Chico Escuela posted:My only baseball-playing kid is a HS 2020, so I admit I don’t know much. But the advice to attend camps at the Ivies surprises me. If my son had already had some contact with an Ivy and gotten some real encouragement (more than just passing notice), then I guess I could see it. But otherwise, to invest in plane tickets, etc. in hopes of getting noticed by one school at their camp seems like an expensive gamble. Even if your kid has the tools, he could always have a bad day. (Yeah, that can happen at a showcase, too... ). I have always heard that going to a college camp is not generally a way to get discovered by a school, and that schools don’t generally think of camps as sources for recruits. Do others have a different opinion?
Hi Chico,
My son has gotten a ton of camp invites from all types of schools. He's a 2019 and ,as he's gotten older, the invites seem to be a bit more "serious" if that makes sense i.e. not as much looking like a form letter created from a list the schools from some marketing database. He's also been in touch with several coaches who have suggested that he come to one camp or another. Now I don't know what the actual numbers are but several of them have made it a point to mention that X number of current players attended one of their camps or "we recruited 4 players just out of our winter session alone," etc. This is still a marketing technique something akin to holding a raw steak in front of a hungry dog when it comes to dads and their baseball kid who wants to play at the next level but I'm sure there's some truth in there somewhere :-)
Also, sometimes there will be multiple schools represented at these and they're typically willing to divulge that information if you ask. It usually won't be a competing level school e.g. you won't have the University of Arkansas showing up at a Mizzou hosted camp. If the camp is hosted by a P5 D1 you'll see D2/D3/NAIA/Juco maybe.
All that said, we have been to a few specific school camps - either those of direct interest to my son, or convenient to our area. I can honestly say that I've felt each one has been worth something in the overall process by my son simply being able to interact with the coaches and players at the level he would like to play, and learning about a day in the life of a college baseball player firsthand. There has also been quite a bit of recruiting wisdom imparted at these and that was invaluable early in our process. Not all coaches deal with recruiting in exactly the same way so, if your son is interested in a particular set of schools, it's good to have a feel for how those coaches operate and prioritize.
We've gotten a few lately from the northeast but, to your point, it's not really feasible right now for me to catch a flight up to PA for a day unless my son gets an email, phone call, or text directly from the HC or RC saying we'd REALLY like to see you. My two cents.