Prep Dig Texas Top 250 Expo – Intro
I will be writing a series of articles on what I saw in Carrollton on Sunday. Players drove from Houston, San Antonio, Amarillo, Austin, Oklahoma, and all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area to test their skills and showcase their…
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Continue ReadingI will be writing a series of articles on what I saw in Carrollton on Sunday. Players drove from Houston, San Antonio, Amarillo, Austin, Oklahoma, and all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area to test their skills and showcase their talents amongst some of the state’s best players to college coaches and our scouts. What I witnessed was pure joy from the court coaches, parents and players watching and some of the colleges that attended.
As we all have stated numerous times, the sole purpose of this website is to help as many players get exposure for the next level as we can. Sunday at the Southwest Athletic Center definitely showed what we can do. Twitter was buzzing with excitement from tons of players who would be attending the entire week prior. I arrived the day before to make sure all of the necessary pieces were in place to put on a solid showing. The Southwest Athletic Center facility was fantastic and provided us with everything we needed. The staff was amazing and totally helpful.
Baller TV had two gentlemen who were amazing in helping set up the cameras for each court and they were awesome to be around. I couldn’t contain my excitement for what was about to take place the next day. The court coaches arrived early in the morning and we started going over the plan to make sure we were all on the same page. The players then started filing in for registration and it was real. This wonderful company has put on some great showcases across the country in other states for the past couple of years and we were about to show everyone how Texas does it! The staff was super excited to put on the first every Prep Dig Showcase event in Texas. As we watched the players come in the gym, you could see the elation on every coach’s face.
I have run many showcases and other events before so I was used to it, but this one was different. This was ours. Prep Dig Texas’. Every player that is ranked in our system and those that were attending to be evaluated and hopefully ranked were in our shirts for the first time. It was truly a great site to see. This first article is to set the stage with how it ran and then I will be discussing individual players, top performers, and other players that stood out in positional drills, team drills, and other intangibles that coaches love.
We loved seeing all of the players in the gym and how each player interacted with each other. As we started the demos with the very first drill, the energy from everyone was already super high. The positional drills were great to get blood pumping and work on muscle memory to get ready for the game-like drills and team game-play.
There were some JAW-DROPPING plays happening on each court. I screamed with excitement from time to time as so did the other players and court coaches. It had a true tournament feel with the amount of competitiveness on each court. We had eight courts filled with players giving their all for the positional drills. We used six courts for the team drills and everyone got some really good touches on the ball in multiple positions. The teamwork going on from player to player was astounding. Most showcases, over the 23 years I have been coaching, have had more of an individual feel to them. This one had a different feel to it and it is all due to the type of players that attended. Each court had a few players who I consider the glue or necessary adhesive to any team to have true chemistry and I can’t wait to highlight those players. Remember, most of these players know of each other but haven’t played with each other. The chemistry on the courts was noticeable and the main reason was the players. Their attitudes were amazing to say the least. I saw some truly great moments of praising each other, cheering both on and off the court for great plays, and amazing communication. All of that added to an amazing atmosphere of a place that I hope all of our readers get to experience at one of our events. If you don’t believe me, go look at all of the love being spread on Twitter about it. Just search @PrepDigTX. All of that was fantastic to witness, but what I saw at the very end of the event was even better than the high-level play that occurred on the courts.
The amount of love that poured out from the parents, players, and staff both after the event and on social media while everyone was travelling back home was on another level. I did not expect to witness what happened. Players were taking pictures with genuine smiles on their faces, players wanted to individually introduce themselves to us and they thanked the staff for putting on the event. I took pictures with tons of players, shook tons of hands, gave high-fives and had great conversations with both parents and players. There was even one big hug that occurred. These players thanked us for covering the sport and putting on the event, but I thanked them back for not only attending, but more importantly training extremely hard at their craft. These young ladies are fantastic and deserve all of the love and attention that each publication gives them. We will do what it takes to tell their story and help them get recognized for the great player that they are. Thanks for reading this article and stay tuned for more articles this week and next that highlight these wonderful players who attended.
And as always….Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes. If you have anyone you think we should watch out for, please shoot me an email with some info at nov8vb@yahoo.com. Also don’t forget to help these kids get more exposure by sharing our stories with your friends. Help us help them by simply retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Thanks for following Texas Family!