Hey you all. Derek Allister here. I try to check in with the HeyBucket threads periodically just to understand some of the ideas and/or concerns out there. Joann just saw this one today, so we thought we would address it all. Here are some semi-quick clarifications about OnDeck. First, I think some people get confused as to our role in softball. Much of what we do centers around the Allister Reports that are sent to every school with whom we work – somewhere around 200 schools. A Report consists of a list of players whom we see along with a 5 – 10 line synopsis for each individual player. As an example, our 2015 Summer Report consisted of 478 players with notes on each and every one of those players. So even tho our OnDeck is indeed multi-faceted, most everything is centered around these reports. We scout and send these Scouting Reports to the college coaching community. We also create events where coaches can see players work out, and we send Event Reports to the college coaching community. We provide prospect lists for College Camps. We test and measure players – both prospects and college players – thru ODM. We keep the names of unsigned players who appear in our Reports – both Scouting Reports and Event Reports – in front of all the schools through a series of other reports. In addition to all this reporting, we serve as a resource for players and parents. We are a resource for College Athletic Directors each Spring and Summer. We help Gatorade with their Player of the Year lists and POY selections at both the State and National levels. We help the National Team coaches with evaluations and opinions on potential players. And now, we will be working closely with PGF in producing what is sure to be one of the year’s great softball events, the PGF All-American Game. However in doing all this, unlike other services, we never market specific players to specific schools. Since we work with so many schools, helping one specific school would compromise our relationship with others. So every college staff gets the same information, and then it is up to them to move forward in a manner that fits their recruiting philosophy.
Now we created the present OnDeck system simply to try to find more players. Back in the old days, we could just go to a tournament, scout it, report on it, and find some players to put in front of the colleges. But as more and more schools of all sizes, all Divisions, and from all regions of the country started asking for our help, we had to expand in some way. So right now we have a series of events – Tryouts, Jamborees, and National Camps. Our Jamborees and National Camps are invitation-only Recruiting Events. Players can be invited to a Recruiting Event in two ways, either through the Tryout System or through our crossing paths in our Scouting endeavors. Last year, about 48% of the players in our Recruiting Events came from our Tryout System. We found the other 52% through our scouting. Just this past weekend, I saw a number of very good players down in Orange County, and a solid percentage of them will be invited to an event this year. We have some amazing Tryout stories and some amazing Scouting stories where we find players on those “obscure” fields.
As a result of this system, many, many players get recruited, get invited to college camps, and/or get recognition from Gatorade or the National Team Program, without really knowing how it all came to be. For the player and the family it all just sort of happens – quickly for some, and more slowly for others. But often times the process is the result to some extent of a player knowingly, or unknowingly, being part of OnDeck. A high school junior from Florida, Brooke, came to three events starting two years go. It didn’t happen quickly for Brooke, but thru our reports, we kept her name in front of the coaches for over two years – 26 months to be exact. Finally, an SEC school offered her. Lauren, on the other hand, simply played in a game we happened to see. She appeared in our Reports, and she became a four year starter at her school. Yet she never knew how, or why, her school began recruiting her. They recruited her because they had seen her in an Allister Report. Despite these different paths, it is a fact that the vast majority of OnDeck players move into college programs. We have never really publicized too much in this way. It’s not really our style. But just last month, we started working on finding out more about where kids go from our events. The first event I am tackling is the Banditfest. I have been able to find that over 90% of the graduated Banditfest players are playing in college. Our June Jamboree numbers will be much higher than that, and I think we have only had one player from our National Camp not play in college or have the opportunity to play – this one player signed with a Big 10 team and then quit softball the summer after graduating from High School. So I think our success ratio is really remarkable. In addition to that, 14 of the 17 players on the last Junior National Team were OnDeck players. In a WCWS a few years ago, 17 of the 20 starters in the Championship game were OnDeck players. We just don’t publicize stuff like this although I am thinking maybe we should!
Finally, I would like to comment on three specific remarks on this thread. One person stated we are aligned with Triple Crown Sports. While we really enjoy the TCS people, this remark isn’t true at all. We work with everyone and have been successful in staying neutral in the softball world. While I believe two of our events are aligned with Triple Crown, the rest are in conjunction with PGF, USSSA, the Southern Force, Dennis Gomes and the Batbusters, and Bill Conroy and the Beverly Bandits. Being neutral has always been a priority for us. We want to work with all the entities and never be exclusive. In conjunction with that, the poster implied that money is a motivating factor. It has never been about the money with us. Running events has truly exorbitant costs, and most people don’t really understand all of those. And besides those traditional costs, we also fly our staff all over the country for every Recruiting Event. That staff consists of sixteen people. Yikes, yes that is 16 people who we fly in, put in hotels – and we don’t make adults share rooms – feed, and transport. And then we pay our people very, very well. When you add to that the fact that throughout the year we have to fly several people to all parts of the country in order to scout, the costs pile up pretty quickly. As a result of all this, Joann still needs to teach at our local high school, even tho I just gave up teaching last year simply due to the volume of work involved with OnDeck Softball and OnDeck Measurements. And lastly, it was said that you had to be a pitcher, a stud infielder, or someone who could hit it 270’ in order to catch a coach’s eye at one of our events. But that really isn’t true. Brooke, the Florida slapper, impressed some coaches at her first event and although the process took a bit longer for her, she nonetheless is a very happy young lady today. That however is in sharp contrast with Courtney, who was seen at an OnDeck Event, was immediately offered by a Pac-12 school and became an All American. And then there is Alyssa who came to a tryout, was seen at the June Jamboree and a year later verballed to a really nice Patriot League program. There are obviously many paths to college, and there are ways OnDeck helps players and coaches that many people – even the players and families themselves – aren’t aware of. But all this work allows us to help as many kids and college coaches as we can – that is our Mission.
I hope all this clarifies some of the ideas that are floating out there. If you ever have a question, you can certainly reach me at
info@ondecksoftball.net. If we can help you in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact us. I hope you all will have a great Spring, and we will look forward to seeing many of you at April’s Finest. We will be out there Scouting and getting a Report together on some of the finest young players on the West Coast. April’s Finest has always been one of our fun weekends. Take care.
