Showcase Rant

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jan 27, 2010
1,871
83
NJ
NE's Finest is a great tourney but you need to be playing at the top two locations. IF not get your player in one of the Allstar games. They are played at the main complex and have LOTS of coaches. I do question why a B team would even pony up that kind of money when the return is sure to not be there. Good luck going forward.
 
Jun 11, 2012
741
63
DD’s team played in NEF 4 years in a row. We’re kinda local so we drove but even with a 7:30 game time they always had coaches there even the one year they played at a weird location. If the girls email the coaches the coaches will come. And you only saw 1 coach but that doesn’t mean there weren’t others there. Some just don’t advertise that they’re a coach and watch from the outskirts
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Sounds like a difficult lesson was learned. Every year we always planned to play in one tournament above our level for two reasons. We wanted our players to see where they could be with continued work, and we wanted the player's parents to see that constantly winning against the local teams didn't make us one of the best teams in the country. That said, we carefully chose the "reach" tournaments we attended and didn't spend a lot of money doing it. When it came to showcases, we focused on tournaments that not only fit our player's abilities but also often attended by our player's target schools.

The most important lesson was stated by @Lance Steckler . College coaches don't just wander around. They develop plans and attend tournaments/games accordingly. We had a local family that didn't understand this. The player's older sister was an outstanding field hockey player and was offered a D1 scholarship without ever reaching out to a school first. We tried to explain that softball doesn't work that way, but the parents insisted that someone would reach out to daughter #2. Unfortunately, she never reached out to schools, and no one ever contacted her.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Actually just returned from NEF last evening. Been up there to each fall/summer showcase the past 3 years. Always a great event for our team as a lot of our players historically look at Northeast schools, and email them with our schedule well in advance. We had great coach turnout every game, even at the 0730 time slot. Granted, we were at the main complex each day, but our org has been attending this event for many years as an 18U team, and typically does well.

At these bigger, more popular showcases, a new team does typically have to “prove” itself a few times at the same event over a few seasons in order to make it to the main complexes. It’s just how it goes in the travel softball world.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
At these bigger, more popular showcases, a new team does typically have to “prove” itself a few times at the same event over a few seasons in order to make it to the main complexes. It’s just how it goes in the travel softball world.
It's hard to break into the inner circles of the local "Softball Illuminati"
 
Sep 26, 2011
30
8
Thanks for listening.

I have no doubt that it’s a great event for the right teams. We weren’t one of them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Feb 1, 2021
273
43
Sometimes you end up at the wrong tourney. You never really know until you experience it. Sounds like a bad set of circumstances, but it is what it is. Bummer.

DD played TC Nationals in South Carolina this weekend, 12 hours away to end her club playing career permanently. Lost to the same team twice. Both times were in the last half inning of the game on walk-offs. Kind of defines the entire summer for us. That team ended up losing in the Championship to a team we murdered just 3 weeks ago. Lol.

Long story short, sometimes it just goes to pot and there is nothing you can do about it but learn.
 

PDM

Jun 18, 2019
165
43
NJ
Been whirlwind of a last Softball Weekend. When the travel ball season started we had our Tourney/showcase schedule all mapped out. Play 3 local tourneys, 1 local showcase a trip to Long island and end the year with New England’s finest.

At the time it made sense to or our newly formed missmosh of a team. Get your barring by playing locally then a not so quick trip to LI to play some different competition and end the year for this 16u B team to an 18u showcase in Mass. sounds good right?

Well this “showcase” wasn’t good for our girls at all. We were out of our league. Playing up so we can be seen. Was good in theory. Assuming you can hang. Well scoring 8 runs in 6 games while giving up who knows how much didn’t do too much for our girls confidence. Couple things were against us from the beginning.

1: Our team was imploding with little to no direction from the organization. We found out our coaches weren’t returning 2 weeks ago on social media. Leaving 11 girls without knowing if they had a team next season. “Come to tryouts to earn a spot on one of next years teams”.

2: when schedules came out we found out our hotel was 45+ min from the field. Makes getting to that 7:30 am start a little rough. Mad rush to change bookings couple weeks before the event. Got that completed but come checkin the new closer hotel was anything but new. IDK maybe the people running the showcase should actually vet out the hotels??. Run down, under staffed and crawling with critters. Saw the ants but who knows what else was lurking. So Friday was mad dash for most parents to get alternative accommodations. Spent 45min on the phone getting a new hotel. Others opted to stay and braved the bugs. Nothing says team bonding like 11 families spread over 5 different MA or RI hotels.

3: the games themselves. Yes we were overmatched but do you need to keep stealing bunting and advancing extra bases when your up by double digits in the 3rd inning? Not to mention arguing every play like you’re in the World Series.

4: game balls:: would it kill the organizers to have more than 2 balls available per field? HR balls hit into the woods are tough to find. We actually ran out of balls 2 times in 6 games. You’re pulling In big bucks and can’t afford a couple cases of balls??

5: game sites: touting dozens of college coaches is great but how many of them make it to the outskirts?? The venues are 30+ miles apart. Was at the field for 2 of the 3 days and saw 1. Yes 1 coach. Granted our girls may not be college game ready but a few of the players on the other teams were. How many of them got to show off there speed stealing second in a 13-0 game (yes tongue firmly in cheek) at 2:00 pm on a Sunday 2 hours after the host left with the balls???

Bottom line I’ve seen local events put on by LL organizations run better. The money charged for these types of events is obscene.

The pressure put on orgs to enter these events is just as bad. Not every team is a “showcase” team. Not every team needs to waste the money to prove their worth. Getting players onto a college team doesn’t have to be the only goal. Games should be competitive and fun. Losing 5/6 games isn’t fun. Putting a 16uB level team in an 18u showcase isn’t in anyone’s best interest.

Is there a place for showcases? Maybe? Should every girl aspire to play in college? Maybe not? Should everyones goal be to spend 2k to play 6 games in clearly an alternate site just so you can claim we play showcases? I can think of better ways to spend the money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You aren't wrong about any of this, but it does seem to be the way things are everywhere. Our parents complained about a 40 minute or less drive between the hotel and field, and the hotel was vey nice. Most would have preferred to spend $400+ per night instead of $175 to stay a block from the field in a hotel that probably wasn't as good. My commute to work every day is an hour each way, so I didn't see a problem worth $675+.
 
Feb 1, 2021
273
43
You aren't wrong about any of this, but it does seem to be the way things are everywhere. Our parents complained about a 40 minute or less drive between the hotel and field, and the hotel was vey nice. Most would have preferred to spend $400+ per night instead of $175 to stay a block from the field in a hotel that probably wasn't as good. My commute to work every day is an hour each way, so I didn't see a problem worth $675+.
I think it is pretty common for a team to have the 'eternally mad' subset of parents. Every team we have played for has had a few.

DD plays for a team that is 3 hours away. There are a couple other families that are local to us that play for the same team. They constantly comment about having to make the 6-hour round trip twice a week for practice. Whats funny is since we have a minivan, we end up taking all of them each week anway. But seriously though, what did you expect when you signed up for a team that far away?
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
I think it is pretty common for a team to have the 'eternally mad' subset of parents. Every team we have played for has had a few.

DD plays for a team that is 3 hours away. There are a couple other families that are local to us that play for the same team. They constantly comment about having to make the 6-hour round trip twice a week for practice. Whats funny is since we have a minivan, we end up taking all of them each week anway. But seriously though, what did you expect when you signed up for a team that far away?
Holy Mackerel great phrase
'eternally mad sub-set of parents'

No kidding 'its a thing'

🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃Yucky
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,475
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top