By Nathan Rode and Rob Sidwell

The Florida Diamond Club Classic starts this afternoon in Lakeland, FL, showcasing the best players from the state at one central location. Florida director Rob Sidwell, who scouted for four major league organizations, has been going to the event for several years and shares some insight on it.

They take four teams—North, South, East and West—and take the top 20 kids in each region. Depending on the year, there may be a region that’s a little stronger so they’ll take extra kids and put them on a different team. Like a couple extra kids from the South and put them on the North team if it evens things out. It’s basically for seniors.

These are chosen by scouts. The scouts put it on, the scouts run it. It’s a scouting association is what the Florida Diamond Club is. It’s to try to bring all the top kids together for a weekend to be scouted, not only by Florida scouts, but be able to bring in their supervisors and bosses. It’s a great opportunity for supervisors and sometimes even scouting directors to come in and scouts the whole state of Florida in one weekend—with the exception of a few guys, maybe a few injuries or a few guys more than likely shut it down.