geowardjr
Member
Just noticed that the Stingray's Showcase was Great forum has been closed.
Personally, I feel a coach / team should be able to showcase their players (regardless of who/when/where a player is moved to on the field) and still coach to win a game. When it comes to showcase tournaments and pool play games that mean nothing in relation to elimination bracket play, I certainly hope that a coach / team / organization will always put the player's needs ahead of the organization's need to win.. Especially if that player has a coach or school there to see them play.
If there are any college coaches reading these threads ... I hope they are willing to chime in and express what they would like to see out of these showcase tournaments.
Last year, when on a college visit, the coach had made the comment that "your team bunts way more than we prefer to see ... we would have liked to see her swing away a few times" .... I had mentioned that in the future, he could ask the coaches to play my dd in whatever position they wanted to see her and also said they could request to see her swing away. He stated "It was obvious that your coach was coaching to win and we do not want to disrupt any coaching strategies".
When in California two years ago, we played the Orange County Bat Busters who had one girl that was being recruited ..... I believe she batted five or six consecutive at bats because the coaches wanted to see her bat ..... her "courtesy" runners ultimately scored and beat us by one run in pool play which meant absolutely nothing........... did that win in pool play carry more weight than the fact that that particular player was able to show off her skills?
While I still believe O'Fallon, IL has the best fall showcase tournament in the Mid-West (Nationals feel and an unbelievable amount of college coaches at every game). I wanted to give a shout out to everyone involved with organizing the Columbus area fall showcase tournaments over the past two weeks. I believe the Outlaws Showcase may have conflicted with many of the college programs that were still wrapping up their own fall seasons .... with that being said, we did see coaches on Sunday from those same colleges who had their own games on Saturday. This past weekend at Stingrays was also a nice showing of coaches from Ohio and the surrounding states. A special shout out to Northern Kentucky / Akron / Kent / Hillsdale / Muskingum / Lake Erie / and others who I saw sitting at the ball-fields when the 8am / 28 degree first pitches were thrown.
The past two showcase tournaments have given my dd's an additional opportunity to showcase their skills in front of college coaches from schools they would like to attend .... bottom line, most of our girls will end up going to school and playing within a few hours of their homes ...... these local showcase tournaments are providing great opportunities that our girls would not have otherwise..... Kudos to everyone involved with organizing these opportunities!
Now hoping for some decent weather this weekend for my DD's final showcase tournament.
Good Luck to everyone with their 2015-2016 seasons!
George Ward
Personally, I feel a coach / team should be able to showcase their players (regardless of who/when/where a player is moved to on the field) and still coach to win a game. When it comes to showcase tournaments and pool play games that mean nothing in relation to elimination bracket play, I certainly hope that a coach / team / organization will always put the player's needs ahead of the organization's need to win.. Especially if that player has a coach or school there to see them play.
If there are any college coaches reading these threads ... I hope they are willing to chime in and express what they would like to see out of these showcase tournaments.
Last year, when on a college visit, the coach had made the comment that "your team bunts way more than we prefer to see ... we would have liked to see her swing away a few times" .... I had mentioned that in the future, he could ask the coaches to play my dd in whatever position they wanted to see her and also said they could request to see her swing away. He stated "It was obvious that your coach was coaching to win and we do not want to disrupt any coaching strategies".
When in California two years ago, we played the Orange County Bat Busters who had one girl that was being recruited ..... I believe she batted five or six consecutive at bats because the coaches wanted to see her bat ..... her "courtesy" runners ultimately scored and beat us by one run in pool play which meant absolutely nothing........... did that win in pool play carry more weight than the fact that that particular player was able to show off her skills?
While I still believe O'Fallon, IL has the best fall showcase tournament in the Mid-West (Nationals feel and an unbelievable amount of college coaches at every game). I wanted to give a shout out to everyone involved with organizing the Columbus area fall showcase tournaments over the past two weeks. I believe the Outlaws Showcase may have conflicted with many of the college programs that were still wrapping up their own fall seasons .... with that being said, we did see coaches on Sunday from those same colleges who had their own games on Saturday. This past weekend at Stingrays was also a nice showing of coaches from Ohio and the surrounding states. A special shout out to Northern Kentucky / Akron / Kent / Hillsdale / Muskingum / Lake Erie / and others who I saw sitting at the ball-fields when the 8am / 28 degree first pitches were thrown.
The past two showcase tournaments have given my dd's an additional opportunity to showcase their skills in front of college coaches from schools they would like to attend .... bottom line, most of our girls will end up going to school and playing within a few hours of their homes ...... these local showcase tournaments are providing great opportunities that our girls would not have otherwise..... Kudos to everyone involved with organizing these opportunities!
Now hoping for some decent weather this weekend for my DD's final showcase tournament.
Good Luck to everyone with their 2015-2016 seasons!
George Ward
