I hear your points and they are all valid, and some true. A player not on a club team doesn't mean they are not good so I hope you don't think that was what I was referring to. Maybe the coach should tell the tournament directors of the teams merit and match them up accordingly.
But like you mentioned, there are also great showcases to attend and that would be my suggestion if your sons HS team isn't that strong and one thing I always recommend to my players is to attend prospect camps too so there are a lot of options....Im getting off topic but wanted to give my two cents.

Originally Posted by Anonymous
Both those events are filled with high school teams from all over the country and yes they are great, but these teams come to play hard and win. They aren't doing equal playing time for non-serious players. They bring their varsity players. So if your kid is say the starting goalie going up against a top ranked private high school and at some point he is out there with 3rd stringers, how does that help him when he is getting shots taken on him from the crease and getting lit up?
That aside the point about being able to then go play club, not everyone has the ability from a financial perspective to play for some of the club teams. That is what these showcases geared towards high school teams then are supposed to benefit and supplement. The single parent who also has other kids in college might not be able to afford all the trips and the steep fee's involved with the club teams.
It is unfortunate that this isn't taken enough into accord. Just because your kid is not on club doesn't mean they aren't good enough to be.

Originally Posted by TM@BOTC
[quote=Anonymous]The northport coach does have them do tournaments and showcases but his system is flawed. You are going to these evens against select teams from all over the country with kids looking to be seen for college as well as jell with their teams for the coming season. He is inviting kids who will never see the field on varsity let alone play in college and takes the "pay to play" approach so everyone plays equal time. So you are hurting your players who are there for exposure because yes if a college coach is there to see a specific kid he will, but the sidelines aren't full for the teams getting slammed on the 2nd or 3rd day because you haven't won a game due to this.


Good point and in that case, the starting and effective role players should attend since it is not a school event because those 2 events I mentioned are set up only for the HS teams so there is certainly a platform for them. And most of these events when you see college coaches, that means they are being compensated so they are forced to watch but not every college in attendance is being paid in which those coaches will be more inclined to leave like you said. Lastly, the reason why I agreed with the one poster who said the HS teams should attend 2-3 tournaments is because of everything we are talking about...this will allow the serious players to play on a club team and get exposure that way...