A change in mentality question for the group.....

[obbay]

The OP's question and the overwhelming support I see here makes me ask the question, how important are the elite "exposure" tournaments?
I thought that college showcase tournaments worked best when you have already made contact with a program and let them know which exposure tournaments you'll be playing in. I have heard that otherwise it's like trolling for offers. I'm not saying this to be argumentative, DD is a 2018 and I'm just starting to get into this.

Is it just as simple as a rising tide floating all boats - if you play with a better team everyone has a better chance of being shown in their best light?

 

[knightsb]

The OP's question and the overwhelming support I see here makes me ask the question, how important are the elite "exposure" tournaments?
I thought that college showcase tournaments worked best when you have already made contact with a program and let them know which exposure tournaments you'll be playing in. I have heard that otherwise it's like trolling for offers. I'm not saying this to be argumentative, DD is a 2018 and I'm just starting to get into this.

Is it just as simple as a rising tide floating all boats - if you play with a better team everyone has a better chance of being shown in their best light?

I can only speak for my family, but for us there were two things of the utmost importance:
1. Playing in the elite exposure tournaments (because that is the biggest bang for your buck, more recruiters there means more opportunities to be seen).
2. Having a head coach with connections to many colleges.

Regarding #2, our HC communicates regularly with colleges finding out what their needs are for given graduating classes and relays that information to the players and player families. With that information the player is able to target specific colleges expressing interest.

IMO, one reason many of the marquee orgs are so successful year over year (look at goldfastpitch.com) are the relationships between the HC and the colleges recruiting.

 

[PA SB Dad]

The "no pick up" policy is for the coaches benefit, not for any of the players on the team. It is a selfish attitude to take when it is "supposed to be about the kids". The selfishness is what did him in, not your DD leaving the team.

 

[29dad]

The OP's question and the overwhelming support I see here makes me ask the question, how important are the elite "exposure" tournaments?
I thought that college showcase tournaments worked best when you have already made contact with a program and let them know which exposure tournaments you'll be playing in. I have heard that otherwise it's like trolling for offers. I'm not saying this to be argumentative, DD is a 2018 and I'm just starting to get into this.

Is it just as simple as a rising tide floating all boats - if you play with a better team everyone has a better chance of being shown in their best light?

Merely showing up at an exposure tournament and expecting to "get noticed" is a long shot at best (tall, flame throwing pitchers are the exception - they ALWAYS get noticed). But that doesn't mean that exposure tournaments aren't important. A player needs to somehow get on a particular coach's radar so that the coach will show up to watch that specific player. How to get on a coach's radar? Attend a camp. Have an impressive skills video. Or be on a great team and have the TB coach reach out to the college coach. But being on a coach's radar is only half the battle. The player still needs to perform well against the great competition at a showcase or national tournament.

 

[29dad]

The "no pick up" policy is for the coaches benefit, not for any of the players on the team. It is a selfish attitude to take when it is "supposed to be about the kids". The selfishness is what did him in, not your DD leaving the team.

Exactly. The coach being rigid just for the sake of being rigid is ultimately what broke up the team.

 

[JAD]

The OP's question and the overwhelming support I see here makes me ask the question, how important are the elite "exposure" tournaments?
I thought that college showcase tournaments worked best when you have already made contact with a program and let them know which exposure tournaments you'll be playing in. I have heard that otherwise it's like trolling for offers. I'm not saying this to be argumentative, DD is a 2018 and I'm just starting to get into this.

My DD has always played for an independent or tier-2 TB organization, and while we could put a team on the field that could compete with the marquee organizations, we cannot compete with the "good ole boy network" where the marquee teams are always scheduled to play each other in the best time slots on the best fields during showcases. And that is where the college coaches are going to be......This past year our team got into the Legacy Showcase in Atlanta, and we were excited about it since we had "earned" our invite. But once we got there we realized that we were on the furthest fields, playing unknown opponents in crappy time slots.....then my DD went to the IDT showcase with a marquee team and we averaged 15-20 D1 college coaches per game. It is amazing what playing the Corona Angels, Batbusters and SoCal Athletics will do to the number of coaches in the stands!!!

 

[JAD]

I can only speak for my family, but for us there were two things of the utmost importance:
1. Playing in the elite exposure tournaments (because that is the biggest bang for your buck, more recruiters there means more opportunities to be seen).
2. Having a head coach with connections to many colleges.

Regarding #2, our HC communicates regularly with colleges finding out what their needs are for given graduating classes and relays that information to the players and player families. With that information the player is able to target specific colleges expressing interest.

IMO, one reason many of the marquee orgs are so successful year over year (look at goldfastpitch.com) are the relationships between the HC and the colleges recruiting.

As showcases have grown in popularity, and become BIG money makers for the organizers, they have added more teams, more fields, and more age groups (14U). It is great for unknown teams trying to get into the showcase, but just "getting in" does not guarantee exposure - see my other post about distant field locations, unknown opponents, and terrible time slots (how many college coaches are still there Sunday afternoon @ 3PM???). And the sad part is teams are lining up to pay 5X the amount of a regular tournament to get in and the tournament directors are turning away more teams than they accept.

 

[JAD]

It is great for unknown teams trying to get into the showcase, but just "getting in" does not guarantee exposure - see my other post about distant field locations, unknown opponents, and terrible time slots (how many college coaches are still there Sunday afternoon @ 3PM???).

As I was typing this it reminded me of the scene in "Animal House" when the Omega's put all of the "misfits" together on the couch during rush....

 

[RubberBiscuit]

We left the local TB-B club (that I was co-president of BTW) at the right time,... after completing 12U.

As co-president I told the rest of the board of directors in the TB-B that I needed to expose DD to more challenge and eventually more college exposure. The rest of the board had more of the focused mind of the "community team" and generating adequate numbers of high school players.

Did this go over well? Sort of. Were there some animosities - sure.

But looking back and knowing I was supporting DD's dream of playing D1 SB I wouldn't have changed a thing (in this regard).

 

[Michele1377]

One of the things we did do ( as 14's ) was to enter a few 16-18u tournaments who had established showcase teams entered. As coaches we would talk to those showcase coaches and let them know which girls would be interested in joining their organization. It gave the girls a chance to show their stuff in a real game environment, and those coaches got an easy way to evaluate them.

That is an awesome approach! It is an honest and open way to let the girls who want to reach higher have an opportunity to be seen by solid teams, and takes away some of the conflict that girls who know they have to move on to reach their goals face.