by 93players » Sun Mar 29, 2015 10:01 pm
In Texas, Ronald McDonald is king and the other showcases depend if they are invite or pay. Invite (Impact Gold, Glory) are pretty good for smaller D1 schools. Pay showcases in Texas are not worth it. Pennsbury has an academic day so if you want to go to the Ivys, its worth paying to play.
But my DD went to a top ACC school camp with 250 kids and Harvard with 60 kids. After the ACC coach told the kids, no labs classes in spring, year around school to lighten load in season, and strongly discouraged science, my DD was not happy. She was also not happy when the entire camp was geared to winnowing the players into the best 18 that would play each other in front of the other 232. She made that cut but found the process demeaning to the other kids. The very next week at Harvard, the coach brought out former players with jobs on Wall Street, in medicine, and law. My DD was pretty impressed. She said, I want to go Ivy. I told her it would be hard but she committed to work hard to get the test scores. Another coach at that camp told some other Ivy coaches about DD and she had several coaches that followed her to RMD, Huntington Beach, Rising Stars, and Colorado. She got a firm offer from one by June between junior and senior year and it has turned out great. Excellent education and playing some great D1 schools in Florida, California, and Texas. She has even been a small part of some upsets, that rarely go reported. And, the coaching has been excellent. Players who are academically inclined should not overlook the Ivy League and other strong academic schools in D1, D2, and D3. Remember the winner of the Ivy League gets to play in the tourney!