Showcase or camps
- Thread starter JohnnyO
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Showcases are a good way to be seen by a lot of coaches in one place. At camps you are being seen by one coaching staff. I recommend a mix of the two.
When you start the recruiting process make a list of 20 schools your DD would consider attending. 5 dream schools, 10 good choices, 5 fall back plans. Be flexible as your list will change as you go through the recruiting process. Try to attend as many camps on the list as time and money will allow. It also helps to follow goldfastpitch to see which players have verballed to schools in your top 20. If your DD is a pitcher any school that has already verballed a pitcher in the same class as your DD should move down the list while schools who have not verballed a pitcher that year should move up.
If a coach personally invites you to their camp you should strongly consider attending, but beware of blast emails and fliers as those are sent out by the thousands to fill spots.
When you start the recruiting process make a list of 20 schools your DD would consider attending. 5 dream schools, 10 good choices, 5 fall back plans. Be flexible as your list will change as you go through the recruiting process. Try to attend as many camps on the list as time and money will allow. It also helps to follow goldfastpitch to see which players have verballed to schools in your top 20. If your DD is a pitcher any school that has already verballed a pitcher in the same class as your DD should move down the list while schools who have not verballed a pitcher that year should move up.
If a coach personally invites you to their camp you should strongly consider attending, but beware of blast emails and fliers as those are sent out by the thousands to fill spots.
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The only coaches who have watched my DD in games are those who first saw and met her at a camp. I don't know if that's common or just DD's experience, but I'd bet it's very common unless you play for a big-name program where the mere reference of your team or coach will attract college coaches. Camp attendance demonstrates a sincere interest from the player in the softball program, which is very important to coaches who don't have time to sort out who's really serious about playing for them. They are longer and allow more time for evaluation. In our experience, camps get you noticed, and games verify.
DD has been seen at showcases by D1 coaches that she has been to their camps and D3s who see her at showcases based on her grades although there are a few D3s that just don't seem to give dang and larger D1s that do show up without her being at their camps. I am at a loss for figuring it out.
As for camps. Those that have a bunch of different college coaches seem more worth while and often a single college team's camp will have coaches from other schools. Ex....a couple of years ago Amherst had Harvard and Princeton at their camp. Seemed like a good deal to me.
As for camps. Those that have a bunch of different college coaches seem more worth while and often a single college team's camp will have coaches from other schools. Ex....a couple of years ago Amherst had Harvard and Princeton at their camp. Seemed like a good deal to me.
- Sep 28, 2015
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My dd has made good contact through camps too. She's gotten emails after showcases but the real contact has been made at camps. We are just trying to focus on camps if schools that she would like to attend at this point instead of the big name camps.
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- Dec 2, 2012
- 127
- 16
This is excellent advice. Early in DD recruiting process, she attended several camps and was just one of the "fillers". I always challenged her to find some small thing that coach/team did to help her improve her game, but in general those camps were a waste of time and money. She and 90+ percent of the girls at the camp got almost no real attention from anyone associate with the school. We did however, improve the bottom line of those team's fundraising budgets.
Another comical event took place when a family showed up at practice and announced to the team that they received a personalized invitation to one of the well-known, very successful D1 programs in our region. One by one, every other family on the team mentioned that they too receive their "personal invitation" to that camp....
DD did attend a number of camps after those early ones, but attendance at those camps was always because of a specific invitation channeled through one of her coaches.
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