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Having recruited at a few tournaments in Ohio now after having done so in the West and Pacific Northwest for a few years, it is clear to me that most of our travel teams view college exposure tournaments in a different light than those out west.
One thing I hated as a high school/travel coach is college coaches trying to tell me how I should be doing things, so take my words as a suggestion of how at least one college coach (and a few more I spoke with over the weekend) would like to see exposure teams do things.
1. Please have full information for each player, including position(s), jersey number, grad year, contact information, GPA, ACT/SAT if applicable, high school, coach contact numbers, some basic stats (preferably), preferred college major (if applicable) and anything else I'm forgetting. The Wolfpack put together a nice college coach booklet, but there is nothing they can do when teams submit no information or incomplete information.
2. Again, travel coaches of course can run their teams as they wish, but it seems to me in a tournament labeled an exposure tournament, the primary purpose would be to showcase players for college coaches. As a comparison, almost 100% of the time out west a liaision for a team will immediately find each college coach, make sure they have whatever information they need and then the teams will almost always put players at the positions where coaches want to see them. If a player is sitting who a coach wants to see, she goes in the game immediately. If a player isn't due to hit soon, they just put her up there, anyway. I watched one girl hit six times in three innings once in Huntington Beach and I was a D3 coach with no athletic money to give out.
3. Please no sac bunts. Maybe there are college coaches who want to evaluate a girl based on sac bunting, but not me. If I see a girl hit 3-4 times and need to make a decision on whether I'm interested, I really don't want to waste an at-bat with a sac bunt.
4. Let those who can run, run. If you've got speedsters, let them steal bases, regardless of the score.
5. Have team and individual profiles available on the fence. Even when the tournament provides an overall booklet, it's still extremely helpful to be able to access and keep in our files the team and individual profiles. None of us want to go up to the dugout in the middle of the game and bother a coach, so please keep them on the backstop. I would estimate about 33% of the teams at Best of the Best had this available. Out west it is nearly 100%.
On the other hand, as long as teams aren't doing these things, those girls who are marketing themselves and writing to coaches are much more likely to find a spot on a college roster.
One thing I hated as a high school/travel coach is college coaches trying to tell me how I should be doing things, so take my words as a suggestion of how at least one college coach (and a few more I spoke with over the weekend) would like to see exposure teams do things.
1. Please have full information for each player, including position(s), jersey number, grad year, contact information, GPA, ACT/SAT if applicable, high school, coach contact numbers, some basic stats (preferably), preferred college major (if applicable) and anything else I'm forgetting. The Wolfpack put together a nice college coach booklet, but there is nothing they can do when teams submit no information or incomplete information.
2. Again, travel coaches of course can run their teams as they wish, but it seems to me in a tournament labeled an exposure tournament, the primary purpose would be to showcase players for college coaches. As a comparison, almost 100% of the time out west a liaision for a team will immediately find each college coach, make sure they have whatever information they need and then the teams will almost always put players at the positions where coaches want to see them. If a player is sitting who a coach wants to see, she goes in the game immediately. If a player isn't due to hit soon, they just put her up there, anyway. I watched one girl hit six times in three innings once in Huntington Beach and I was a D3 coach with no athletic money to give out.
3. Please no sac bunts. Maybe there are college coaches who want to evaluate a girl based on sac bunting, but not me. If I see a girl hit 3-4 times and need to make a decision on whether I'm interested, I really don't want to waste an at-bat with a sac bunt.
4. Let those who can run, run. If you've got speedsters, let them steal bases, regardless of the score.
5. Have team and individual profiles available on the fence. Even when the tournament provides an overall booklet, it's still extremely helpful to be able to access and keep in our files the team and individual profiles. None of us want to go up to the dugout in the middle of the game and bother a coach, so please keep them on the backstop. I would estimate about 33% of the teams at Best of the Best had this available. Out west it is nearly 100%.
On the other hand, as long as teams aren't doing these things, those girls who are marketing themselves and writing to coaches are much more likely to find a spot on a college roster.
