Title says it all... if a kid's been personally invited by a RC or HC to a camp and plans to attend, should he make it public information?
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I would say there is no reason to unless they ask who else you were talking to you and you were actually talking to the coach from the camp. The only time we ever mentioned it is if we had a conflict and could only attend the camp one day.
No. But if someone asks, it's fine to answer truthfully.
If by making it public you mean tweeting "Thanks to Coach X at Big State U for a great camp!", I would say don't do it. If another coach asks, I would answer honestly.
I would assume that every coach knows pretty much what you are doing. On the one hand none of their business. On the other hand, it's a small world and there are no secrets. I'd say it's personal preference as to how much you or your son want to share.
@NotMadeOf$$ posted:Title says it all...
The answer is “Yes. It’s good for the coaches to know just how much of a sucker you are for easy money. Then they can put you on the list for future camp invites.”
@NotMadeOf$$ posted:Title says it all... if a kid's been personally invited by a RC or HC to a camp and plans to attend, should he make it public information?
So, I'm going to answer this two ways. First, yes share the info if asked directly. Secondly, it never hurts if a well connected travel coach "accidently" shares that information to the requesting school if they are really interested in your son. This helps establish a market for your son, no doubt worked to my son's advantage many years ago.
I guess what I really want to know... should individual schools' camps be included in the list when a coach asks for my son's summer schedule?
If the camp is open for anyone/coach to come watch and it's reasonable/possible for the other coach to attend, I don't see why not. The idea of providing the schedule to targets is to give them as many possible dates to choose from to schedule time to come see the prospect. Having said that, I'd put "7/16/21 - University of X Prospect Camp" and call it good. I wouldn't put "7/16/21 - University of X Prospect Camp, Coach Johnson personally invited me to attend" The coaches will see the camp listed there and connect the dots. And if they want to truly know the interest level of University of X, they'll ask you straight up. IMO there's a very fine line between skillfully building your brand/leveraging legit interest and overtly boasting/trying to "work it." Coaches want to feel loved as well. In this climate, I'd argue VERY few kids hold any leverage whatsoever over a prospective coach. Most can afford to select the players that truly want to be in their program the most.
Unless you are talking about D3 camps it doesn’t matter what you say to who. HS kids aren’t going to be recruited out of prospect camps they way they have in the past. If you are attending D1/D2 camps for anything other than the experience you are wasting your time and resources. That’s always been the case for the vast majority of players but it’s even more true now.
- “adapt or die” - Billy Beane (in Moneyball)
I would say yes to including camps on your summer schedule. We went to several camps or showcases where the morning activities just included the host schools but in the afternoon various D3 and juco coaches from around the area would come in to observe. I don't know how much people are actually recruited out of those camps, as adbono said, but it's at least an opportunity for schools further down the food chain to get a glimpse of people they probably can't afford to travel to see.
And in reply to adbono's comment about attending camps for the experience, I agree. But not just for baseball. Go in a day early and do all the stuff any prospective student would do. See the dorms, if school's in session go to a class in a possible major, meet with a professor. There's a lot more to college than baseball.
@Iowamom23 posted:I would say yes to including camps on your summer schedule. We went to several camps or showcases where the morning activities just included the host schools but in the afternoon various D3 and juco coaches from around the area would come in to observe. I don't know how much people are actually recruited out of those camps, as adbono said, but it's at least an opportunity for schools further down the food chain to get a glimpse of people they probably can't afford to travel to see.
And in reply to adbono's comment about attending camps for the experience, I agree. But not just for baseball. Go in a day early and do all the stuff any prospective student would do. See the dorms, if school's in session go to a class in a possible major, meet with a professor. There's a lot more to college than baseball.
Good post. Agree with all of the above!
Having a discussion with a coach is like being in court. Be truthful. But don’t provide information they didn’t ask for.
Agree with Iowamom. When my son was 15 we started taking him on campus tours. Spent a lot of time on Illinois’ campus, and Iowa’s. Both beautiful campuses. Did we ever think he could get recruited by those schools? Not really, but we wanted him to get some perspective on what college campuses are like. Took him to JUCO schools, D3’s, D2’s, etc
By the time he was ready to commit, he had visited a few dozen colleges as a prospective student, and had gone on 3 official visits as an athlete, and had an idea of what he liked and didn’t.
College camps are really not part of the recruiting experience for a vast majority of players. We did take our son to one camp, as a fun day of extra Baseball and as partially a family vacation.
It was at Southeast Missouri. Their coach had seen our son play in a 15U tournament and invited him. Did we really think they would offer him? Nope. We did our homework and saw that a vast majority of their corner guys were JUCO transfers. But we looked at it as a fun road trip, and figured if our kid went JUCO it would give him some perspective.
Our kid had a blast at the camp. We really enjoyed seeing the historical sites around Cape Girardeau, and had a fun night on the Mississippi River. Then on the way back we had another really fun day exploring St Louis
so it was fun and worthwhile in terms of creating childhood memories and a great family vacation. Part of our kids recruiting journey? Not really.