What makes a Showcase a Showcase event?

[okiedad1961]

Just wondering ,should we allways see a coach's attending list,player /team booklet for coach's,Teams paired w same caliber teams in pool play.And what if its advertised as such then dosn't deliver.New to these this year.Lets hear some experiences and expectations.

 

[Hilliarddad3]

Just look at the Stingrays website and visit theirs this year. That is the model for the Midwest....

 

[wow]

So just adding the work "SHOWCASE" is not enough?

Went to one last year in Cbus (Not Stingrays) girls had numbers on the back of jerseys and nice tables and chairs behind the fields... All roped off... Not one college coach all weekend was seen..

Agree with the above Stingrays has tons of college coaches.

 

[Hilliarddad3]

Anyone can say they are having a "College showcase" if one coach comes, boom it's a showcase......that's the trap....

It's how the event is marketed to the coaches, the teams leading up to, during and after the event. Is communication strong, are there things in place for weather, how are scores and info communicated? Do they list what coaches signed in. There are always coaches who don't sign in too. Is there quality food, plenty of it as well? How are the shirts for sale , quality or cheap 100% cotton? There is allot that goes into a true showcase, so don't be pulled by the title traction beam.... Do your homework and visit some and you will quickly figure out what's the real deals and who are the phonies....

 

[wvanalmsick]

First off, you have to accept the fact that some teams are competitive and some teams are not. College coaches want their prospects playing on competitive teams. College coaches also want to see their prospects playing other competitive teams so they can get an honest look at their prospects.

So, to have a “Showcase” event, you have to restrict the type of teams that are entered. You have to make it a real invitational and have a selection criteria to ensure that you have competitive teams entered. You cannot call yourself an invitational showcase and then accept anyone that applies just so that you have a large amount of teams at the tournament.

A showcase is meant to be a place where a girl can show her skills to the college coaches that she is marketing herself to. The young lady dutifully emails those coaches and lets them know where she will be, what field, and what time. This act is the primary reason that a college coach will attend any given tournament. So, the more girls that you have that the college coaches are receiving emails from, then the more coaches you will have in attendance. Coaches come to the event with a list of kids they want to look at. The coaches have a plan and they try their best to stick with it because they want to give those girls that have shown an interest in their program and taken the time to communicate with them a good, honest look. Very seldom does a coach come to a tournament with the sole intent of finding a player that has not communicated with them. It does happen, but not very often.

The tournament also provides help to the young lady by providing a Profile Book to each college coach in attendance. The tournament also has to provide updates to the teams and college coaches on any schedule changes/updates. Communication, Communication, Communication!!! In today’s world, the internet is the preferred method.

A Showcase tournament also has to “put on a good show” so to speak. You want teams and college coaches to come back the next year. Not everything will go right. You have to have plenty of support staff. One man cannot do it all!!! You have to improve upon the year before and look at what innovations are out there and how to apply them to your tournament in order to provide a better experience for the teams and the college coaches.

 

[okiedad1961]

Some very good info here on expectations as team coachs,players/parents.How about some thoughts from our respected college Coach Joe on what he looks for in a Showcase event?

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Shouldn't expect a coaches attending list. Many coaches don't like them because they lead to a barrage of emails, which causes a lot of extra work for them to identify players really interested in their school/program.

Be wary of "showcase" events and/or organizers without a proven track record. The calendar is very crowded with showcase events and coaches can't be everywhere.

 

[Buckeyeguy]

Totally new to this aspect of the game - how does GAPSS rate on the real <-> phony scale?

 

[Run26]

Totally new to this aspect of the game - how does GAPSS rate on the real <-> phony scale?

IMO, you have it worded properly - Real Phony.

This tournament has under delivered on the "Showcase" aspect so much over the past few years that many of the top orgs have chosen to skip it. As the post above states - a showcase shouldn't just take anyone that applies as it has a direct effect on the competition each team plays. If you want to be a top tier event then you need to pare down the list of teams to what college coaches want to see.

GAPSS used to be okay but the continued act of ignoring the request for temporary fences for 12 & 14U has become an issue. No one wants to see a ball hit 190 roll another 50 feet down a creek embankment where girls need a 4 wheeler to catch up with it. There's enough money in the Lewis Center area where all fields can accommodate this request/complaint every year.

Another thing that hurts GAPSS is the tournament date. it usually falls directly the week before ASA nationals and most qualifiers are either resting or doing friendlies. This allows teams to hone in on parts of the game they need to improve upon and live game situations don't allow for this adjustment.

 

[coachjwb]

I would rate GAPSS in the middle ... an application is required and they do screen out teams deemed to be less deserving ... but it's not as selective as Stingrays.

 

[eagleone]

Not sure all the top teams skip GAPSS. Last Year Lasers played Team PA in 18U Finals.
I believe Lasers Silver won the year before and the Lasers Scarlet the year before that.
We have had plenty of coaches at our games when we have kids that need recruited and they send their e mails to attract the coaches.

It is up to the players to draw in the coaches. Just showing up and expecting coaches at your games is not the way to do it.

Thinking that a lack of fences for 12U means it is not a showcase is pretty out there

 

[WWolff]

Not sure all the top teams skip GAPSS. Last Year Lasers played Team PA in 18U Finals.
I believe Lasers Silver won the year before and the Lasers Scarlet the year before that.
We have had plenty of coaches at our games when we have kids that need recruited and they send their e mails to attract the coaches.

It is up to the players to draw in the coaches. Just showing up and expecting coaches at your games is not the way to do it.

Thinking that a lack of fences for 12U means it is not a showcase is pretty out there

GLEN THANK YOU! YOU NAILED IT. I WAS JUST GETTING READY TO POST SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.
COACHES AND PLAYERS PLEASE EMAIL THE COACHES THEY COME BECAUSE OF YOU NOT THE TOURNAMENT.


I ask my kids to email 30 coaches every week and those that do tend to have success and those that don't, usually don't. I personally email the schedule out to pretty much every college head coach in the country. Does that mean they will come ? NO Now it's up to the players to do there part. Don't leave your recruiting to chance take charge of it today!

 

[SoftballKing]

Showcase is so overused now a days. It barely means anything

 

[CARDS]

I have actually seen more college coaches at some non showcase events than promoted showcase exposure events...Come to think about it, we had more college coaches at some of our practices?

16U Ohio ASA State tournament had a good showing of college coaches when we were there in 2010/11. Stingrays and Best of the Best also had good turn outs for us back then but our ladies attended camps and contacted numerous coaches well before the events. Even GAPSS and Lasers had coaches that attended but like the majority of Ohio events it is the smaller schools within about a 3 hour radius of the event and honestly that is where most of the ladies playing in the events wind up staying within 2/3 hours of their home .

As others have said; It truly is the players/teams that make a good college showcase. The better prepared the ladies and teams are the more interest the event will draw from college coaches for them.

Players need to have some confirmation from coaches that they are interested in you and will be attending your event. Most coaches do not attend events without an idea on who they will be looking at so player communication is critical making sure coaches know when and where you will be.
If you are not getting any feedback it?s a safe bet they are not interested. With that said, our team did have some college coaches approach ladies that did not contact them in some of our out of state events Sparks, MCH, GDS but in all the cases the schools were not a good fit.

Other good coach interest generating options are attending college camps/clinics, NFCA Combines or other combines. We even played some fall ball vs. some smaller colleges.
At the NFCA camps I can tell you there are a lot of coaches from a wide range of schools and most already have an idea who they are looking at and followed up during the tournament.

 

[ificanbelikeu]

Showcase is so overused now a days. It barely means anything

So true. You can also add "showcase travel team"

 

[JoeA1010]

Bill nailed it with his post above (wvanalmsick).

As far as what draws college coaches, it is good players. Generally, the better players do a good job of e-mailing coaches. Therefore, no matter what type of a job a tournament does on all the extras, college coaches will be where the best players are playing.

Some of the extras that make things nice for college coaches are (1) looping them in on communication for any changes because of weather or anything else; (2) fields all in one complex or at least a short drive apart; (3) having a printed roster booklet available at check-in (not just one available on Captain U); (4) do not start games early!!! (Compuware did this all weekend, very frustrating); (5) having beverages available for college coaches since we are there all day; (6) a pool play schedule that maximizes the amount of teams we can see. If a tournament has 12-U and a time slot is filled with nothing but 12-U, then it is not maximizing the 16-U teams we can see; (7) transportation available if the walk is long from one set of fields to another (Stingrays does a great job with this). I logged 16,000 steps one day at Kettering Fields a couple of weeks ago. This is good for me, but at some point I got really tired of walking a LONG way from the back fields to the front fields while carrying my bag and maybe a chair; (8) keep the brackets updated immediately and have them on site and online. This is important because otherwise, college coaches have a tough time knowing when teams are playing once bracket play begins. Most tournaments are just terrible with this very simple matter.

There are some other things that are extras-plus that some tournaments do that are nice, but not expected. Stingrays feeds us quite well. The Hawks (the Kettering Fields one mentioned above) will pay for one night of a hotel room. Many of the tournaments I attended out west will reserve better parking for college coaches (similar to what we often see for umpires).

But with all of that, we're still going where we think we have the best chance to find players who we have a realistic shot of signing and who can help us win.

 

[Fairman]

What makes a Showcase?
You need players, you need college coaches and you need a venue.

We have both a Showcase where some 120 players perform for the coaches on Friday night AND a 5GG tournament that is divided into A and B levels. We are in our tenth year and typically have 25 to 40 colleges showing up. It has taken a lot of effort on our part to get those attendance numbers. We encourage the colleges to post their attendance and most do so. (some don't want to bothered by the bulk emailers)

Website
http://www.usssacentralpa.com/IndianaSummerShowcase.html

College Coaches attending
http://www.usssacentralpa.com/IndianaSummerShowcaseCollegeCoaches2015Entries.html

This is a 'regional' Showcase and we market to schools within two hours of our venue, that is still some 200 schools. We provide to each coach a team book and more detailed information on the Showcase Players. We will also provide the results of the Showcase to the college coaches. We try to make it very easy for the colleges to attend. Please note that vast majority of those 200 schools are NOT D-1. They are mainly D-3, D-2, branch campuses and a some NAIA's but remember that those schools recruit some 1,000 kids annually and that most of our dd's will be attending these regional schools. We are not competing with national showcases but fit quite nicely into a regional role.

It does surprise me that some of the teams that attend our showcase tournament will not provide us the standard information such as names, numbers, position, graduation date, contact information, let alone GPA or SAT scores. I am further amazed that very few teams make that data available either by handing it to the college coaches and welcoming them to the games or just posting it on the fence for self-service. We had over seventy 18U and 16U teams this year and I only saw two teams actually hand their player information to the college coaches. (there might have been more but I only saw two) You can get on the players to reach out to college coaches but the team managers/coaches need to vastly improve their outreach too.

 

[JoeA1010]

It does surprise me that some of the teams that attend our showcase tournament will not provide us the standard information such as names, numbers, position, graduation date, contact information, let alone GPA or SAT scores. I am further amazed that very few teams make that data available either by handing it to the college coaches and welcoming them to the games or just posting it on the fence for self-service. We had over seventy 18U and 16U teams this year and I only saw two teams actually hand their player information to the college coaches. (there might have been more but I only saw two) You can get on the players to reach out to college coaches but the team managers/coaches need to vastly improve their outreach too.

Totally agree.

 

[lewam3]

Why belabor the point? Okies question is a mere hypothetical. DD is in an NJ hotel waiting to throw in a game tomorrow with the D1 school of her dreams watching. There are over 250 college coaches registered to watch games spread over 9 fields. 250. On the website, the word "showcase" is never mentioned btw

 

[okiedad1961]

Summary of some of what I've learned
1.Make sure your girls are emailing coach's
2.Be prepared to get called strikes close to plate,coach's don't want to see walks
3.Restrict the teams to top teir teams
4.I f your an established event ,you don't need to call it a showcase.
5.Be organised before ,during,after rain delays (for coach,s sake)to find teams
6.Keep teams centralized to fields that are close.
7.Provide water ,food for coach's and maybe a hotel for a night for coach's