Showcase events - Which ones are JOKES

[SBNut]

I completely agree, ifyoubuildit. My DD is in college now, but for the past 4 years, we endured the totally unfair treatment of teams at showcases, especially Surf City and to some extent at Rising Stars.

I looked at the schedules for this weekend's Surf City tournament - same old story. The "top" teams are at HBSC all weekend. I have said for years that no team should have all 5 games at the "best" field. There is absolutely no reason that most teams can't be given at least 2 games at HBSC. Sure, a few recruiters will go out to Tewinkle or Worthy or some others, but the reality is that the majority of coaches are at HBSC all weekend.

Rising Stars did the same type of scheduling a couple years ago, but finally changed & tried to get all teams on the main fields at Bamford for a couple of games. I just looked at the RS website & they are now offering an "exclusive round of games" at Bamford for "maximum exposure", and during that time no other games at other parks will be going on. That's definitely a huge step in the right direction.

Yes, there are good, even great, players on lesser known teams. No everyone can afford the travel & game costs of a top-level Gold team. Not every family living on the East Coast can afford to send their daughter across the country to play with Batbusters or Firecrackers or whomever. Coaches might be surprised to find some excellent players on teams they might not ordinarily watch. Why watch the Firecrackers when all the players have committed by their sophomore year? Sure, it's fun to watch good softball, but aren't they there to recruit?

Sorry for the rant, but we have thrown so much money away on showcases where we were stuck at high schools with only 2 fields that were 30 miles from HBSC, told to go home after playing 2 games because of a little rain, when all other fields were still playing, given 6 pm Sunday game times when we still had an 8 hour drive ahead of us (while the San Diego teams were done by noon on Sunday), and put on the outlying fields where not even ONE recruiter came by all weekend, etc., etc., etc.

Yes, DD was recruited by a D-I program, but no thanks to the Surf City showcases. Everyone should boycott them until they wake up & change their scheduling to give everyone a fair shot.

[Offspeed]

Most of you need to quit complaining. North Texas softball is not very good right now and you are over rating the quality of your players and teams and their ability to play college ball. You could take all the north Texas "Gold" teams, combine the best players off each one, and not compete with the top 10 in the nation. You are lucky to be seeing any college coaches at all!!!