henson. I'm sure he would like to address your concerns personally. As the host of the August event, I witnessed something quite a bit different. Check out the slide show on our site, www.foxvalleysportsacademy.com, as the evaluation process was very much hands on. FVSA is "just the host", for the upcoming Thanksgiving event, but if satisfaction wasn't met, we would do what we could to make your experience what you expected. As far as space available, there are just twelve openings left for Sunday, and twenty-two left for Saturday. The whole premise of the Top96 clinic is to provide instruction and personalized evaluation. I could see why you would be disappointed if a particular coach wasn't there as "advertised" and the disinterest of another coach may have been caused by the fact that the coach that you wished to evaluate your son might have been assigned to evaluate a different player. Your advice is good in terms of contacting the coach or school your son is interested in. The coaches scheduled to be in attendance have their contact numbers and emails posted on the Top96 website for the particular events that are scheduled. It wouldn't hurt to let the coach know of your interest in his program to assure his ability to provide the necessary contact at the clinic. If you or anyone has any other questions that I might be able to ask of the Top96 people, who to this point, have been very interested in meeting the players' needs, I would like to address those concerns prior to the event to maximize satisfaction!
Thanks for your valuable input!
Bill Downing
President
Fox Valley Sports Academy
847-414-9336

I hope that you don't mind me posting here being I am from MD. But the TPX Top96 caught my eye.

I was just talking to my Son's Fall Ball Coach lastnight about his early signing. I recommended The TPX Top 96 for other players.

Here is why.
They advertise what School's will be there in advance. If you are not interested in any of the School's then I wouldn't sign up! You are then able to contact a School in advance. Which my Son did.

The Coaches were very hands on. I did not hear one complaint from a Parent there. Everyone was very positive that it was money well spent. Now they event that my Son went to was a 2 day event in PA. I believe for the same price as this one day event you are talking about. Honestly the first day is where all the action with the Coaches was taking place. The second day was games ans alot of Coaches did not stay for the whole time. Luckily Son was not in one of the late games.

Son had done another event in PA early in the Summer with another program that was almost twice the price and was very disappointed in it. No contact with Coaches at all.

My point is only try it if you are interested in the School's that will be there. We did not have any School's that commited to be there not show up.

They also offer CD evaluation and CD's for Coaches to send to school's of you skills for a fraction of the cost of other places. The line for that was huge!! I am sure the price was a major factor.

All in all it was a great experience for my Son and I. It was the first time I got to do this with him. My Husband usually would go and I would stay home with our Toddler. We had a great time. It was a very full day. The first day started at around 7am and ended close to 6pm. The second day was based on your game.

Our Son did sign with the School that he had contacted prior to the Showcase! Makes it a win win for us. I understand that will not happen with everyone. I don't fully credit them with that either. Their Coaching staff had seen our Son the weekend prior to the Showcase and after with his Fall ball team. But I would recommend them to anyone that asked.