First off I want to say this is just my opinion and I don't claim to be a baseball guru or think you should do the same with your son as I did. I am just an average dad that does not have a lot of baseball knowledge but wants to make the right decisions for my son.
I found baseballweb.com while trying to find information on the Under Armour Baseball Factory National Tryout. I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with it so I could make an educated decision on letting my son attend.
The main reason I am writing this post is to help anyone trying to find out if this is a good way to go for your son and if the cost is worth it. The cost of the tryout is $99.00 and in return you get a very detailed scouting report on everything they did in the tryout. 60 yard dash, throwing velocity, hitting, Pop time (catchers only), shuttle time and how to improve those things. The tryout lasted about 3 hours and there were about 100 kids there. I decided to take my son to the tryout based on the information I read on this website.
My son made Pirate City World Series, and after talking to the player agent we decided to go. The format is 6 teams with about 10 to 11 kids on each team. They play around 5 to 6 games throughout the tournament. They all get equal playing time there is no favorites or Daddy ball at all no matter what the score of the games are or what place they are in during the tournament. The venue at Pirate City is unreal. Pirate City is where the Pittsburgh Pirates train in the Spring in Bradenton Florida. The kids all stay onsite and never leave the facility. They train from 8 in the morning until around 9 at night.
The main reason we decided to do this event is because from the get go at the tryout these coaches preached grades and setting goals. At Pirate City they have life lessons at the end of each night and they go over goal setting (realistic goal setting) and talk about the importance of grades and what needs to happen in order to continue playing baseball. My son will be a freshman this year and does not play select baseball, he has always played rec ball only because he plays multiple sports (football,wrestling and track).
I don't have extensive baseball knowledge and I can't really teach him what he needs to know going into high school. Overall I know it was worth it for us because my son has thanked me about a dozen times for letting him go. He got to meet kids from all over the country and two kids from Saudi Arabia and Dubai. All for about the same cost as going to Disney World. Also they create a player page on their website for you son in case he decides to play past high school. At the end of the camp they will create a scouting report on everything including what they need to work on. I hope this helps, sorry for the long post but I am now a huge fan of Baseball Factory, even if my son never picks up another baseball, the experience in itself was worth it to see him have that good of a time. The cost of the camp is about the same as being on a select team.
SOTEX
