About the DeMarini TOP 96
TOP 96, Inc. conducts DeMarini TOP 96 College Coaches Baseball Clinics for High School Players throughout the United States. Founded in 1994 to run “Showcases” in the Boston, MA area, the TOP 96 grew in size and reputation attracting players from all over the country who wanted to attend colleges in New England.
Three friends who coached AAU baseball teams joined forces more than 20 years ago to showcase baseball talent in the northeast for their kids and some of their baseball players who noticed there was little opportunity to do so in the northeast.
Because of our reputation for quality, honesty and integrity, Louisville Slugger approached us in 2003 about forming a partnership with a long range goal of expanding our events outside of Massachusetts. As a result of that partnership, we grew to our present size and format. Now, we're partnered with DeMarini/Wilson Sporting Goods Co, and plan to grow even more using the DeMarini TOP 96 brand for all of our events.
The original TOP 96 Invitational Baseball Showcase quickly grew from 96 players in 1994 to 150 players with more than 700 applications per year. Over the years, we noticed the athleticism of our players was improving, but that their fundamental baseball skills were declining. At the same time, we noticed that the “Showcase Industry” was slowly developing a “bad reputation”
- Promising attendance by colleges that don’t show up
- Not providing any value to the players other than a few ground balls or fly balls and a few swings
- Taking too many players, requiring events to be held in multiple locations, making it even more difficult for the few coaches who showed up to see all the players.
As a result of these trends, we decided to get out of the “Showcase” business, and completely changed our method of operating and the format of our events. The DeMarini TOP 96 College Coaches Baseball Clinics for High School Players, provides substantial value to its participants at a cost less than players would pay to attend a “Showcase” with all of its attendant problems. The DeMarini TOP 96 has taken steps to eliminate the problems encountered in many “Showcases.”
- We guarantee that colleges will in fact attend, and we guarantee a 7:1 ratio or better.
- We provide substantial value to our participants. Our college coaches provide the following:
- Hands-on instruction in 11 different areas
- Written and 1-on-1 personal evaluations
- Specialized instruction in vision training, base running and strength and conditioning
- Our goal is to teach these high school players the baseball fundamentals they need to take their game to the next level.
- We limit the total number of players at each of our clinics and we also limit the number of players at each position.
We ran our first set of clinics in 2005 expanding to 8 locations and serving more than 600 players. In 2006 we expanded to 23 clinics with approximately 2,200 players attending and we hired nearly 400 coaches from 300 colleges. In 2007, we expanded to 38 clinics with approximately 3,500 players attending and we hired more than 600 coaches from 250 + colleges.