Players College Showcase - Girls

[Slobodan]

We played at Bettye Wilson and Kellogg. Fields were great. Some kids definitely played more than others.
I didn’t see many college coaches, but my daughter said she did. Received a few emails on Monday. From smaller schools. Seemed to be mass emails.

You hit the jackpot. I've only done that tournament a couple of times but those 2 fields seem to be the hub of activity. Sad to hear you didn't see many coaches, though. The list was decent. I thought so, anyway. My kid got a few emails, too... from schools she's never heard of. The same ones that pull her name from a database for their ID camps.

 

[Slobodan]

We played at James. The grass was high and played slow, but the fields were in good shape. We saw the most coaches on Sunday morning. I'm not sure that the fourth game is the best one to scout, but we weren't expecting much anyway.

Maybe it was because GotSport was down for a while, but the bracketing was pretty ridiculous. Not sure if they think every team just wants to be able to say they're in the "top bracket," but there were a lot of blowouts. I was told by another team that they'd actually asked the showcase to drop them to a lower bracket and never got a response. I emailed twice about our bracketing and also never got a reply. Kind of a drag to spend the time and money for four uncompetitive games, no matter which side of them you're on. And add me to the "four games in three days is stupid for olders" chorus.

Amazing to me you'd charge that much and make olders play on slow fields. Then again, we keep showing up and paying it.

 

[crush]

You hit the jackpot. I've only done that tournament a couple of times but those 2 fields seem to be the hub of activity. Sad to hear you didn't see many coaches, though. The list was decent. I thought so, anyway. My kid got a few emails, too... from schools she's never heard of. The same ones that pull her name from a database for their ID camps.

Did she feel special?

 

[Slobodan]

Did she feel special?

No. She's already committed but thanks for asking. She knew it was a bullshit gig and not worth the money before we booked the flight.

 

[Code]

We played at James. The grass was high and played slow, but the fields were in good shape. We saw the most coaches on Sunday morning. I'm not sure that the fourth game is the best one to scout, but we weren't expecting much anyway.

Maybe it was because GotSport was down for a while, but the bracketing was pretty ridiculous. Not sure if they think every team just wants to be able to say they're in the "top bracket," but there were a lot of blowouts. I was told by another team that they'd actually asked the showcase to drop them to a lower bracket and never got a response. I emailed twice about our bracketing and also never got a reply. Kind of a drag to spend the time and money for four uncompetitive games, no matter which side of them you're on. And add me to the "four games in three days is stupid for olders" chorus.

We need to find a way to hold the event organizers feet to the fire when it comes to bracketing. It can't be that difficult. Not sure what can be done except refuse to participate in the future? Maybe public relations shaming, IDK.

 

[KJR]

Amazing to me you'd charge that much and make olders play on slow fields. Then again, we keep showing up and paying it.

For our teams it's a good tune-up weekend after the high school season to get a few games against new teams without having to fly.

We need to find a way to hold the event organizers feet to the fire when it comes to bracketing. It can't be that difficult. Not sure what can be done except refuse to participate in the future? Maybe public relations shaming, IDK.

That's kind of why I decided to post. I'm sure it's difficult to run one of these showcases, and there are a lot of moving parts, but (and I've said this about leagues, too) if you don't have the bandwidth to respond to your customers/clients, you need to use some of the money they're paying you on additional staff. Based on the standings, there was absolutely a true top bracket that could have been put together, and it would have been pretty easy to ascertain from rankings. And there's no excuse for ignoring a team that has asked to be dropped down.

My kid's team has gone to Vegas twice, played eight games, and the cumulative score has been 50-2. Half of our games this year were shortened to keep the score in check, our girls spent every second half working on objectives that didn't involve scoring, and each family on the team spent ~$1000 for that. Oh, and basically no college recruiting (two schools that are still listed as attending, that one of our younger players has been in contact with, emailed her the week before to say they weren't coming after all but will see her next month at another event.)

Based on our experience a couple years ago, those were our expectations. For us it was still a good tune-up weekend after the high school season to get a few games against new teams without having to fly. It's a nice way for our families to reconnect and get ready for more competitive stuff in the spring and summer. Other teams in our club had more competitive games, so maybe it's not a problem across the board, but if I was just looking to spend my youth soccer money efficiently for college recruiting, Players wouldn't be high on my list.