Hi, I am trying to help my son, a pitcher, find the best places to be seen by DIII and Ivy League schools this summer.
He is a junior. I am finding that DIII schools do not seem to have camps at their school, maybe that is a DI thing? What events, besides the Headfirst Honor roll Showcase should he concentrate on? (DI are possible too although DIII more likely:)) Thank you for your help.
Well you’ve discovered Headfirst already, which likely means you’ve also seen the cost. That said, they have a great reputation for a well run camp. I would highly recommend you look at Perfect Game - perfectgame.org. Great organization. Obviously the Stanford camp would be the third. Very well attended. There are others but those are the big ones. I’d finally recommend you check out hsbaseballweb.com. Pretty much every question you might have has been answered there. Be forewarned, there are some members who can be pretty direct in their responses, but a lot of wisdom on that site that I’ve found to be correct a lot more than they are wrong. Spend some time searching there, if you ask the same old tired question that has been answered dozens of times, they’ll probably let you know. Good luck.
Meant to ask - are you in New England, or just looking to put your kid in a school there?
We are in the Northeast but not in New England and that is just where he is interested in going to school. Thank you for helping!
Helpus,
I suspect that this question should not be answered in a vacuum. What do you want out of the showcase? How does your kid show best? Do you want close coach interaction (the kid will still need to be assertive) or just to show skills. And, how many showcases does your kid really need to go to. It could be argued that “less is more.”
Perfect Game has been around forever, but there is more than one perfect game showcase. All coaches do not come to all of the PG showcases, so you would want to be comfortable that a sought after coach is available. Also, the talent is not the same at different PG showcases. Is your kid up for the most competitive PG showcase or would he do better against lesser competition in one of the state showcases? With PG, each kid is rated on a scale of 1 - 10 (which is really more like 5 - 10) and some of that information becomes public. I believe (don’t quote me on this) that the more subjective PG evaluation is available to coaches. I did not see a lot of coach-recruit interaction.
Head First is known at the gold standard for the academic schools, but your kid will still need to reach out to the coaches. There is high coach athlete interaction.
TOPS 96 is a bit closer to Head First in that the coaches are coaching the game. Probably not as much talent as the better PG showcases (some of which you need to be accepted to) and probably even Head First, and I get the impression that many of the coaches in attendance are assistant coaches.
College Select used to be fairly well known in New England, but I am not sure about it now since its original director passed away.
These are all thoughts from a few years ago. I definitely would research these options for comments on HSBaseball on the Web. Stay away from the pure money makers, as they will purely take your money.
Remember, in my view, it is better to choose showcases within a recruiting strategy than willy-nilly sign up for the “best” showcases.
Good luck!
Lots of D3 coaches attend Ivy camps…in addition to Headfirst, Stanford and other showcases. Read the fine print of the Ivy camp brochures if D3 is your prime target.
Enormous grapevine among coaches, especially within leagues and regions. Just get him out there and get seen.
Just completed this process and my kid is heading off to pitch in a D3 high academic program.
Our path to success :
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Extensive videos on a Youtube page, contacted the coaches at schools of interest.
Include some idea of grades/test scores in a text introduction so they know you are a candidate
for Ivy/high academics. -
Make sure to see those coaches and speak to them to express interest, wherever possible during the summer. For us it was Headfirst mainly, though a bit at tournaments. Would have done Top96 but my son got injured just beforehand (fortunately only missed 2 weeks of the season).
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If you get interest from specific coaches by email and/or in person at the above, go to their camps
to be seen again. Make sure you kid is noticed by and speaks to the head coach multiple times.
Was not that complicated, just time consuming. Most important part is figuring out which schools to focus on, since you can only go to so many camps at the schools (costly in some cases and always time consuming). Camps can be 1/2 day (plus travel), full day or full weekend, and with hours of driving and hotels, you need to make some informed bets on where to go.
It is super competitive, lots and lots of coaches expressed interest, so it’s exciting but
in the end, actually getting admissions support is a huge leap from expression of interest.
Grades count a great deal in most cases.