U16 Arizona

Heat and some great baseball. You will pretty much find the top 16YO's & teams in the country there.

We are leaving this afternoon also. Coming from WA you will have to really reinforce hydration. Drink lots of water PRIOR to the games, and keep drinking during games.

What team you going with?

NW Timberjacks we have been hydrating for about 2 weeks he is a catcher it will be a tough haul. What team are you with? It should be a great week for some cool ones for the baseball dads.

I'll be there too (for the 3rd time ). Based on previous two trips, one of the best (if not #1), tournaments your son will play in at this age. There will be 16-year olds at 90+ and hitting 350 ft. bombs. Virtually no game is easy and you will enjoy seeing where your son fits.

Heat tip: Due to the 100+ temperatures during the day...pack some extra water/Gatorade for your son in a small cooler (to keep cool). Also, take a small towel or two that he can dip in cool water/ice and wrap around his neck between games/innings. Helps a lot...especially for pitchers and catchers.

Be ready to do some laundry too.

Have fun...our son will be on NorCal 2011...if we play each other, I will call out, "Where's Vikingdad10?"

Viking Dad,
I am from Phoenix, it is hot!! Not as bad as it could be, but still way hotter and drier than you think. If your son is a catcher, he needs to drink about 4X's what he thinks he needs. My son is playing in the 14U portion. When he caught last week, he drank 5 water bottles and 2 gatorades in 7 innings in an afternoon game. He drank 1 gatorade and 1 water bottle on the way to the park also. Every time we have an out of state team come down to Phoenix in the summer, at least one kids goes down due to dehydration. HYDRATE!!

Start hydrating before the game - two bottle of gatorade on the way to the field and plan for one bottle per inning on the field.

Also plan on seeing some of the best baseball you have ever seen!!! Take lots of pictures - it will be one of the most memorable weeks of your son's baseball career.

quote:

When he caught last week, he drank 5 water bottles and 2 gatorades in 7 innings in an afternoon game. He drank 1 gatorade and 1 water bottle on the way to the park also.

And never had to 'pee'... You can lose an incredible a amount of fluid here and not realize it.

And try to claim the dugout that isn't facing west for the afternoon games...

Right you are Hawk. No need for bathroom breaks. He also drank 2 water bottles on the way home. Out of towners never realize how much fluid they are losing. The fact that they don't have clothes dripping with sweat always fools them.

justbaseball- i will check the schedules when they come out, and try to locate you with a shout out. If you find us i will be the fat guy sweating to death watching baseball. Did you go down to the Sophomore fall classic with that team?

Thanks for the info everyone, this is an awesome web site

Thanks Hawk19 this team has went down before with other kids and they have been stressing fluids, we will step it up a notch.

Oh - don't forget for the spectators to hydrate and sunscreen also!!! Too often I have seen the parents taking care of little johnny and not themselves.

I also highly recommend those portable canopy shade tents.

http://www.canopymart.com/_e/S...g_Free_Shipping_.htm

Can usually be bought for $75 bucks at a Walmart - get together with a few other parents and buy 2-3 and put them together to provide shade for the whole bleachers. Zipties work well for tying them to the bleachers.

Have fun!!!!

Vikingdad - No we didn't go to the Fall Classic...son was playing football. Will probably go this year though.

Hope to see you.

Did anybody find a site with the schedules on it for this tournament? I can't find one anywhere? My son is playing the 14U and I would love to check out some of the other games.

Don't forget to take in some salt with all the drinking. It's not good to flush all the sodium from the body. May be why sunflower seeds are such a big part of baseball.

Doughnutman-usabaseball.com is where i found the info come by and watch a few games and show us some good places to eat my kid is #28 NW Timberjacks we can talk some baseball.

I will see when they put up the schedule. My son has a 5:00 Friday, 8:00 and 10:30 on Saturday for the 14U portion. No info on the web site. I guess 14U doesn't count.

Viking Dad,
Where are you staying? I could give you some info on some restaurants, depending on how far away you are.

PM me if you don't want to announce it on the forum.

I'm in Phoenix so I might as well add my 2 cents...

Start your hydration the day before. You don't need to chug a gallon of water in one sitting. But you do need to drink a little bit on a regular basis. Don't wait until you're thirsty because you're already starting to dehydrate at that point.

Hydrate before peforming with water. During and after, alternate water and Gatorade to replace electrolytes without getting too much sugar.

Someone mentioned those portable canopies - good call!

quote:

Originally posted by Doughnutman:
I will see when they put up the schedule. My son has a 5:00 Friday, 8:00 and 10:30 on Saturday for the 14U portion. No info on the web site. I guess 14U doesn't count.

Well, 14U doesn't count because USA baseball is not running a 14U tournament or tryout or "portion" in AZ. The 14U National team will be chosen solely from players identified at the NTIS in Cary, NC during September. There will be 12 teams playing in the NTIS, with 10 of these "club-based" and 2 chosen by USA Baseball. Mountain West Baseball is the designated club for UT, AZ, NM, CO, and NV. Their website says that they are choosing AZ players based on, variously, 3 tournaments and 1 tryout. The tryout is June 24 and the last tournament runs June 26-28. I suppose that is what your son is playing in. If I understand the situation correctly, that tournament is sponsored by MWB, and it is not officially related to USA Baseball. I suppose that some of the USA Baseball coaches and evaluators will want to take a look at the 14U players, but it ain't their tournament, and I wouldn't expect them to put the schedule, etc. on the USA Baseball website.

In any case, it's still a good opportunity to meet up with people attending the 16U event.

The 14U tournament is to identify players that they want to invite to their tryout. Mountain West doesn't have any links for the schedule. It is an identification series. Gotta start somewhere.

Plus it should be a very good tournament with players my son has never faced before. Lots of fun.

JB/VD: My son will be on SoCal Tides, will check your schedules when they come out tonight. We are in Phoenix now, and will check in later today. We have already seen one 90 MPH kid last week in a scrimmage and spanked him. In general you will not be able to throw a FB past most of these kids. Will be fun, son is vibrating already.

Whoo Hooo. Just popping in after 4 days of great baseball! I have never seen so many great teams and players in my life. Incredible baseball experience.

We are 4-1 and are now seeded 11 out of 72 teams and made the championship bracket. BOF Jr has picked up two wins, and while he is a very fine pitcher I am in awe at the talent here.

My nephew left Arizona this afternoon to head up to the Stanford camp. It was tough for him because his team was 5-0, and was just seeded No. 2. He had a great time and was glad his coach wanted him to play the first five rounds, knowing that he had already committed to the Stanford camp.

This was his second year at the tournament, since he has a July birthday. This will be his only Standford camp.

Nancy:

It's great your nephew keeps his commitments, but from a competitive standpoint, he left behind some of the best baseball he will ever see and probably lots better than what he will find at the Stanford camp. Probably a lot more major programs watching in Arizona than what he will find at Stanford, as well.

I checked out the website on this tourney.... that must be an amazing show of baseball!!! and I'll bet the facilities are dynamite.

It's been a great tournament so far. We've really gotten a break with the weather, as today was the hottest day so far, at I believe 106, which is cooler than the coolest day last year. The baseball has been very good so far, lots of competitive games. Our team, the EDH Vipers, get to compete in the championship round that starts on Thursday, along with 6 other teams from norhtern CA. This is our 6th year at the JOs, and we plan on going back every year, as it is a great 16u tournament, the best one I know of anywhere. We've been fortunate to have about 1/2 dozen college coaches at our first few games, and a couple at each game since then. Good opportunities for the boys.

Trojan-Skipper:

I have no idea how they find 18 kids from this mass of talent to put on the USA national team. We have three kids on our team that could be on the national team and I am sure none will make it. The facilities are second to none, all MLB spring training sites, really top shelf. I am quite sure my son will never forget this experience.

BOF, you'd be amazed at how good the USA Baseball people are at identifying the players to invite to participate in the Youth National Team trials. Over the years, six of our players have been invited to the team trials, as well as about that many to the tournament of stars, and 3 have been members of Team USA. It is a very difficult honor to earn, as they have a wide selection of the top 16u talent in the country to draw from, and my experience is that they do an excellent job of picking players who can win at international baseball.

It sounds like you're having a lot of fun, enjoy it all the way to the end.

Nancy Mo,

You must be talking about Chris Hubbard. I run the SGV program. I was it able to make the Az. trip. The coaches tell me he did well. We had a few players that has to return home for a couple days. We lost our top pitcher for the event to a late invite to the TOS.

Weather and our schedule has been relatively kind so far. A little cloud cover and some 8:00 am games...makes it not too bad. Today is an off day with a bright sun and a lowly 105 deg. Headed to the D'backs/Rangers game tonight.

Tomorrow begins an intense 3 days with the top 32 teams grinding towards the championship.

I've said before that this event is the hardest to win of any I've seen with either of my baseball sons. This year doesn't look any different. There's a lot of good players here.

Another thing I noticed that I did not notice with the older son...many more college coaches in attendance now. Maybe I was just too "green" to notice them 6/7 years ago...but they're quite noticeable now. Part of me feels a little sad that the evaluation is beginning even earlier at age 15/16...but it is what it is and them's the facts.

Has anyone else been receiving e-mails/invitations to camps and showcases? We are new to the scene and not sure what is legit/worthwhile. My son received "invites" to 3 differet TPX Top 96 events. I assumed it would have gone to everyone on our team. Turns out my son is the only one, although one other player received an invite to a different showcase. It's weird because my son has pitched very little, and not particularly well, although the team is doing very well. Any thoughts?

Bringing back some great memories for me justbaseball...........


Great thread.

quote:

Originally posted by sdmama:
Has anyone else been receiving e-mails/invitations to camps and showcases? We are new to the scene and not sure what is legit/worthwhile. My son received "invites" to 3 differet TPX Top 96 events. I assumed it would have gone to everyone on our team. Turns out my son is the only one, although one other player received an invite to a different showcase. It's weird because my son has pitched very little, and not particularly well, although the team is doing very well. Any thoughts?

He received the invites because he is on someones list. It has nothing to do with ability...other than the ability to pay.

Some invites, like Perfect Game National or Area Code games are true invitationals where players are invited on ability. Most others are not.

Back again. We won two games today and are in the final group of 8. We have two games tomorrow and need to win the game in the morning to make it to the top four games in the Stadium on Saturday. BOF Jr is on tap to pitch the final game on Saturday if the baseball gods align for us. In any case the experience is irreplaceable. Amazing kids, just an amazing group of kids here.

Weather has been great, not too hot with some high clouds keeping things under control.

Gotta be a tremendous thrill. Enjoy the baseball tomorrow - should be great baseball as any team that makes it to the final 8 is one heck of a baseball team!!!

Wow, reading these posts, the excitement bleeds from the words you write! I have only one son. Fortunately for us, he will continue his baseball journey next year at the college level, and we couldn't be prouder.

However, I must say, I sure do miss this part of the journey - it holds such great memories for us. Almost wish I had another to go the route with...


... just so long as we don't have to go through the senioritis of senior year in HS! haha!

Wooo Hooo. We are in the final 4.

We play this afternoon for the chance of being in the gold medal game or the bronze game tomorrow in the stadium. In either case we have come a lot farther than we thought we would. Here we are a "pick up" team of the best kids in our county against all of these elite stud orangizations.

We got a lucky break in that a 30 seed team beat the 3 seed in our bracket, and they were getting low on pitching. Sometimes it takes a little luck to get through a long sinle game elimination marathon.

Root for us the So Cal Tides!

I watched some of your game BOF. I knew some kids on the other team. Congratulations!

For us...we were directly behind you field-wise...we lost. Suffered some injuries along the way but as in previous years...great tournament with great competition. Congrats and good luck!

For me tonight, its dinner at the Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafe!

Congrats BOF and best of luck!

JB,
Sorry for the loss, but you can drown your sorrows at the TB Tropical Cafe with a mojito, or two, pretty good stuff and will make you forget the loss real fast!

We traveled 350 miles and braved 110F heat today to lose to the other Ventura County team that we had played 2 times getting ready for the tournament. We just ran out of gas today and lost 4-1 on one key play where an outfielder lost the ball in the sun.

What a week, something our kids will never forget. We beat some very good teams that given the chance would probably beat us 2 of 3 and then we lost to a team that we had previously beaten 2 times. That pretty much sums up this tournament. Survival baseball with a little bit of luck.

We are up against a very formidable San Diego Show team that won it last year for the bronze medal in the main stadium in the morning. Our kids were pretty bummed right after the game today, but later in the afternoon (and in the pool) they had time to reflect on how many teams have gone home and to end up in the final 4 out of 72 of the best teams in the country is quite an accomplishment, particularly when some major national teams never even made the top 32.

Win or lose tomorrow our kids (and families) are really going to enjoy the experience.

I would highly suggest you come to this tournament if you have the chance. Your sons will really be able to gauge where they stand against the best group of same aged baseball players you will see ever see in one location. Some really amazing kids.

Key tips include: bring multiple pop ups for shade -without them you will melt. Your own chairs, tons of water. Wet towels in coolers and spray bottles saved our kids.