My 8th grader is asking about attending some soccer ID camps at colleges this summer.
Is this a good idea?
If so, should we be thinking of this as just a way to play some soccer and learn how this works, or as a connection to a specific school.
For example, there is one at the D1 school that is a couple miles from my house. I am pretty sure kid won’t want to go there because they don’t have engineering. But if the goal is just to figure out what they are like, then that would be convenient! On the other hand if the goal is to be remembered then maybe it’s worth picking schools he might want to attend?
Or should we pick based on something else, like X school has a great camp reputation, or always start with D3 or something like that.
Personally, I would just have them get experience attending these camps. Kid being an engineering major or knowing what school they might like to attend at this point seem so early to know.
Is your child a boy or a girl? The timeline for girls is slightly accelerated. Regardless, an 8th grader isn’t going to stack up well unless they are large for their age, very skilled, and very fast. If your child hasn’t been called into a U14 US National Team training camp they likely will be outmatched at any D1 soccer camp.
Feel free to attend a camp, but know that your 8th grader will be competing against larger, stronger and faster high school students looking to get noticed. There is very little teamwork at a camp.
Going to a camp can be a good training and social experience but not likely to be relevant for recruiting purposes at the 8th grade level. Our experience with D1 summer camps was that kids were grouped by age so that your 8th grader would be training/playing with, for ex., 7th and 8th graders, if the camp takes them that young.
If recruiting is a long term goal, then having some summer experience before it really matters can be practical, to sort of “work the kinks out.” Camps give a kid has the chance to adapt to sharing a dorm room with other kids, being on a fixed – and challenging – schedule, and dealing with homesickness, bruises, disappointments etc.
Forget about the academics at this point, and focus on the soccer, with a view to it being a good experience and not expecting it to affect recruiting. What camps do the club coaches recommend? I would do some of those
I just want to make it clear in case someone is unsure, and I am confident this is what @cinnamon1212 meant, don’t focus on academics when choosing a camp. In school, particularly HS, academics first. Always.
Ha ha, yes, I meant forget about which schools have engineering at this point etc. The goal is to get familiar with what a soccer camp is like, it’s a bonus if you can have a look around the campus, and/or get any recruiting feedback. As I recall Dartmouth’s camp took 8th graders (or did so 6-ish years ago). But again, ask the club coaches what they recommend, in terms of camps.
Is being the youngest and smallest a bad thing? He’s pretty large, and skilled and fast for a 13 year old, but I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be outmatched if he’s up against kids who are large, and skilled and fast for 17.
But he’s also a kid who doesn’t shy from challenge, so I think it could be a good challenge.
Is there a downside to him being outmatched? A chance that the coaches will remember that he was a little small and slow relatively, and not take into account that he was young?
There is always the risk of injury. And some kids don’t have great perspective and measure themselves against the older, more experiences athletes. If its a sleep over camp it may also be socially difficult to connect if the group is largely older.
Is this a camp specifically for that school, or put on by a group of schools?
Most of these ID camps, especially the group of school ones, are money generating features for coaches, and I’m not saying that is a bad thing. They do have some value. Undoubtedly, many players who wind up at a particular school may attend one of the ID camps, sometimes at the coach’s request. The big camps with groups of schools often sort the kids somewhat by the level they currently play at, and soccer is a sport where it can be difficult to show out if those around you are lagging. Every coach is not watching everything at once, so the odds of getting spotted by the “right” person aren’t great. The big ID sessions with lots of schools provide a glimpse of what a college workout might be like, and usually an overview of the recruiting process (which you can probably get here or searching on-line just as well). When my S was a 10th grader he attended one and did very well. He asked a coach how he did. Coach had him confirm his age twice, because the coach was really impressed and he was too young for the coach to discuss scholarships with. He says “Come back next year, we can talk money”. This was the summer before COVID hit, and the school was not really compatible for S’s pre-med major anyways, but the coach also had much more focus on immediate needs and older players (even the ones he outplayed). Basically, unless you specifically know you are interested in a participating school and contact them ahead of time, the “recruiting” benefit of the bigger group sessions is limited, especially as an 8th grader. The reel benefit for these for younger players is getting to experience different coaching (club teams can be very narrow in coaching tactics) and also to network with other players. For older players, I think it can be useful if there is a specific school you want to connect with based on the player’s academic goals/needs. However, a better alternative is to attend the ID session put on solely by the school you are interested in if they have them (and most do). These are usually even more like a college practice day, and hands on with the coaches and players at that school, so both sides get a better read on each other. Also usually cheaper than the big multi-school events. At 8th grade the player might not know which schools they are interested in though.
What level of soccer is your kid playing now? Frankly, unless he is on the top team of a major club, don’t think too far ahead. Kids will be likely broken up by age depending on how many show up. There might be an assistant coach or two snooping around. But for guys, getting a meaningful scholarship for soccer is getting harder by the day.
If he loves the sport, and it is affordable, let him just go and enjoy it. Many of the drills will be similar between all age groups but I suspect scrimmages will be segregated by age or vesrus kids one age group up or down.
I should have said that there is no recruiting downside to your son attending a D1 camp. The coaches literally aren’t going to look at him in terms of recruiting. If nothing else, it will be a good test for him.
At many D1 camps there are players that register, and then there are players the coaches encouraged/invited to attend. The assistant coaches will mostly monitor the registered players. The head coach will monitor the invited players. Each group of players will, at some point, be mixed together during the camp. In the end, though, only the best registered players will end up playing full field with the invited players, at least in my experience.
All that being said, my son’s very first camp as a high school freshman was with the school that ended up recruiting him. He was big, strong, fast and confident for his age. He is also a bit crazy. What caught their attention initially is that he wore a short sleeve t-shirt and shorts, in February, when it was in the 30’s and windy. He doesn’t get cold. Every other player was bundled up with sweatshirts, sweatpants and winter hats. LOL! The coaches pulled him aside after the camp and spoke with him for 5-10 minutes. It was a good sign.
After the camp he barely received an email at all from the school, even when he reached the point where they could communicate. He was being recruited by several schools during his junior year, but not the school mentioned above from the camp. They attended his games at showcases, but again, radio silence. It was 4 days before my son was headed to the summer showcase after his junior year that they called and offered him a spot on their team. My son was a day away from committing to another D1 school. It was a crazy time, but he chose the school from that first camp in the end.
You’re in for a rollercoaster, and you’ll likely be flying blind 95% of the time. Enjoy the ride, but don’t worry too much about camps for another couple of years.
Most of those ones you linked appear to be put on by the colleges themselves and just their staff. Sometimes smaller schools in a particular region do “pool” together for more “organic” multi school ID sessions. A top 20 DII program in our area does a 1 or 2 day ID session every summer, but they do have 4-6 other programs from the state involved and advertised on the camp website. I view those as similar to an individual school’s ID session, but be sure to contact any school of particular interest before hand to let them know you are coming and interested.
The camps that are put on with multiple colleges will generally advertise it in their e-mails and websites because for many it is a selling point. “Be seen by XXX number of colleges”. Many are “traveling shows” that hit multiple markets. The more regional/national events a player plays in, the more e-mail invites you get. I remember “Ryzer”, Future500, “Academic50”, Exact sports, etc.
When people say that some athletes are “invited”, what do they mean?
My kid has gotten emails about camps. But I assume that that’s because he emailed the school, or filled out some form, and then got added to a marketing list.
Is there a way to tell the difference between “We want a lot of people to come because we want money!” and “We would like to see you play.” I assume the latter comes later?
At this age, they are most likely mass marketing emails. If there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or looks like a form email with no personal message to your kid from a coach, it is a mass market email designed to make money.
Recruiting really is a marathon, not a sprint. Dipping a toe in the water at this point is a good idea-just don’t jump in all the way just yet.