It was a half dozen or so years ago and Scott Smith, the leader of the Texas Bombers organization which has expanded into Louisiana and Arizona, was sitting in a barbecue restaurant with some fellow coaches in Oklahoma City during the ASA Nationals.

Smith and his dinner companions began brainstorming about what the perfect recruiting exposure event would be like and the long-time leader in the Army jotted down the ideas on a napkin and soon put them into practice.

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The result was the Texas Bombers Exposure Weekend, which while take place this Friday through Sunday, October 16-18, for the sixth consecutive year.

And the one key aspect that came from that fateful dinner was the concept of “layers,” as Smith explains it.

“We have four main components to the weekend,” he begins. “Friday night there’s a Coaches Game Clinic where college coaches will work with the players in live games, then Saturday morning there’s a position-specific combine with a workout to test measurables including arm strength and speed as well as allowing the players to hit, catch and pitch.”

“Then we start the team games Saturday afternoon which will go through Sunday and, finally, Saturday night we have a Coaches Social where club and college coaches will hear great speakers and get to network and socialize.”

Smith also emphasizes that the Exposure Weekend is exactly what the name says it is and has become increasing popular with the college coaches.

“The format is somewhat unique,” he stresses, “in that the event is structured for the uncommitted player.  

Friday night will be dedicated to college coaches running a "Game Clinic” which is a scrimmage setting where they can stop to coach up the action on the field. This will give players an advanced opportunity to interact with these college coaches in a game-like setting.”

“They’ve told us they wanted to have a chance to run events to see the players up close with more hands-on coaching in a game environment and get to know them  up close and personal.”

The action will take place on nine fields with 18 college coaches supervising the teams which are limited to no more than 12 players per squad.

The first set of games begin at 6:30 and the second set starts at 8:15 pm.

“What’s cool,” Smith says excitedly, “is the college coaches can maneuver players between different games.  So a Florida State coach playing against an Oregon coach in Game 1 can move a player so he’s being managed by a Texas coach going up against an Iowa coach in Game 2.”

“And what’s also neat is a lot of kids who are on the recruiting radar can have these college coaches see them up close and personal and speak to them in the dugout between at-bats.”

The actual team games—featuring a Who’s Who of top teams from Texas including the Texas Bombers, of course, along with Aces Express, Firecrackers, Houston Power, Impact Gold, Sudden Impact, Texas Blaze, Texas Glory, TXFC, San Antonio Hit, Texas Storm and many more—begin at 2 pm CST and are in a round-robin format so every team plays at least three games.

All told, there will be 55 teams, primarily in the 18U and 16U age divisions, with nine elite teams from Texas playing 14U games Saturday morning when the bulk of the college coaches will be there.


Players will get to be coached by college coaches Friday evening and then play with their regular club teams Saturday and Sunday.

And they will be there, according to Smith, who has coaches from all the major conferences—the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC—working the Game Clinics as well as watch the games to track prospects.

As beneficial as the on-field action will be for the college coaches, the Saturday night “Coaches Social” will be as informative and enjoyable off-the-field.

Staring at 7 pm with guest speakers including Jen Schroeder of The Package Deal talking catching, Head Coach Connie Clark of the Univ. of Texas speaking on pitching and Jake Schumann of the Univ. of Iowa covering hitting, the event will be for club and college coaches only.

“We wanted this to be an adult event,” Smith continues, “and to make it that way for college coaches and travel coaches to speak openly about the sport in a socially comfortable setting so they fell they can speak openly about issues as well as to network and build relationships.”

So since that BBQ dinner meeting in Oklahoma, how has the Exposure Weekend done?  Smith says he bases its success on the response and feedback he gets from the coaches.

“I would say that we see the event growing in stature every year based on the teams who keep wanting to come back.  This will be the first year we’re in Houston at the Scrap Yard because we have more fields to accommodate the demand from the teams and the college coaches.  Plus, it’s all turf so we won’t be rained out.”

“What we’ve seen is that teams are adamant about coming back and that makes feel good, knowing we’ve done well.  There are six or seven SEC schools who’ll be there and five programs who went to the WCWS.”

“We have college coaches coming from the Northeast, like Penn State, all the way to the Northwest, like Oregon. They’re coming from opposite ends of the country and everywhere in between.”

Fittingly, the event set up to help the uncommitted has paid off for the host team as well.  Smith says he’s had many players end up getting scholarship offers after being first noticed during the Texas Bombers Exposure Weekend.
 
“We probably get more looks at this event for our kids than other event we go to.”

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We’ll have more on the Texas Bombers Exposure Weekend throughout the week including the game schedule so keep checking back for more info!