The National Academic Showcase has become a popular event since it joined the Perfect Game lineup in 2004. It gives players an opportunity to showcase their baseball talents – and brains – before college coaches who are looking for good players and top students.
More than 600 players have attended the Academic Showcases the past six years, and that number will grow when the 7th Annual National Academic Showcase is held in Fort Myers, Fla., on June 5 and 6. You can request an invitation now.
The Academic Showcase was formed at the request of college coaches who work at schools with particularly high academic standards. They don’t have the time, or the budget, to scout players who don’t have the academic credentials to get into their school, which is why it takes a 3.0 GPA or better to qualify for this event.
Most of the prestigious Ivy League schools have attended the Academic Showcase, looking for players. So have the military academies, private universities and many of the other top academic colleges in the country.
Academic Showcase alumni have enrolled at Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn and Brown. They’ve gone to Duke, Stanford, Brandeis, Johns Hopkins and MIT. Others have enrolled at Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Emory. They’ve also gone to Texas, Virginia, Florida State, Boston College, West Virginia, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Maryland, Purdue, Florida, Clemson, Seton Hall, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, Xavier, Nebraska, Creighton and Georgia Tech. They’ve also gone to Army, Navy, Newberry, Williams, Grinnell, Bucknell, Davidson, Cincinnati and many, many other top colleges.
The Academic Showcase is aimed at talented players and top students who will graduate from high school in 2011 or 2012. Many parents have focused on these events as a key resource for finding the right college for their son, in terms of athletics and academics.
More than a dozen players also have been selected in the Major League Draft after attending one of the National Academic Showcases, with the Mariners, White Sox, Pirates, Brewers, Tigers, Rockies and Rays all taking at least one of the Academic alums. David Holmberg, a left-handed pitcher from Port Charlotte, Fla., attended an Academic Showcase and was selected in the second round of the 2007 draft by the Chicago White Sox. He signed for $514,000.
The 2010 National Academic Showcase will be held at the Red Sox 5-Plex and Terry Park in Fort Myers, simultaneously with the Sunshine East Showcase and the East Uncommitted Showcase. Staging three events in the same place at the same time is a big help for the coaches, because it lets them triple their recruiting efforts in a single weekend.
It’s never too early to request an invitation to the National Showcase. Just return to the Perfect Game Home Page, scroll to the list of events and get started.