Proof Positive of how little Camp Invitations Really Mean

I agree - still in the process but those invites mean nothing.     I have even recently viewed a few where it looks like a personal e-mail...but it is not.  And others that come in looking like bulk e-mails when in fact it is a personal note from a coach - telling your son that he cannot offer him a roster spot but he is welcome to try out for the team in the fall after he graduates from high school.  Thanks for posting.

Well for sure, those invites are not worth the pixels they are written on, however, to RKBH's point I would read all these emails carefully before deleting as I have noticed that a lot of coaches are using the exact same email platform that they use to do camp invites to write personal introductory emails.  In other words, the camp invite layout and graphics look just like the graphics on the legit email.

This is timely. My 2018 is going through the process and we trying to make sense of all the camp invitations. Some could not be any more obvious that they are form letters. Not even a contact email or phone number included for a coach or assistant. Others specifically mention where they saw my player and how they think he might contribute to their program. Still, just a better sales pitch? Who knows?

We are coming to terms with the fact that there are schools that he may be interested in attending that we can afford if there is no baseball money or academic money. He gets good grades (3.4+ GPA) but made it clear to mom and me that he does not want to kill himself in the classroom in college, so high academics are out. If a school likes him enough to throw some money at him, all the better.

To muddy the waters even further, and to add that much additional stress, we see some of his club teammates "committing" for some big name, high-level schools. I can't make sense of this either. What exactly is a 2018 committing to when they have not even taken SATs yet?

It ain't easy figuring it all out.

My guess is that there is criteria for sending them in the first place.  My son gets invites from colleges that do not send to his other teammates and vice versa.  Why is that?  

Ryan still gets them weekly, and he has now started his Soph. year.  Just yesterday the Univ. of Washington sent one inviting them to their Fall Infielders Camp. 

The parents of a 15yo I coached were going on and on how UNC was interested in their son. They didn't know the game. The kid was a man child at thirteen. He was t much bigger at fifteen. I saw him as a potential D2 prospect. He was athletic and strong even though he stopped growing.

After a tournament game one day I informed them UNC was interested in another of our players as well. I filled out their online recruiting form with my dog's name. My dog received the exact same form letter camp invite.

i told the parents I wasn't going to humiliate them by passing this story around. I was just trying to provide some reality and perspective.

i did tell the coaching staff. Never tell these stories sitting around drinking beer. One of them passed beer through his nose.

mdschert posted:

My guess is that there is criteria for sending them in the first place.  My son gets invites from colleges that do not send to his other teammates and vice versa.  Why is that?  

He is probably on some list that the others aren't.
I get some invites sent to my email (the more generic ones), while he gets others sent to his.

It is clear based on the feedback and experiences of those that have gone down this path is that camp invites are neat to get but that's about it.

I will pose this question though - if let's say a HS sophomore's player information (grades, short video) is sent to a recruiting coordinator and in return you get a camp invite from not only the recruiting coordinator, but also the head coach in a separate e-mail does it mean anything at all?

It seems like some schools will send camp info (with a caveat about NCAA contact rules) almost immediately and from multiple members of the coaching staff. While others will reply with camp info from a graduate assistant coach. I assume nothing should be read into camp invites, even when it is the head coach sending it?

WCP   

These things can mean something or nothing. My 2018 gets camp invites from schools we know are very interested. These are generic invites that other teammates get. I've even seen a few that make the mistake of having "/#firstname#/" as the greeting where they somehow forgot to substitute his actual name. These come from schools where he is actively being recruited and it's clear he ended up on a list somewhere. He's even gotten invites from a camp where he had already been registered for months. They are 98% simply the result of being on a mailing list.

mdschert posted:

My guess is that there is criteria for sending them in the first place.  My son gets invites from colleges that do not send to his other teammates and vice versa.  Why is that?  

I have the same question. My son has been to showcases with 60+ schools attending. Not every school send camp invite. In fact, the schools that do send invites are all schools that he thought he has a fair chance of playing in. And when he compare notes with other player who attended the same camp, they don't receive camp invite from the same schools. Does that mean that the schools do some filtering of the mailing list?

And a related question: if a coach send an email without camp invite; only program introductions and requesting transcripts. Does that mean the coach has real interest?

roothog66 posted:

They are 98% simply the result of being on a mailing list.

Exactly.  Another mildly annoying trend we've noticed is that even after my kid has told a school that he's not interested, they give his email to admissions, and those guys bombard him.

Bogeyorpar posted:

And a related question: if a coach send an email without camp invite; only program introductions and requesting transcripts. Does that mean the coach has real interest?

 

My son got this kind of thing from a fair number of schools when he was in HS.  I think you can take more from this than a camp invite, but I still wouldn't overestimate it.  

We got the sense that some schools are pretty aggressive at compiling a list of "potential recruits."   But the list of potential recruits is, I suspect,  far larger than the list of guys who will actually be recruited.  No harm in filling out those recruitment forms, sending transcripts, and seeing where it leads.  But that's just a first step.   Mine actually had a few extended flirtations with three or four schools  that began with this kind of request.   For one of these schools I'm pretty sure the transcripts --- which were not his strong suit  -- ended it altogether.  In  two other cases, with less academically competitive schools, the schools both eventually saw him play  -- one of them several times.   The other school even wrote back to ask if he was still unsigned after they lost out on somebody who was evidently ahead of him.   They said they were eager to see him play again to see if he might be the OF they were still looking for.  Would have been a great opportunity, but  unfortunately, he was injured at the time and remained shut down until the start of the HS season.    So  in the end nothing came of it.  

Point being, it's a long process, with many twist and turns.  Being invited to submit transcripts/fill out a prospect form  etc. can be a start, but only a start. 

SluggerDad posted:

Bogeyorpar posted:

And a related question: if a coach send an email without camp invite; only program introductions and requesting transcripts. Does that mean the coach has real interest?

 

My son got this kind of thing from a fair number of schools when he was in HS.  I think you can take more from this than a camp invite, but I still wouldn't overestimate it.  

We got the sense that some schools are pretty aggressive at compiling a list of "potential recruits."   But the list of potential recruits is, I suspect,  far larger than the list of guys who will actually be recruited.  No harm in filling out those recruitment forms, sending transcripts, and seeing where it leads.  But that's just a first step.   Mine actually had a few extended flirtations with three or four schools  that began with this kind of request.   For one of these schools I'm pretty sure the transcripts --- which were not his strong suit  -- ended it altogether.  In  two other cases, with less academically competitive schools, the schools both eventually saw him play  -- one of them several times.   The other school even wrote back to ask if he was still unsigned after they lost out on somebody who was evidently ahead of him.   They said they were eager to see him play again to see if he might be the OF they were still looking for.  Would have been a great opportunity, but  unfortunately, he was injured at the time and remained shut down until the start of the HS season.    So  in the end nothing came of it.  

Point being, it's a long process, with many twist and turns.  Being invited to submit transcripts/fill out a prospect form  etc. can be a start, but only a start. 

I think it can be long or short or in between.   I guess my kid was fortunate, but he had some intro emails that escalated into "when can  you come for a visit?"  very quickly. 

It was about this time last summer when my 2016 got a slew of what appeared to be canned emails - all from coaches that saw him at HF.  I think a lot of these D3 northeast schools use the same program to send it.  So while I agree that the email invites to attend prospect camps are 98% a waste of time, please read the emails anyway.  All of those apparently canned emails contained personal messages and invites to visit the schools/coaches and stay overnight.  

BTW - he was not asked to attend the prospect camps at one of those schools that were interested.  At the school he's attending (and where we just moved him in today) we visited Fri/Sat in Sept and the prospect camp was Sunday. 

Additional note since it's top of mind and I was thinking about posting it somewhere.  Son's school had 13 "recruits" - they lost 13 players to graduation - and 9 other players who want to try out at the baseball meeting today for incoming freshman.  There are a lot of open spots but there are also a lot of players interested in them.

My son got hundreds of these emails. He went to two camps and received an offer from each of those two schools. He received no other offers.

He is now a 5th year senior "assistant coach" (I think he's the official foul ball chaser) but worked a camp last weekend. He told me they saw a lot and learned a lot. The camp impacted their recruiting approach.

The best advice I can give anyone out there is this:

1.  College is a place to get an education. Baseball can help pay for that education. It's also a lot of fun.
2. Your son needs to determine:
   1. what does he want to be when he grows up
   2. find a school that teaches that and has a baseball team
   3. narrow the search to determine a small list of schools he really wants to attend (location, size, climate, coaches, etc)
3. Show that he's interested in them by going to a camp and playing well

IMHO camps are a great way for a player to confirm his interest in a program. If your son wants to go to a school, sign up for a camp, pay the fee and go.  It shows you really want to be there. You can pay thousands to get seen at these "premier events" but for hundreds you can get a private try out. The key is to try out at a school you REALLY want to attend.

I thought I would bump this thread since I just opened up my email to find an email inviting my 14 year old to a Fall Prospect Camp 5 states away so that they could "Really get a feel for him as a person on and off the field."