by twinsmom » Wed Nov 13, 2013 11:08 pm
During our run through bracket and pool games at PGF, I think we saw almost every coach or their representative from almost every team in all the major conferences (Big XII, Big 10, PAC 10, ACC, SEC, and on and on). There were also many of the mid level colleges there as well.
We were playing 14s and the bleachers were packed.
Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Wisconsin, UCLA, Cal, Arizona, ASU, UT, A&M, OU, OSU, Nebraska, Louisville, Michigan, Mich State, NC, SC, NC state, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Iowa State, FSU, Texas State, UofH, Tx Tech, the list could go on for a good long time. By the time the tourney had moved to the last few fields that were closer together, I would lay odds there were 60+ coaches/asst/recruiters bouncing between the 2-3 fields that were still being used (it was probably closer to 100 but hard to estimate since some of them aren't in "school gear").
I assure you that PGF is worth the trip regardless of where you are from and where your girls want to go. We honestly didn't expect anybody at our games (I know that sounds stupid now, but we were a first year 14 with many of our girls incoming 8th graders), and by the time we broke the top 10 we had a following of coaches from field to field. I will say that one of our sister teams was at 16U ASA Nats the following week and they had lots of coaches at their fields too. I am not sure how many of those coaches just held over to watch ASA since it was basically "next door" and back to back with PGF and how many would have flown to 16U Nats had they been in another state (like they are this year - Virginia I think). This year 14U ASA is the week after PGF in Cali and we are planning on attending both hoping to get some more looks.
You do have to do your work. We would have had more coaches earlier in the tournament (probably) if we had contacted coaches ahead of time (we just thought we were too young to do any of that). But if you win against quality competition, they start showing up. One of the biggest thrills for our girls was Mike Candrea leaning up against our dugout watching them play their last two games.
No question that PGF has pulled in the coaches. If you do your work, they will come and watch. We are looking forward to our return trip this year. That being said, ASA has always pulled in coaches as well so no knock on them at all. We just have personal experience with PGF and the stands were packed.