Is it to young to go to a couple of baseball camps at schools son may be interested? 2027 is pretty good and very smart. I understand with the new rules and portal in place these colleges may not be interested in attending some of these tournaments/showcases. I was thinking why not, especially if they are only about $100.
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We had great luck at some camps. Others were run so badly, they didn’t even know which kids were there. Does give you an indication of how the program runs though. We went to a few summer after freshman year and several fall of sophomore year.
You have to start the journey somewhere. Why not attend a tourney/showcase that your son may be interested in the future for $100. Honestly, it is just as important to know what you want as well as knowing what you don't want. Understanding your son is going for the experience and not exposure should take the pressure off of him.
Also, feel free to tour campuses while you are there. My son really liked to do that. One school he visited he watched a bunch of college students playing Quidditch on broomsticks which he thought was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. You don't know what you are going to see or experience which is kind of the point! Enjoy and have fun.
As always, JMO.
I learned a lot just by comparing how a couple schools "felt." I don't think there's a downside if expectations are modest. Three rules I would follow if I had it to do over again: Don't go if you're injured, get a good night's sleep the night prior, and take the campus tour.
My son attended a showcase style event at a local mid major when he was a 5’11’ 135 freshman. He had no interest in attending the school. The idea was to learn the process of a showcase and see how other kids who thought they could play there stacked up. It was only $125.
We saw zero benefit in attending camps at that age and hindsight being 20/20 we were correct. Your mileage may vary
My son attended a camp at that age because we didn't realize they were about recruiting. We thought it was a way to spend a few days in the summer learning about baseball. Better than sitting around playing video games, and there wasn't much else for an 8th-9th-grader to do in the summer, since he was playing baseball most Th-F-Sa-Su and so couldn't do (or be a counselor at) other kinds of camps.
Did nothing for recruiting! Good thing we didn't expect anything. I will say that when he finally did go to one recruiting camp (17U summer), he learned some things that he continued to use.
@baseballhs posted:We had great luck at some camps. Others were run so badly, they didn’t even know which kids were there. Does give you an indication of how the program runs though. We went to a few summer after freshman year and several fall of sophomore year.
Great answer. If they can't run a camp, they can't run a program and that has played out over the years with both sons who are 8 years apart. The ones who could not do a good job of recruiting or running camps could not succeed as coaches.
We started having weekly calls from 2 camps my son attended summer after/freshman fall sophomore. They can’t do that now, but it did help his recruiting and they were watching. Vanderbilt actually sends pitchers the metrics of every pitch they threw and what everyone else did too (it’s a spreadsheet), so they were collecting info. And again, best run camp we ever attended and it wasn’t close.
My son did one early just for one of the reasons stated above. None of us expected a call or any interest, it was for the experience only. If it's close and inexpensive it was a chance to get the nerves out, understand the process, so when he got older, and it mattered it wasn't a shock.
