It’s getting to be high school playoff time across the country but that doesn’t mean we can’t sneak a peak down the road to start looking at some top club events coming up this summer!

One that has really exploded in size in the last two years is the Birmingham Thunderbolts 5 Star Exposure event that will be held June 19-21 in Montgomery, Ala.

Go to Tbolts5star.com to learn more.

The Tournament Director of 5 Star Exposure is Jay Roberson, who runs the Thunderbolts 99 team, which is ranked in Top 5 of the 16U FAB 50 Club Rankings.

“We started running this exposure two years ago as a small eight-team invite only deal,” the event director begins. “We wanted to bring in the best eight teams and make it easier for the college coaches to watch high level prospects in an intimate small setting.”

In 2014, there were still only eight teams invited, but the quality was so good over 60 Div. I college coaches came including every SEC school and major programs as far away as UCLA.

Positive word-of-mouth from the colleges led Roberson to greatly enlarge the event.

“Since the end of last year we have received increased requests from the college coaches to expand the exposure to include more teams,” the coach continues. “It’s not really what we wanted to do but we are going to give the coaches what they want so we have expanded the field to 90-100 teams.”

Because it is primarily an exposure event, only 14U and 16U teams will compete to “bring in the age groups that the coaches want to see.”

The Thunderbolts coach, which led his team to a 6-2 record and 7^th place finish at PGF Nationals 14U last year, says the goal of the event remains the same.

“We will continue to run a quality event the college coaches and nationally recognized teams/organizations want to be a part of year after year.  We could easily take 200-300 teams but we feel like when you bring in that many teams it makes it hard for the college coaches to see the majority of the teams and you have teams they may not get the exposure they desire.”

“We are only using two parks, Lagoon and Fain which are two of the nicest parks in the Southeast and the sites for multiple ASA/USA Nationals events. They are also very close making it easy for the coaches to work both parks and see lots of teams.”

“We have had over 120 college coaches commit to attending this year and I’m sure that number will be closer to 200 by June.”

Roberson adds that the intent is also to present the best prospects in the country with notable players from several age divisions.

“This year our goal was also to have the top 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016 prospects in the country at this event.  You will find multiple kids ranked in the Full Count Hot 100 in the 2018, 2017, and 2016 classes at the 5 Star and several 2019 players that will be in the Hot 100 when it is released.

“Make no mistake, we will have at least 20 kids there that will be ranked in Top 100 when 2019 rankings are released!”

The numbers back up the quality of talent already confirmed for the June event:

• Of the 2018 Hot 100, there are 17 of the top 100 who will play including a pair in the Top 10: No. 5 Cheyenne Lindsay (uncommitted) of the Frost Falcons and No. 7 Skylar Wallace (Alabama commit) who plays for Georgia Impact – Lewis.
• In the 2017 Hot 100 there are 19 of the top 100 who will take the field with two being Top 10 rated: No. 5 Alex Wilcox (Mississippi State verbal) with the Thunderbolts and No. 9 Gabby Sprang (Tennessee) of Georgia Impact – Jeffreys.

“We also will have multiple teams ranked in the Full Count Club Rankings in 14U and 16U.”

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Here is a list of the teams ranked in the Full Count Club Rankings Top 50 that will be attending:

14U Teams Attending Ranked in FAB 50 Club Rankings

• #7 – Georgia Impact – Lewis
• #9 – East Cobb Bullets – Biele
• #10 – Birmingham Thunderbolts 00
• #11 – Frost Falcons 00 – Frost
• #25 – Huntsville Sparks Elite 2000
• #27 – Birmingham Thunderbolts 01 – Dorsett
• #30 – Tulsa Elite 00 – Jacks
• #33 – Tennessee Fury 18/19/20
• #38 – Georgia Elite
• #39 – Carolina Elite – Fisher/Genovese
• #41 – Atlanta Premier – Perkins
• #42 – Georgia Impact – Stewart
• #47 – Georgia Force – Haag
• #49 – Jacksonville Storm

16U Teams Attending Ranked in FAB 50 Club Rankings

• #5 – Birmingham Thunderbolts 99 – Roberson
• #18 – Georgia Impact – Jeffreys
• #20 – New Jersey Intensity – Hannigan
• #26 – Carolina Elite – Fusetti
• #30 – Tennessee Fury 98