Questions to the group:
Am long time listener/first time caller on this Surf Cup thing. two questions:
1) Any feedback pros/cons on the game video service that Next Pro offers? What are the biggest downsides of the service?
2) What pointers/lessons learned do folks have for reaching out to college scouts who are attending the Surf Cup?
I definitely recommend it, especially if you are not the techy type who would put one together yourself. I used it for one of my dd's at last year's Thanksgiving showcase. They record all of your games, pick out the top 20 or so plays, edit them (putting best plays 1st), add some generic music (unless you tell them which song to use, but there may be copyright issues, so you work it our for them), and set up a nice intro.
You can go back and forth with them if you don't like the way something came out, i.e. the order of plays, length of intro, etc. I went back & forth with them several times until we got it right (to my taste of course).
ALSO, very important, if you have video of other plays you can have them include these also. At the Showcase, my dd only played 2 games b/c of weather, so I had them add about 7 plays from high school. I actually also picked out the plays from the games they recorded. I had a lot of down time due to Covid, so that was my hobby for a bit.
In terms of effectiveness, I look at it as an ice breaker. My dd emailed her video to about 10 D-1 schools and got 3 responses asking her to stay in touch with her schedule after January. So what does this mean, it means she probably didn't make a good enough first impression with 7 of them, but did with 3 of them. So when Surf Cup roles around in January, she will invite the 3 to come see her play. We'll see if they actually do.
Remember, you also have to target the right schools. Of those 10 that my dd sent her video to, I knew 5-6 of them were out of her league to begin with, but that was her wish list. Now, if she were to send it to academic D-III schools, which I personally prefer, I think she would get lots of attention. So the moral of the story is, you have to be realistic in terms of where your player fits in.
