Crack of the Bat
by Blaine Clemmens
Anti-showcase High School Baseball Coaches
We all know there are high school coaches out there who have an anti-showcase mentality and those coaches can make it difficult for their players who want to attend showcases and play summer travel baseball. Let me share with you the email I received recently that prompted this posting… Obviously I have taken out the person’s email address, changed the name of the player, and removed the name of the specific high school and the coach’s name…
Sent: Tue 11/21/2006 4:44 PM
To: Blaine Clemmens
Subject: Re: CA Underclass Showcase
Blaine,
Thanks for the invitation to the showcase… My son (pseudo-name of Bob) wants to do it but it may interfere with the high school team try-outs and practices... If there is no conflict he will attend the showcase.
Also, what are your thoughts about a high school coach that condemns these showcases and tells the players that they are wasting their time? Do we look the other way and hope that he doesn't find out, or should they fear his words and wait until summer?
--- Blaine Clemmens <bclemmens@perfectgame.org> wrote:
I can't help you on how to deal with the coach that condemns showcases... All I know is that if they were such a bad thing, then hundreds of scouts and college coaches, including numerous scouting directors and multiple scouts from nearly every organization would not attend tournaments like the WWBA World Championships in Jupiter and certainly they would not attend in the droves that they do at events like PG National... I can't tell you what to do because I do not have to deal with repercussions... the truth is that what we do is HIGHLY valued by MLB clubs and D1 programs... I am certain that on a daily, weekly, yearly basis, I as only one PG employee get more calls/emails from college coaches, scouts, and agents about players than most (maybe not all, but most) high school coaches... and that is not to even consider how many inquiries that PG receives as a company... why? Because we see more players across the nation than they do and our opinion is based upon a BIG spectrum, not a small one.
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Blaine Clemmens
Perfect Game USA
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Blaine,
I totally agree with your answer... Since the time that Bob has gone to numerous major showcases (including PG 08 National) and tournaments he has received letters from 28 different colleges...some have sent as many as a dozen letters.
I am PG's biggest fan... Here's why I asked you the question in the first place...Many baseball families talk with me because I am a big proponent of the type of exposure PG can provide and have promoted travel ball, in particular the two programs that Bob has played for. These same people called me this week because their kid was told by the high school coach to stop going to showcases. Several were told this yesterday after the coach gave them college letters that were sent to them via the coach that were dated as long as two months ago. Many of these letters were sent by the colleges in early September and early October. The coach said they didn't need to be thinking about college this early until they played for him. The parents thought that this was unfair because they would have liked to have responded before the quiet period.
This is why the parents are interested in taking matters into their own hands and wanting to hear from an expert like PG. We are not trying to circumvent the coach... The parents’ simply want to learn how they can expose their son more, because they were originally told our high school program was all that their kid needed and now they understand that may not necessarily be true.
Another parent also asked me if there are any educational materials aimed at high school coaches that could teach them the realities of recruiting and how it has moved from a high school centric model to a showcase model...and how high school coaches can actually benefit from their players being exposed to the plethora of highly skilled players at these showcases and tourneys. We respect the tradition and the winning attitude at our school. Unlike most schools, our games are an event as far as fan attendance but times have changed a bit... Although high school is still extremely valuable to a player there are still a lot of coaches that also embrace and understand the value of summer and off-season exposure.
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Ok, now that you have read those emails and my one very brief response, I am sure you have your own, more expansive thoughts, as do I. What I want to do is gather some of our readers’ thoughts and opinions about this topic. If you have anything to say about this subject, please send me an email at bclemmens@perfectgame.org.
I will interject your thoughts and more of my own in a series of follow-up articles. To me it is necessary to include what our readers’ have to say because some of the most informed baseball in the nation read our articles. I will keep everyone’s personal information confidential… it is your thoughts that are important. This is a very important topic.
Lastly, one of the main things I personally have taken from the conversations/emails I have had with “anti-showcase” coaches and from the email that you read is that the high school coaches who feel that way do not have enough awareness of what we (PG) do and how it benefits the players, the college programs, the MLB scouts, and even the high school coaches themselves (and their programs).
There is an educational part of the process that has been missing for some time. I hope your thoughts as well as our thoughts on this subject will start to help many of those “anti-showcase” coaches to change their opinions, or to at least understand exactly what it is that we do and how it benefits so many different segments of the baseball world.
Again, if you have anything to say about this subject, please send me an email at bclemmens@perfectgame.org.
This column represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and are not necessarily those of Perfect Game.