How to Decide Which Camps to Attend?

You should attend the camps of the schools that are actively recruiting your son, i.e. talking to him on the phone on at least a monthly basis… and no others.

I agree with 3and2, but I also think it's very common to get offers without attending any college camps. I can't recall - has your son done Headfirst (etc.) yet?  That's much more important IMHO.

Son is doing HeadFirst session 5, Aug 2-3.

Doesn't the HC (especially at HA D3) have to see the player in-person before an offer?  In other words, if an assistant is at HeadFirst, then almost certainly no slot will be offered without the HC's eyes too.

That's at least what all of these individual camps suggest, "this is how to get in front of our ENTIRE staff," e.g.

For what it's worth, my son received 3 offers and 2 invites for official visits late summer prior to senior year of high school. He attended many single-college camps....however he never attended any camps held by the 5 schools above who offered/invited for official visits. Your mileage may vary.

Hmmmm.... that's  a good question.  For us, it turned out that all the coaches recruited my son from HF and Stanford were head coaches.  I can't recall a significant interaction with an assistant. (and I'm not counting camp invites as significant)

I'm just guessing but I would imagine that in most cases an assistant is at HF because either A) they are not actively still recruiting the current class or B) the HC trusts the assistant's judgment on players'  completely, especially if the player has video and other evidence  as well.

My son received 3 offers and likely would have received many more but found the perfect fit and went early decision to a HA D3.  The head coaches at all 3 schools never saw him play in person.  The RC’s did, and the head coaches saw lots of video of him.

I signed my son up so he can get used to the "pressure" and to overcome nerves.  We found some cheap ones to do.  He is only a 2023 though.

@3and2Fastball posted:

My son received 3 offers and likely would have received many more but found the perfect fit and went early decision to a HA D3.  The head coaches at all 3 schools never saw him play in person.  The RC’s did, and the head coaches saw lots of video of him.

There are some kids - your son and West Coast Papa's son appear to be among them - who were at or near the top of many coaches' boards.  For kids like that, I think the answer to the original question is "you don't need to attend any college camps".  But what about the kids in the middle of the board or lower?  (I'm not saying that's your son, OP.) What do they need to do?  I don't really know, but it probably is different for each one, and it may involve camps, plus more reaching out, more emails, more networking, more expanding the number of schools you're targeting, and of course  having a little luck in finding the right match.

Good question, @JCG .  At this point I am starting to worry that that's my son, so I'd like the answer to that one too.

It's still very early. Hang in there!

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Son is doing HeadFirst session 5, Aug 2-3.

Doesn't the HC (especially at HA D3) have to see the player in-person before an offer?  In other words, if an assistant is at HeadFirst, then almost certainly no slot will be offered without the HC's eyes too.

That's at least what all of these individual camps suggest, "this is how to get in front of our ENTIRE staff," e.g.

This is true for my son.   The school he was most interested in had the RC at Headfirst and while we were pretty confident he was getting an offer they asked him to come to the camp at the end of August (we were HF the first week of August too).   This is when I joined HSBBW for advice! We were then contacted the day after the on-campus camp to come back up and meet with the HC and RC.  That's when we knew he was being offered and where they mentioned that they would use one of their "chits" if needed.   However he did get firm offers from other schools in the 2 weeks post-HF and a few came from very good D3 schools where the HC was not in attendance, so I don't think there is one set formula.

Another "two cents"...... my son did attend many camps with multiple college coaches in attendance. Some were better than others. At one of these "multi-school" camps is where an assistant from his future school first saw him. Best advice I received on this board was to cast a wide net and get in front of as many coaches possible.....which is easier to do at events where multiple coaches are present. Good Luck!! 

3 and 2 is exactly right. We learned the hard way. Flew the hell out to Pepperdine camp. He looks great. They ignored him. Never went to another camp where he was not recruited.

When he threw 93 we ignored them! Felt pretty good.

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Son is doing HeadFirst session 5, Aug 2-3.

Doesn't the HC (especially at HA D3) have to see the player in-person before an offer?  In other words, if an assistant is at HeadFirst, then almost certainly no slot will be offered without the HC's eyes too.

That's at least what all of these individual camps suggest, "this is how to get in front of our ENTIRE staff," e.g.

Not necessarily.  But that's what they may want you to think.

In 2018 (and I assume still today), Headfirst made a video of each player, and gave it to the schools who were there (and also sold it to players - we did NOT buy it).  So the HCs can see video of the players their assistants like.  The coaches got the video about 2 weeks after the camp, and I think my son got interest and offers at the end of August/early September from at least a couple of HCs whose assistants had been at the camp, who said they had seen the video.

EDITED TO ADD:  yes, they still do it, and they even say, "Regardless of which coach is in attendance, every coach at our partner programs will have access to the game film provided by NextPro – so when a coach pulls up your video, you have the eyes of the entire coaching staff on YOU."  Headfirst does know how to sell their service.

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Have also been taking this advice from a HeadFirst webinar: when a camp invite comes from a school that my son is potentially interested in, he emails the coach and explains that we have limited time and resources (can't attend ALL camps of course), but would like to speak with coach on the phone before signing up (our goal is to gauge their level of interest before laying down the money).  So far, that approach has only yielded one of those two aforementioned camp attendances.

This seems like good advice to me.

There is time, reevaluate after HF. Your kid should get contacted pretty quickly of there is serious interest. My kid's HS team mate got signed to a HA D3 last summer through one of the super showcases.

Send out emails to a wide variety of schools… emails that include metrics, GPA, and videos.  You will know which pond to fish in when you get replies

My kid got nothing but camp invites and “you look good, keep working at it” from D1’s and the top JUCO’s

When he started contacting D3’s he got a lot of coaches calling him, wanting him to visit campus, and selling him on their school.

All the wishing and hoping (and money!) won’t make a hill of beans of difference if you are fishing in the wrong pond

Cast a wide net!  

Did some research on PG this morning and I am heartened by the fact that only a handful of D3s have any 2022 commits listed on the site whatsoever: Hopkins has 2, Swat has 1, Roanoke has 1, Salisbury has 1, NYU has 2... not a lot else among the 50 or so mostly-HA schools that I clicked.

Yes - although for highly selective schools, many people don't post commitments until they have been accepted ED.  Even "guaranteed" slots don't always come through.  Mind you, from what we are hearing on the other thread, the same is true of D1 commitments and NLIs.

Great advice here!  The only tidbit I have to add is that depending on the coaching staff, + on your player's position, it may not be the HEAD coach but a certain coach that needs to see you.  Lefty was seen at Showball by head coach of a HA D3.  Head coach emailed asking for transcripts said "liked what he saw yada yada", about an hour after receiving them the pitching coach emailed saying he wanted to see him pitch.  Lucky for us he was willing to come to him. I've known a few other pitchers with same situation.  Pitching coach wanted to see them.  

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Did some research on PG this morning and I am heartened by the fact that only a handful of D3s have any 2022 commits listed on the site whatsoever: Hopkins has 2, Swat has 1, Roanoke has 1, Salisbury has 1, NYU has 2... not a lot else among the 50 or so mostly-HA schools that I clicked.

Yes it’s still early for D3’s.  Things should start heating up now for 2022’s in terms of phone calls and visits, and offers, between now and October.  Many schools have Early Decision in November.

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Did some research on PG this morning and I am heartened by the fact that only a handful of D3s have any 2022 commits listed on the site whatsoever: Hopkins has 2, Swat has 1, Roanoke has 1, Salisbury has 1, NYU has 2... not a lot else among the 50 or so mostly-HA schools that I clicked.

I don't think that info is meaningful.   Those are posted by the player or parent, not the school, and for us, we kept our mouths mostly zipped until he actually had his early admit notification, because at a HA D3 you're not in until you're really in, and putting the news on social media or PG would seem like tempting fate.  So there could be many more commits. Or not. You just do not know.

BTW my post about visiting my 2017's school (nothing about committing) showed up on Facebook today, so I know that exactly 5 years ago today he committed.  Kind of funny because tomorrow he starts his career.

We gotta get our guys working together in a few years, JCG.  

Whether they want to, or not.

@NotMadeOf$$ posted:

Did some research on PG this morning and I am heartened by the fact that only a handful of D3s have any 2022 commits listed on the site whatsoever: Hopkins has 2, Swat has 1, Roanoke has 1, Salisbury has 1, NYU has 2... not a lot else among the 50 or so mostly-HA schools that I clicked.

As others pointed out, then you have schools like Hopkins which asked it's entire 2020 recruiting class to take a gap year so not to lose a year of eligibility. Those kids will still show up as 2020s on sites like PG but will have 4 years remaining.

@smokeminside posted:

We gotta get our guys working together in a few years, JCG.  

Whether they want to, or not.

Sounds like a plan.  Let's figure out the name of the firm and the URL first, then we can start looking for office space.  One floor enough?