Soccer ID Camps?

Athletic Recruits
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Or NAIA or Juco.

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It means that the coaching staff reached out to the player before they registered for the camp. It generally happens during their junior year of high school. Occasionally the coaches will contact a player’s club coach and that’s how word gets through.

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D1/2 coaches can contact 8th graders because they are not yet “prospective student athletes.” See 13.02.13 Prospective Student-Athlete. (“A prospective student-athlete is a student who has started classes for the ninth grade. In addition, a student who has not started classes for the ninth grade becomes a prospective student-athlete if the institution provides such an individual (or the individual’s family members or friends) any financial assistance or other benefits that the institution does not provide to prospective students generally.”).

When in doubt, check the NCAA rules. Each division defines “prospective student athlete” and informs what contacts can happen, when and where.

Start now. Go to the D1 ID camp. Expect nothing, but go to learn. I always quibble that the ID camps are not money makers, but rather fund raisers. Do they make money? Sometimes. Do they lose money? Maybe. The college camps are a bit different from those put on by independent groups that had better dang sure make money or sooner or later they will go out of business.

From a coach’s perspective, if you have a couple of potential recruits that you are really looking at, you need to have enough players to make at least two teams and most likely much more. Accordingly, generic invites by email or mailing are not true “invites” - they are designed to get warm bodies to the pitch. A true “invite” may be given a promo code with a discount to the camp or have a coach personally reach out to the athlete. Chances are this happens only in the rarest of cases with 8th graders.

Good luck and enjoy the process.

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I would suggest looking at the current rosters of some potential colleges to see what the profile of those players look like. Selective colleges get many very talented athletes for the same reason you describe and remember, D3 schools do not give sports scholarships.

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Wouldn’t this:

Prevent this?

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All of these questions can be answered by consulting the NCAA D1 Manual, which can be downloaded from the NCAA website at no cost. I will, however, take a shot and say “no” to your question. A coach can contact a potential recruit about a college camp, provided the camp is open to all (with certain appropriate restrictions, like age and gender).

The starting point for the analysis is that there is no outright prohibition on coaches contacting prospective student athletes. Off-campus contacts cannot take place before August 1 of the start of the student’s junior year (end of sophomore year, beginning of junior year). Rule 13.1.1.1. Outgoing telephone calls cannot take place until June 15 at the conclusion of the student’s sophomore year. Rule 13.1.3.1. There are sport-specific exceptions. There also is a different rule for student-initiated telephone calls. So, the coach-initiated telephone call prohibition generally is for freshmen and sophomore years.

On the other hand, the rules provide that a coach may provide information about camps without regard to the contact rule, dead periods or quiet periods. Specifically, “[c]amp or clinic information may be provided at any time.” See Rule 13.4.1.9. Since this Rule doesn’t distinguish between written information and information provided by telephone, I believe that a call about a camp (with promo code) would be permissible.

Moreover, the contact limitations do not apply to camps, although there are prohibitions on offers. “Recruiting Calendar Exceptions. Generally, the interaction during sports camps and clinics between prospective student-athletes and those coaches employed by the camp or clinic is not subject to the recruiting calendar restrictions. However, an institutional staff member employed at any camp or clinic (e.g., counselor, director) is prohibited from recruiting any prospective student-athlete during the time period that the camp or clinic is conducted (from the time the prospective student-athlete reports to the camp or clinic until the conclusion of all camp activities). The prohibition against recruiting includes extending written offers of financial aid to any prospective student-athlete during the prospective student-athlete’s attendance at the camp or clinic.” Rule 13.12.1.5

Complex perhaps, but download the Manual(s) - one for each division - and work your way through your specific questions.

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My 2 cents: don’t worry about parsing these details. They almost certainly will not affect your son. It is too early for any meaningful recruiting.

Start the process, if you want, and see where it goes. Your club really should be advising you – if not as to particular schools, then the level of school he should be reaching out to.

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To emphasize what others have said, don’t fixate too much on particular schools or camps just yet.

I do think it might be helpful to attend a camp or two now, to get a better idea of what to expect if he wants to go down the recruiting road later. From that perspective, it might be better to go to a camp that is not at any likely top-choice schools — for practice.

One of the best things he can practice at this point is learning good communication skills with the coaches: eye contact, handshakes, more than one-word answers, ready with questions and thank-yous at the end of each session.

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