Is Socal Summer Showcase always a shit show organizationally?

[sigmabody]

My son's team is playing in this "event" this year (https://socalsummershowcase.com/), for the first time. Without going into too much detail, the seedings were initially an absolute joke: the club's top team was in the lowest bracket for the age, and the second-tier team was in the highest bracket. It took several emails to sorta fix it, but even then it was half-assed and not really accurate for team strength. On top of that, they don't use game cards, the higher age groups are just a "showcase" (without playoffs), and they are recording some game results wrong (like, 5 goals swing absurdly wrong).

Now it seems like this whole event is a promotional event and cash grab for LA Surf, with their club comprising maybe 1/3 of the teams there, but even still the tournament organization seems like absolute garbage. Anyone know if this is normal for this event (or surf events in general)? The tournament director is apparently Kevin McCloskey, if that means anything to anyone here.

Just would like to know if this is abnormally bad, or expected for this type of event and/or organizers?

 

[soccermax2]

My son's team is playing in this "event" this year (https://socalsummershowcase.com/), for the first time. Without going into too much detail, the seedings were initially an absolute joke: the club's top team was in the lowest bracket for the age, and the second-tier team was in the highest bracket. It took several emails to sorta fix it, but even then it was half-assed and not really accurate for team strength. On top of that, they don't use game cards, the higher age groups are just a "showcase" (without playoffs), and they are recording some game results wrong (like, 5 goals swing absurdly wrong).

Now it seems like this whole event is a promotional event and cash grab for LA Surf, with their club comprising maybe 1/3 of the teams there, but even still the tournament organization seems like absolute garbage. Anyone know if this is normal for this event (or surf events in general)? The tournament director is apparently Kevin McCloskey, if that means anything to anyone here.

Just would like to know if this is abnormally bad, or expected for this type of event and/or organizers?

Maybe just the boys side?
Girls side has been fine. Not abnormal for the older age groups to be a showcase, that is what was advertised. It is in conjunction with the ID camp that was Friday and my daughter had a great experience, received good training and had fun while doing it. Had direct convo with quality college coaches (Pepperdine, San Diego State etc.) Good practice for players that eventually would like to go through the recruiting process.

 

[sigmabody]

Good to know, thanks.

Fwiw, they did fix the scoring issue(s), after prompting, so that's good. Glad people are getting good value out of it, though, even if it seems like the initial event organization was somewhat suspect to me.

 

[sigmabody]

I guess a follow-up question I've been wondering about: Is there any reference anywhere for quality of organization for events, or is this all effectively word of mouth (within DoC's and coaches, etc.)?

It seems like some events are better run than others (better logistics, better communication, closer match-ups, etc.). I guess this goes to another related question a bit ago about bracket placement in tournaments also. I admit I might be used to the larger non-showcase tournaments, so my perspective might be biased here; if this is the norm for smaller, club-centric "showcase" events, feel free to let me know.

 

[RedCard]

The tournament director is apparently Kevin McCloskey, if that means anything to anyone here.

Just would like to know if this is abnormally bad, or expected for this type of event and/or organizers?

He used to be the President of SoCal Academy, which was an all-girls club, and a pretty damn great one. But then, here comes Surf to snatch them up along with LA Premier to form L.A. Surf. That happened back in 2019. None of us ever forgave him for that. Guess he's still involved with L.A. Surf which I didn't know.

 

[JeterwastheBEST]

My son's team is playing in this "event" this year (https://socalsummershowcase.com/), for the first time. Without going into too much detail, the seedings were initially an absolute joke: the club's top team was in the lowest bracket for the age, and the second-tier team was in the highest bracket. It took several emails to sorta fix it, but even then it was half-assed and not really accurate for team strength. On top of that, they don't use game cards, the higher age groups are just a "showcase" (without playoffs), and they are recording some game results wrong (like, 5 goals swing absurdly wrong).

Now it seems like this whole event is a promotional event and cash grab for LA Surf, with their club comprising maybe 1/3 of the teams there, but even still the tournament organization seems like absolute garbage. Anyone know if this is normal for this event (or surf events in general)? The tournament director is apparently Kevin McCloskey, if that means anything to anyone here.

Just would like to know if this is abnormally bad, or expected for this type of event and/or organizers?

LA Surf had their GA team playing a Flight II and Flight I team at this Showcase.... That's embarrassing... In the top bracket no less!

 

[sigmabody]

I think the game which sorta exemplified the event for me was when our Flight 1 team was beating up on a Flight 3 level LA Surf team, which had some players on it who would probably struggle to pass a fitness test, and who had mentally given up after about 15 minutes. We played several players in off positions for the second half (including at keeper, so our keeper could get some field time), and still scored a few more goals, before the teams eventually collecting their gear from under the event canopies with "best of the best" graphics. And it wasn't like our team had a stellar weekend either; we had several guest players from the lower team, and played like a Flight 1.5 ish team at best (imho).

Still, to be fair, our team was kinda in the odd "filler" space in the event: not old enough to be really concerned about college scouting, and not high enough tier where the kids would be looked at seriously anyway, but old enough to not have enough close teams to have a real tournament. I think we were in the teams which were invited mainly just to make the fund raiser event more profitable for LA Surf. That doesn't excuse the very poor initial placements (along with the very disingenuous "we look at many factors to ensure brackets are very competitive..."), and other cost-cutting (eg: medical tents were present but unstaffed, as far as I could tell), but our team was certainly also not in the best position to get the best benefit from being there.

 

[Slobodan]

I would think, this time of year, college coaches are putting finishing touches on the transfer portal bullshit and preparing schedules, etc for the season... not going to watch showcases.

Then again, I always thought showcases were about $$$.

 

[El Padre Antonio]

He used to be the President of SoCal Academy, which was an all-girls club, and a pretty damn great one. But then, here comes Surf to snatch them up along with LA Premier to form L.A. Surf. That happened back in 2019. None of us ever forgave him for that. Guess he's still involved with L.A. Surf which I didn't know.

Forgive me but that guy McClosky and LA Surf are only out to puff up their teams and make them look good. But on top of that, They are only there to cash in on the showcase money. Period.
The girls brackets were not evenly matched as their top G08 team played borderline Flight 1/Flight 2 team and an NPL team (Flight 1) that lost all of its good players. Never trust LA Surf! Thats from experience. The only real Surf is San Diego Surf.

 

[RedCard]

Forgive me but that guy McClosky and LA Surf are only out to puff up their teams and make them look good. But on top of that, They are only there to cash in on the showcase money. Period.
The girls brackets were not evenly matched as their top G08 team played borderline Flight 1/Flight 2 team and an NPL team (Flight 1) that lost all of its good players. Never trust LA Surf! Thats from experience. The only real Surf is San Diego Surf.

This has been my position since day one with all these Surfs clubs popping up. San Diego Surf is the OG and the only true Surf club. My daughter (who aged out 2 years ago) played against them just maybe 3-4 times (05 and 04 teams) and all were great games. Players were great and parents were great.