@GKUnion
@cinnamon1212
Ha! You’re welcome! Happy to pass on the information since I feel like there is just not a lot out there and the camps are expensive, time consuming and in the end you have to pick which ones to attend. You can’t attend all!
@cinnamon1212 Good luck at Brown and Tufts. Great coaches at both. Brown is building a new soccer stadium which is great for those coming up. The talent is not usually strong at their camp, so it can be hard to show. The Brown coaches definitely watch all of the players though. The assistant coach who does a lot of the recruiting (Banks) is great I hear. Best of luck and have your son email before and after camp and introduce himself to each coach the first day!
OK, back from Tufts and Brown ID camps.
Tufts - my son really enjoyed the camp, and enjoyed the fact that Coach Shapiro actually coached during the play (vs. just watched). We only did one day of the camps and there were about 40 kids there. I appreciated the advice for my son to introduce himself to the coaches, he learned they had been watching him at a tournament. Afterwards he emailed to thank them and asked for feedback, and Coach Shapiro replied within a few days with specific positives and specific things my son could work on.
Sideline tidbit - chatting to another parent, she said Shapiro replied to a boy on her son’s team with the feedback that they were not interested in recruiting him as he was too slow in the midfield. So I guess the feedback isn’t always positive.
Brown - much larger camp. They divided the boys into rising seniors and then everyone else. The rising senior level of play was noticeably better than the younger players. Talking to another parent who had also been at Tufts, his son told him the level of play at Brown was higher whereas my son said it was lower Both boys were right – my son was in the younger group, his son in the older, which explains their different points of view.
One younger boy (maybe more) was pulled up to play in the older game, but didn’t play as much (played half the game). This probably was significant as that boy is a really good player. I felt that the playing time was even for the younger boys with most playing 3/4’s of the game.
The coach told the boys at the end “If we are interested, we’ll get in touch”. The coaches seemed engaged and watching everyone all day.
I will say Brown didn’t make it easy. The camp packet directed us to a pay parking lot b/c parking is so horrendous around the campus. On arrival, the lot was closed to the public so we all had to scramble. Not at all a big deal, but surely they knew the parking lot was no longer usable. Also, they did not provide lunch, just a free hour.
All in all my son attended four one day camps (3 Nescac and Brown’s) and we’ve ended up where I hoped we would be, on some of the coaches’ radar, and with my son having a slightly better idea of the type of school he is interested in. As of now (because he could change his mind) he thinks he could be happy at any of them, but prefers Tufts’ and Brown’s proximity to cities, while having their own campus. To me this suggests we should look at Emory and U. Rochester. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Also, I should add, I recognize all these schools are reaches academically and soccer-wise for most kids, so more matches/safety suggestions would be great too! (Skidmore, though not in a city, would be in this category, I’d think).
PS The Middlebury Coach held a parents’ info session that I thought was really valuable, it wasn’t just the usual outline of the college process, he talked about his specifics – that he had 50 prereads, and 7 spots each year, and that all of his supported candidates historically have been admitted.
A parent asked if it was good for a player to attend more than one day, or more than one Middlebury camp. The coach basically said no, it was not, that they would evaluate the player the first time they saw him and that seeing him more wouldn’t change that assessment.
I think this is an important piece of information, because I met parents on the sidelines at several camps who told me that – without the coach asking them to – they were coming back to the school for their third ID camp or similar. I suspect they think this gives their son a better chance, but at least at Middlebury it does not, and I think it probably doesn’t at other schools either. If the player is weak, being seen more times doesn’t change that. (And, presumably if the player is strong, he has clearer coach interest).
Proximity to a city, with a self-defined campus? Might include Connecticut College – Murphy has retired/left and his assistant is taking over as head coach, though not sure if New London counts as a city for your son. Haverford College also a lovely self-defined campus, 20 min from Philly, though recruiting impact on admissions is often seen as less predictable than at many top schools. Rhodes, if you’ll look south, is both a self-defined campus and in a city. Take a look at Massey ratings for Men’s D3 soccer to get a sense for competitiveness of the soccer programs at schools of interest. At quick glance, Tufts, Chicago, Rochester, Case Western, Conn Coll, Haverford, and Carnegie Mellon are all in the top 20 (there are over 400 Men’s D3 Soccer programs.)
This is interesting. How are game positions determined at camp? I can’t image there was a proper number of recruits for each position? One college coach I know jokes that all freshmen are typically CM’s. And to that point, my son started with a new club this past spring and the team is coached by a very successful D3 coach. My son was primarily a CDM or AM at his previous club and HS team, but this coach moved him to RB/CB where he started every game. I asked him about it and he gave me lots of positive feedback on his his vision and soccer IQ and said that he can see my son playing CB in college. He prefers midfield, but it sounds like he probably has a better chance of playing D in college. So I’m going to encourage him to tell college coaches he’s a defender first and midfielder second.
You might want to check out Trinity (CT) and Union (NY). Hartford has more going on for students than Schenectady but neither is remote in the way that many NESCACS are.
@eb23282 Very helpful if a kid is flexible in positions. From watching my kid’s D3 matches, my casual observations are that defenders are generally bigger (5’10+), solid muscular guys (a lot of high school guys build more muscle once they hit the college weight room), fast, and ready to play physically. The good news is, for a defender, coaches almost always leave the back line untouched through the whole game, so once you’ve earned your way as a starter, you are likely playing every minute of every game. For a guy used to playing in the middle, there can be some advantages once they start playing in the back because they have the “soccer sense” to read what the attack is going to do, having done it themselves. Good luck with your kid’s process!
@eb23282 @Midwestmomofboys The realities of a goalkeepers life in college soccer have me wondering about a potential shift to defense for my son.
@GKUnion I know of 2 boys who played goalkeeper all through high school and club, their high school coach moved them to striker – and they were recruited as a striker (despite being along in the recruiting process as a GK)! The boy I know personally went to a highly ranked academic d3, and the boy I heard about I think went d1. So, you never know!
Conversely, and this is going back 25 years, I knew an all-state striker who was really a keeper. He went to Colgate and was an all-conference keeper there. Kicker was, he was about 5’10" on a good day, but quick as hell, which partially explains why he was a successful striker in HS.
@cinnamon1212 @eb23282 That’s funny, my son was a very good striker at the younger ages. Parents of his teammates thought we were crazy to “let” him play keeper. When I explained that it was his choice to make, not mine, they looked at me like I had 3 heads. Fast forward a couple years to a match where his team had a comfortable lead with 10 minutes left. The coach took him out to let the other keeper get some minutes. My son convinced his coach to put him back in at striker. He ended up scoring 2 quality goals. We got several “we told you so” looks from parents.
Do most people coordinate their ID Camp attendance with scheduled campus tours?
@GKUnion we did. If you don’t your son will only see the fields, and if you are lucky, the athletic facilities (and even those aren’t always part of the experience). I felt that the tours and info sessions were critical to helping him figure out what he liked. (There was nothing he didn’t like, but some things he liked more).
A downside is that it means staying another day, as the ID camps run all day, so no time to do the clinic and tour on the same day.
I learned a valuable lesson last night.
One of the schools my son is interested in requires a flight and then a 3 hour drive. They released their ID camp dates about a month ago. I thought about registering him and purchasing flights right away to ensure the cheapest airfare. After some thought I decided against it because we hadn’t received his fall soccer schedule yet and I didn’t want to take a chance with a conflict.
Well, yesterday we received his schedule and quickly realized the ID camp trip would work, though it would be hectic to make the flight out. Last night I went to the ID camp site to register and was surprised to find that they had changed the date by 2 weeks. The new date won’t work.
Imagine if I had registered right away? I’d be out hundreds of dollars in flights. I totally understand that most camp attendees live a relatively manageable car ride away. Changing dates won’t necessarily impact most families financially. Even still, once they post a date I would hope they’d continue to honor it. I’ll be much more careful going forward. Unfortunately, that most likely means a higher cost per camp that requires flights.
@GKUnion
Wow, that is ridiculous. All camps my son has attended have included kids from across the US and International. They have been D1, so maybe D3 is different but that is really unprofessional. So glad you had not booked yet.
@2022soon It was actually a top 30 D1 program. If I had to guess they chose a date that fit their soccer schedule without checking the football schedule. When I originally looked into hotels I thought it was strange their were no hotel rooms within 15-20 miles. That’s when I checked the schools football schedule and realized there was a big home game. I thought that was great! I was hoping to buy tickets and take my son.
That’s why you fly Southwest.
I never fly Southwest. Nothing is direct for us. I just checked their flights for that weekend. They range from 8 hours to over 11 hours. I could drive to this destination in around 12 hours.
@cinnamon1212 This post came to mind today when I was checking New England college commitments for the class of 2020. Your son should be in a strong position based on the schools that graduating players from his club are headed to next year:
Michigan
North Carolina x 2
Hobart
Princeton
Akron
Williams
St. Lawrence
Lehigh
Bucknell
Thanks @GKUnion ! Yes, I know most of those kids 
I will say, now that my son has hit junior year, the recruiting has ramped up considerably and I have a much better idea of where he stands.
Happy to pass on any info I have if you (or anyone) has questions. (Though, of course, I’m still on the learning curve!)