DeMarini Invitational

[The Farm]

Maybe this is already posted somewhere on the site. If so, just point me to it.

The DeMarini tournament sounds like a great event and something that most top players/teams would want to try to attend. What other events, tournaments & showcases are a "must attend" for a girl trying to gain exposure? Also, what age are most of the events geared towards? My DD will have to move up to 18U next year. Her team this year, 16U, only went to ONE this summer.

[gunshy]

Playhard, if a tournament director schedules smartly and makes an honest attempt to keep the fields decent, a large portion of complaints go away. Problem is, we don't do that here and those complaints just turn into the tip of the iceberg. Most TD's fly off the handle and blow a gasket as soon as you bring any kind of alternative thinking plan to them. In regards to every kid needing exposure opportunities, I completely agree. BUT, speaking from experience, not a single college coach is going to sit thru an 8am game at a remote field to watch a top level team throttle a local B team by 10-12 runs. Also, just because you call your tournament a "Showcase" or "exposure Tournament" doesn't mean that college coaches will automatically show up in droves or show up at all; ie, several events planned right after Nationals end that are seldom well attended.

[killerbee]

Another quality event this same weekend is the Atlanta Legacy tourney. Much nicer complex than Demarini and organizers were awesome! Our team was not accepted, so we tried this event hosted by the Atlanta Vipers. Well worth the trip. I was surprised to see the numbers of Midwest schools there.

[Play Hard]

I agree completely that fields need to be taken care of during the event. They should be reworked at least every other game.

The schedule part can be tough. Someone is going to play that 8 A.M game on Sunday. We did ours in St. Louis with the temperature below 30 degrees. I agree that it stunk and I knew there were not going to be college coaches there. I didn't want to be there for that one.....

It sounds like the smaller, more elite exposure events are the way to go if you can get into them, but if the Dreams can't get in, most others aren't getting in either. Even then, fields weren't great.