by George Caratzas
Ryan Crawford’s life revolves around baseball, and with his latest project — Diamond College Showcase — he hopes to make the reality of playing college baseball more accessible to young players.
At a young age, Crawford was introduced to the game in the baseball mecca: Cooperstown, N.Y.
“I grew up on Doubleday Field,” Crawford said in an interview with Axcess Baseball. “The truth of the matter is that my roots are up in Cooperstown. It’s a very unique place, especially to grow up in the heart of baseball, around the block from the Hall of Fame. It means so much to me.”
After finishing his playing career at Oneonta in 1996, Crawford went on to have a seven-year collegiate coaching career at both his alma mater and Hartwick College. He also spent 12 years as a baseball coach at Plainedge High School and served as the COO of Showball, one of the nation’s largest high school recruitment camp programs.
Crawford’s experience as a coach and time in the industry made him discover flaws in the recruiting system as youngsters try to take the next step in their careers.
In an attempt to bridge that gap, Crawford created Diamond College Showcase.
“I just decided, with all my relationships from high school and college coaches around the country, that it was time to give it a shot,” Crawford said. “All these years of talking to families around the country about their experiences with showcase baseball and trying to get recruited to the right school, listening to the heartache and the pros and cons, I just decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to go create my own platform.”
While most showcases focus on eye-popping attendance numbers, Crawford wanted his new experience to prioritize a smaller set of athletes. With a higher ratio of athletes to prospective coaches, he hoped that it would help players find the right fit more easily.
“I wanted to make it more intimate and provide an opportunity that you wouldn’t have with say, 200, 250 or 275 players at a camp,” Crawford said. “I’m looking to run about 125, where it’s smaller. Kids get more reps and more opportunities to be seen. Things like that matter.”
Additionally, Diamond College Showcases aims to provide the consumer with a greater return on investment while also emphasizing academic success.
“It’s going to be expensive, because it’s expensive to put together an event that is going to be so powerful,” Crawford said. “At the same point, most parents don’t mind spending money as long as there is value coming back in return. We’ll do anything for our kids.”
Crawford recognizes that most college ball players will not pursue a professional career. Therefore, setting up a future off the field is critical. As part of Diamond College Showcase, Crawford has established relationships with coaches throughout the country, but specifically the Ivy League and NESCAC — two top-flight academic conferences.
“It’s really a decision that you’re making for the next 40 years of your life,” Crawford said. “If you graduate from Cornell University, for example, you’re coming out making $180,000 per year because you made the right choices and came away with a prominent degree. That’s why the high academic schools have really taken off.”
To aid Crawford in providing proper academic and financial support to athletes, he has worked with EMD Baseball.
“EMD does a really nice job with helping families trying to make the right decisions with the questions that have fallen into their lap,” Crawford said.
While showcases go a long way in getting seen by a school, video is also a key component. In an effort to make sure that players have footage that they are proud to display, Diamond College Showcases uses WBT, a Long Island-based company, to create recruiting videos.
Crawford launched his new company in October of last year, with his first slate of recruiting camps slated for this upcoming summer. The inaugural showcase will take place in Washington, D.C., in mid-June, but Diamond College Showcase will host two Long Island events in late July.
Both will be hosted at the Medford Sports Complex, with the first event on July 27-28. The second will be on the ensuing two days.
Crawford’s message is simple: players will get out of their individual recruiting process what they put into it.
“You have to be a good student, and you have to have good time management skills,” Crawford said. “If you’ve got that figured out, now you’re a complete human being.
“Once you’ve got that, and you’re repeating it day after day, getting good grades, becoming a good baseball player, you’re going to create great opportunities to go to a great school. Then, you can use baseball as a vehicle to continue to meet more successful people, all because you had a plan and you trusted the process.”
These are lessons that Crawford learned in a region of America where few things are as important as its pastime, and lessons that he hopes to pass down to young players across the nation.
George Caratzas is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
