See also: Midwest Premier Baseball
Midwest Premier Baseball, a collection of some of the very best baseball organizations in the Midwest, will begin its 2021 schedule on Thursday of this week with the 13u Classic and 14u Classic. Both events will be four days long (June 3-6) held at the Woodside Sports Complex just outside the Wisconsin Dells, one of the top tourist destinations in the state of Wisconsin.
The events are part of a much larger schedule and fall under the U.S. Premier Baseball Tournament umbrella, the organization that schedules and manages the actual tournaments, with a combined 17u/18u event, a 15u tournament and a 16u one. The 15u event will be held in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, at the same time as the 2021 College World Series with the others being hosted at the Woodside Sports Complex.
After a challenging overall year, one that saw many players lose their high school baseball season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, many view the summer of 2021 as a new opportunity to get back on track, to move forward and make new opportunities. For Midwest Premier, that starts this week in the Wisconsin Dells.
“We’re very excited to have 13s and 14s at our Midwest Premier events,” said Jerry Daniels, co-owner of Midwest Premier Baseball and President of U.S. Premier Baseball Tournaments. “U.S. Premier Tournaments is very honored to host such prestigious teams at the 13u and 14u ages. We wish everyone the best of luck and safe travels. Let’s play ball.”
Here is list of those events:
U.S. Premier Baseball Tournaments
13u Classic, June 3-6, Woodside Sports Complex, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
14u Classic, June 3-6, Woodside Sports Complex, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
17u/18u Top Prospects Series, June 10-13, Woodside Sports Complex, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
Super 13s, June 10-13, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
15u Top Prospects Series, June 24-27, Various Locations, Omaha/Lincoln, Neb.
Super 17s, June 24-28, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
Super 18s, June 30-July 3, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
Super 15s, July 8-12, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
Super 16s, July 16-20, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
Super 14s, July 22-26, Creekside Baseball Park, Parkville, Mo.
16u Top Prospects Series, July 29-August 1, Woodside Sports Complex, Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
Midwest Premier Baseball’s stated mission is as follows:
Midwest Premier Baseball is a unity of baseball clubs that carry the same common goals. To raise young athletes to grow into men. Teaching them the game of baseball to prepare for recruiting. Showcasing them to colleges and pro scouts while playing the best competition.
As the level of quality competition has increased among Midwest teams in recent years so has the desire to face high level competition on a more consistent basis. While participating in much larger tournaments offers its own advantages, it also has its own unique set of challenges including the increased travel logistics and costs and the fact that teams may not face quality opponents in pool play when playing in an event that could have hundreds of teams.
To be the best you have to beat the best. And before you can compete at the national level you better know you can more than hold your own in your own backyard. Midwest Premier Baseball brings the best teams in the middle of our country together to raise the level of competition while providing the best tournament atmosphere at some of the best facilities.
There are 39 member organizations that make up Midwest Premier Baseball, and while not each and every organization sends a team to each and every event, each program does recognize the shared core values.
Here is a list of the Platinum members, listed by state:
Arkansas
Colorado
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Indiana
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Ohio
Oklahoma
Texas
Wisconsin
Here’s what some of the academy owners and operators had to say about Midwest Premier Baseball and the upcoming 13u and 14u Classic tournaments:
“We’ve heard a lot of great things about the fields, the city and the surrounding area. Midwest Premier was created to bring in the top clubs on the same fields, the same quad, the same complex – together – to draw the recruiting push. It’s a win for the teams, the organizations and the players.
“Our whole focus is pro development, trying to coach the kids up and play in the top events that we can possibly get in to. We’re not worried about wins and losses as much as [we are about getting] good competition. For the 13u age group, this age group in particular, we’re getting them ready for their high school years ahead of them.”
– Aaron Jaworowski, Rawlings Tigers
“It’s a privilege for the St. Louis Prospects to be a part of Midwest Premier. There are so many amazing clubs that are involved. Our high school teams have the opportunity to play against these other great clubs in the Midwest a lot, but the 13s and 14s really don’t. It’s an opportunity for our guys to get out of town, to see premium clubs and see teams that they don’t normally see. And I think that’s a really big deal.
“I think it’s really important for development to see a lot of different arms, to see good, young arms from other clubs. But it’s also [about] just getting out of your comfort zone a little bit and preparing for high school baseball or high school travel teams. They have the opportunity to see some of the top talent in the Midwest. So this is a preview of what they’re going to see [down the road]. It’s going to challenge them and sometimes it helps to understand that they have to continually work hard to get better to compete against those other clubs as they get to the high school levels.”
– Andy Benes, St. Louis Prospects
“The importance of Midwest Premier Baseball is to get the better teams together so the games are good on good. We sat down [initially] and got 10 teams from the Midwest and got them to commit. We knew we had to have a 13u, a 14u, a 15u, a 16u and a 17u week-long event – Thursday through Sunday, five game guarantee – and you go play. It’s a way that we can gather the better teams from the Midwest to play against each other where every game is good.
“It’s obviously not open to everybody, so every team is sending their best team for bragging rights.”
– RJ Fergus, Hitters Baseball
“When you play regional teams from some of the best academies you get a really good feel for where you sit in that age level and what your arms look like. It gets everyone playing on a speed that’s different than if you just go play a normal event. In a lot of teams’ cases, you just try to play the best competition so that the speed of the game is increased to your players; it helps everyone get better.
“The recruiting circuit in the Midwest for the most part is a traveling road show. You’re playing teams because you’re all at a certain level; it gives another great weekend of good competition, [it] accelerates players to play at a faster speed and at a higher level – which pays dividends down the road – and the best teams want to play each other.
“It’s exciting to have it [in the Midwest]. A lot of the [northern] teams have had to travel for so many years to southern events. With the talent we have in the Midwest here now and be able to play closer to home for a lot of us is exciting.”
– Greg Reinhard, GRB Academy
Make sure you follow all of the action from the 2021 13u and 14u Classic on the Midwest Premier Baseball Twitter page:
thegrindbaseball.com 