Looking for college exposure tournaments or showcases

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We are at our first year at 18 & Under and have a solid team. We are no gold team, but we are competitive. Last year we did well at 16's, and the girls wanted to stay together so we moved up together.

We are looking for college showcase tournaments or college exposure tournaments that would be beneficial for our players to attend. Our focus isn't on winning as much as it is getting the girls seen by the coaches.

Any suggestions are deeply appreciated. Thanks.

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If the girls are Juniors, you should think about taking them to Queen of Diamonds South. Also consider applying to some of the big fall tournaments. I'm hearing more and more that Huntington Beach, CA is the hot place for showcase tournaments. I believe these are put on by OC Batbusters. Whether Rising Stars in Florida will make a push to regain its status as a premier fall showcase, I don't know.

You can't beat Colorado over July 4 for number of coaches. For the Sparkler tournament, you pays your money and you get in. The other two tournaments are invitationals that will consider your application.

Whether ASA 18U USA-Nationals is a good exposure tournament has been the topic of some debate recently. Some people believe that the coaches are more likely to attend 16U and ASA Gold nationals.

In Ohio, I believe Stingrays has the most college coaches, although the SGS Toledo Tune-up is apparently making a big move this summer toward an exposure component. GAPSS also reaches out to coaches, though I don't think it approaches the numbers that the Stingrays get. Sluggerfest has a history of attracting college coaches; perhaps Patty could let us know what she expects this summer.

If the girls are Seniors, I'm not sure that exposure tournaments will be that helpful. Perhaps the Rising Stars winter session could be of use, but at this point the girls really need to be doing research and making direct contact with coaches.

 

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Depends on where you are going to go to college! Compuware, The Best of the Best in Massilon, Stingrays, Pittsbugh Spirit has a fall showcase, Then there are the big ones, Sparkler, Fireworks Just to name a few. You also have your individual showcases also. But the main thing is ... If the girl is interested in a certain school she needs to go to their camps. Very Important

 

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Also Kidron, Loudonville, Great Lakes (that one has an NFCA camp).

 

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music city hits in Tenn. that is a good one also.
But your girls on the team need to send out letters to
coaches with their schedules.

 

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Our girls that are seniors pretty much have their minds made up on where they are going to school. We have a pretty even split on juniors/seniors and even a few sophomores sprinkled in there.

The girls that are most interested in playing in college we are working on some skills videos for them to send out. I've been on them to keep up their grades, and also they have been encouraged to do their research on colleges.

I will check on the tournaments posted here, if anyone else has some suggestions they are much appreciated.

Does Toledo have a skills day? or is it just games? Also, how hard is it to get into Stingrays?

To be honest, we have never taken our girls to nationals, its my opinion and the opinion of some of our parents that it can get quite expensive and is drawn out way too much.

We are looking at doing 6 tournaments at the 18 level, and with the team having so many young kids, we are cutting the older kids loose for the last tournament as it will, likely be a 16 & Under tournament.

Thanks to everyone for responding. What kinds of pitching will we likely be seeing at 18's? sounds like a dumb question I know, but will it be a mixture of types do you think? or will they all be hard throwing pitchers? I have 3 pitchers and they each have their own style. One hard thrower, one in the middle, and one slower thats younger but she has good control, a excellent change, and a nice drop also.

 

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The Toledo Tune-up featuring the Midwest College Showcase has BOTH Sydney, a skills session in the morning and Spot light games by position late afternoon! One LOW price for both, and you can check we already are getting colleges to commit. Check out www.premiersportingevents.net for all the showcase info, and www.sgsfastpitch.org for the Tune-up info flyer, the tune-up BTW is a 6 game minimum in addition to the showcase for 16u/18u and 7 game minimum for the other age brackets.

 

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I definitely should have mentioned Best of the Best. Yes, Stingrays is hard to get into and getting more difficult every year. The deadline for that application may already have passed; because our organization has opted to have the older 14U team apply, I haven't been keeping an eye on that deadline.

There is also a New Jersey/Penn tournament that draws a lot of East Coast and Midwest college coaches. I can't remember the name or the approximate date but I'm sure other OFCers will fill that in for you.

As for the pitchers in 18U, you'll find more young ladies who can actually throw a riseball as opposed to a high fastball. There are plenty of movement pitchers in this age group but at least for the showcase level, the movement pitchers have also worked to develop their speed.

 

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Here is the one I think cgs is talking about..

http://www.pennsburyinvitational.com/information.htm

 

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Yep, that's it. I should go over to corrupt a wish to say that I wish my memory wasn't declining as my age advances. Thanks for the save, Tbolts.

 

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Wasnt really impressed with Great Lakes last year but my daughter walked out of there with what soon to be a verbal scholarship from a school that was there. Saw alot of coaches at Akron team camp a few weeks ago. Stingrays has got to be the best though IMO.

 

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A benefit of the Pennsbury Showcase is the true (to me) showcase format - scheduled games round robin style, with no play-offs. You know your complete schedule and you have more freedom in playing girls when/where they want to be watched.

Lots of non-gold and gold teams (which we know are of varying quality). There are all-gold pools and non-gold pools (kind of - each has at least one gold team). Lots of coaches - many stay through the end - and the "camp" part is well attended by coaches, though there are a lot of participants. Good competition, and they had a 16-under pool last year, though some 16Us got in with the 18Us (whether outright or not). I'm guessing there will be 16s allowed in the future.

It may be a hefty drive for Ohioans, but you will see coaches you do not see in Ohio/Indiana.