how much value do college coaches place on the Team?

[#7sDad]

There are certain brands of teams that seem to always be at the featured parks.

...especially if they're the ones running the showcase.

 

[redbirdone]

...especially if they're the ones running the showcase.

Which kinda proves my point. These big showcases are spread out over a metro area and if you are not on the hosting org's "nice list" your org may find itself on the outside looking in. If 10 girls contact a school with interest, and 8 of them are playing at the featured field with all the travel ball org heads, nice hospitality tent, lots of colleagues around, and 2 are playing 30+ minutes away at a secondary field, how much faith do you have in the coach to drive 30 minutes to go see those 2 girls?

Say what you want but this is a REAL issue with some of these large showcases.

 

[YOCOACH]

And this is one of the reasons why fewer college coaches, especially many Mid-level D1's, lower level D1's, D2's and 3's are no longer going. Ever shrinking travel budgets, reimbursement for expenses, as well as the change in number of recruitment days and contacts per period are quickly leading to the smaller showcases which livestream becoming ever more popular since the coaches don't have to leave the office. The other nice thing is that those same showcases will archive the livestream for future viewing by college coaches. Don't be surprised if these large showcases aren't phased out in 10-20 years if they don't embrace the technology like the PGF and ASA are doing now for their Nationals. Also, don't be surprised that the college coaches quit showing up for them and that the outlying fields full of teams that aren'the the sponsor organization's friends, not have the live streaming and archiving.

 

[MNDad]

We kind of stumbled through the process and got lucky. If you get into one of the bigger nationals, you don't have to worry about not getting to play at the main complex. Colleges still follow the big. And programs, but if you happen to shut a couple down they''ll start following you.

The Colorado tourneys are spread out farther than any of the big showcases. With our continued stumbling DD attended a couple camps, sent lots of emails and talked with people who who had relationships with colleges. Her team went out to Colorado and played in the Sparkler, which is probably the least prestigious tourney at the time. Having laid the groundwork it was easy to get several schools to take a little time away from the IDT to come to our games.

During DD's journey I asked a D1 coach which tournaments she went to for recruiting. She simply replied "Wherver the girls I'm recruiting are playing". Put in the work and it doesn't matter which fields your on or which showcases you're in. Hopefully most of you will stumble along and have things work out too.

 

[Ksphenom]

When looking at a couple Div. 1 rosters I see several organizations and coaches come up over and over in the history of many players. How can anyone discount this as anything but good for a player if your good enough to play for "them" you're probably ready for college ball.
Does loyalty count when recruitment starts?

 

[grcsftbll]

And this is one of the reasons why fewer college coaches, especially many Mid-level D1's, lower level D1's, D2's and 3's are no longer going. Ever shrinking travel budgets, reimbursement for expenses, as well as the change in number of recruitment days and contacts per period are quickly leading to the smaller showcases which livestream becoming ever more popular since the coaches don't have to leave the office. The other nice thing is that those same showcases will archive the livestream for future viewing by college coaches. Don't be surprised if these large showcases aren't phased out in 10-20 years if they don't embrace the technology like the PGF and ASA are doing now for their Nationals. Also, don't be surprised that the college coaches quit showing up for them and that the outlying fields full of teams that aren'the the sponsor organization's friends, not have the live streaming and archiving.

This makes a lot of sense. If I were a coach I'd much rather watch from my home or office than drive around to a bunch of parks all day long & have to make conversation with a bunch of strangers who all want something from me. We've been filming our games since last year, just so the parents who have to miss can watch (and so we can watch over the winter when we miss softball, lol). I've noticed even at our age level more and more people doing that, or live streaming them. Seems like it'd be pretty cool to email the coaches of the schools you're interested in, "Here's our game schedule, I'm #7, we play at 9, 12, 4 and 7 and here's the link to watch." I like it.

 

[obbay]

Last year at the world softball coaches convention(at Mohegan Sun) we heard a panel of DI coaches advise against expecting anything from those big national tournaments like the ones in Colarado. They hate them. will go only to see the players they are looking at and then get the hell out of there.

there are exceptions to every rule, but their message was clear for the players to take charge of the recruiting process and work with the coaches at the schools they are interested in.

If my DD had a REAL shot at being the next Lauren Haeger or Keilani Rickets, it might be different. but she falls into the category of "there is a school for everyone, you just need to find the right fit."

I think the point is being on an expensive, well known team will work to some players advantage, but probably wont make a difference for most players. it is in the programs best interest (not the player's) to make everyone think their program will make a difference for every kid.

 

[riseball]

And this is one of the reasons why fewer college coaches, especially many Mid-level D1's, lower level D1's, D2's and 3's are no longer going. Ever shrinking travel budgets, reimbursement for expenses, as well as the change in number of recruitment days and contacts per period are quickly leading to the smaller showcases which livestream becoming ever more popular since the coaches don't have to leave the office. The other nice thing is that those same showcases will archive the livestream for future viewing by college coaches. Don't be surprised if these large showcases aren't phased out in 10-20 years if they don't embrace the technology like the PGF and ASA are doing now for their Nationals. Also, don't be surprised that the college coaches quit showing up for them and that the outlying fields full of teams that aren'the the sponsor organization's friends, not have the live streaming and archiving.

For a myriad of reasons, including technology I suspect that the timeline for the demise of the big showcases is much shorter.

 

[MNDad]

I can think of a ton of things I don’t like about showcases, but I don’t see them ending anytime soon. More and more seem to pop up and the big ones keep expanding. Coaches recruiting from their offices isn’t feasible. They can’t see how a player acts in the dugout, how they prepare for games and there’s very little you can see from a stationary camera mounted on the backstop. I also believe coaches attend as much to market their programs and schools as much as recruiting. I don’t see shrinking recruiting budgets as an issue with how much schools continue dumping into athletic programs trying to lure football and basketball players. Thanks to Title IX softball gets to see some of that too.

 

[grcsftbll]

Coaches recruiting from their offices isn’t feasible. They can’t see how a player acts in the dugout, how they prepare for games and there’s very little you can see from a stationary camera mounted on the backstop.

It could certainly help them narrow the field, though. Obviously they're not going to sign a girl they've never seen play in person. But if they've gotten emails from 200 different girls, they're not going to go see them all either (I made up that number - I have no idea how many they actually get). If they could narrow it down by watching a couple of innings online, it could save them time. It doesn't seem to have much of a downside, at least.