The Mid Atlantic Mets will be holding a player ID camp for 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 high school graduates on the weekend of August 16 and 17. At this event the Mid Atlantic Mets will look to identify prospective players for their Fall 2008 and summer 2009 programs.

Players will go through a pro-style workout on Saturday morning, play games Saturday night (if necessary) and Sunday morning. Location for this try-out is TBD but will consist of one of 4 sites:

Notre Dame Academy (Middleburg, VA)

Mount St. Mary's University (Emmittsburg, MD)

Shenandoah University (Winchester, VA)

George Mason University (Fairfax, VA)

IF THE LOCATION IS A COLLEGIATE FIELD, COLLEGE SCOUTS WILL BE PRESENT!!! LOCATION TO BE FINALIZED BY JULY 25TH!!!

Cost for this showcase will be $50 per player. This will cover field costs, web coverage of the top prospects, equipment and a shirt for each player to wear to identify them to our coaches!!!

Payments must be sent to:

42744 Big Spruce Square

Leesburg, VA 20176

If you are interested in signing up for this event please fill out the registration form on www.ddawgs.org or email Dan Gitzen @ mets@ddawgs.org.

You are charging for Tryouts? Are you serious? This is not a showcase - Which College Scouts? Equipment charges?

This seems more like a scam to make money for the Diamond Dawgs organizers - Not a College Showcase.

Players I know say great things about the one at GMU, many college coaches are there. I haven't been to it fristhand though.

You may be mixing apples and oranges. Bill Brown, the GMU coach, normally runs a showcase type camp in early November on a Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday that is well run and well attended. Your buddies may be referring to this.

This Diamond Dawg showcase/tryout sounds new (at least at these college venues). If they can get some college coaches, then $50 is a bargain. The camps like the GMU one above are normally $200+.

That sounds more like what they're talking about.

FYI...there are no such tihngs as college scouts.

Equipment charges/fees go toward paying rental charges for the collegiate fields that are used for the events. Many colleges charge daily usage fees for the events. This fees helps to pay for field usage and t-shirts to help ID players to our staff and college coaches.

If you workout on a college field then that colleges coaches are present. Not because we say so, but because they say so.

Quick point, many organizations charge upwards of 1000 dollars to try-out for their organizations and if you do not make their team, it is considered a donation to the program. Others charge 50 to 100 dollars and do not use collegiate fields. If the location happens not to be a collegiate field the charge is reduced to pay for only a t-shirt that players are able to keep.

Please ask questions before critisizing. This is standard procedure for many programs that are trying to help expose players. Things like this cost money otherwise we would not charge money.

DD,

I don't criticize you for charging fees...that is your perogative. BUT...who are some of the "many" organizations that charge "upwards of $1000 to tryout"?!?

redbird,

Quick question....you said there are no such things as college scouts, and I always thought the same. However, last year I was at a game locally where there was a guy sitting with the rest of the scouts and he was wearing Georgia Tech gear (if I remember correctly). This was during the meat of the baseball season, and the guy didn't look like a coach to me. But he was definitely scouting (he had the radar gun and all!)

Is that just someone locally who the coaches at the school trust? Is it just a pro scout who possibly went to the school? I'm sure the guy can't be paid, but are there unofficial scouts like this? This one in particular struck me as odd, because GT wouldn't really need to send someone this far to look at players considering that they have East Cobb in their backyard where most of the player's they're likely to recruit will pass through anyway.

Never heard of $1000 tryouts, at least not around the Mid Atlantic, Ohio, or PA. If you are talking about some elite Florida, California, Georgia, or Texas team, the kind that fly pitchers in for a one day outing in a national tournaments, then I guess anything is possible.

I can't speak to $1000, but when my son played at AAU Nationals at 12U, there was a parent I met whose son played for one of the elite CA programs.

He said, tryout fee was $500. Applied to your total costs if you made the team, otherwise it was a donation.

And that was way back in 2002!

Emanski,

It was probably a coach. It could have been a friend of the program as well, but it is unusual for that to happen...especially for him to be decked out in a college team's gear.

The camp location has been finalized! It will take place at Brigeforth Field in Winchester, VA. This is the home to the Shenendoah University baseball program as well as the Winchester Royals (Valley League Collegiate team).

Time for start of the event will be 9:00 on Saturday morning.

Thank you.

What is the cost of renting this field in Winchester which is a CITY owned park ? This is also HOME for the Judges of Handley High School. To make sure that nobody is misled, Shenandoah University does NOT own this field, they are a user of this facility. Again, I am curiuos @ the fee usage ?

Thank You !

This is what I found out since its around my neck of the woods.

The Mid-Atlantic Mets have NOT scheduled the facility yet as of today Aug. 5th.

They are in possession of our facility application which details what they will pay and the necessary insurance and paperwork.

Once WPRD receives the signed documents, WPRD will schedule them.

The commercial rate for the use of Bridgeforth Field is $26/hour.

If lights are needed then the user adds $10/hour to the base fee.

In addition to the fee, the user is required to fill out a facility use application and must also provide insurance in the amount of $1,000,000 naming the City of Winchester as additionally insured.

FYI -

In the mail today I received conformation of my reservation with WRPD.

After paying the reservation fee, submitting my application and providing proof of insurance.

You may want to ask BEFORE slandering someone's organization on the internet.

If you want me to provide the reservation number I can do that as well.

Hold onto ur britches there Double D. What I posted was the "truth" on Aug. 5th ... after reviewing, I read no "slander", you are the one that posted the incorrect information back on July 23rd which was NOT finalized yet.

Not sure where u got your info from, but I did not slander anyone, so you must stand corrected.

"Finalize" : to bring (something) to a state where nothing remains to be done.

Well you still had things to be done, so it was NOT "FINALIZED" yet as you stated back on July 23rd.

Have a great day Double D.

In running a BUSINESS, you need to be very, very careful what you post.