The ever changing, but not changing, world of ID Camps and recruiting is an important yet complicated topic. Are they important? Which one’s do I go to? How many? How early should I start going to them? What about camps hosted by youth clubs? What about camps hosted by third parties?
Let’s take a deep dive into the world of ID Camps, the pro’s, the con’s, and the recruiting rules around them!
There is no doubt that ID Camps give players an opportunity to get seen in from of collegiate coaches of all levels. An opportunity that at some level shouldn’t be missed.
College ID Camps – Many colleges and Universities host an ID Camp at some point throughout the year and many host multiple camps. While there certainly a revenue stream part of things that helps supplement salaries, I think most coaches would agree, that is less important than the value of getting players on our campuses, in our facilities, and having the opportunity to coach them. We all have players on our current rosters who we recruited because we identified them at an ID Camp. ID Camps also provide college coaches a loophole to contact potential recruits before June 15th preceding their senior year. The problem…how do you as a student athlete or parent of a student athlete know if that ID Camp email you have gotten is a “recruiting email” or just a marketing email to supplement numbers at camps? Some schools make it pretty obvious, but most don’t. So if you don’t know and you want to know, call the coaching staff! Have your club coach call or email the coaching staff! Hopefully they are honest and let you know where that camp email came from.
College ID camps vary. Some are just the coaching staff from that college or University, others try to round up a bunch of coaches and make it a big production. Either way there is some value, you get to decide what you want, where you want to go, and when. Remember is really never too early to go! You get to evaluate that coaching staff as much as they are evaluating you!
Club ID Camps – You want more bang for your buck? Go to one of the bigger Club ID Camps. Many clubs are doing them, some better than others. But if I can pay a similar amount of money as a college ID Camp and get in front of 20-30-40 college coaches, and be in a good environment, that is priority number one for me. Especially when my daughter is early in the recruiting process. The further along in the process we go, the more college ID camps we might attend.
Third Party Camps – This one is tough. On one hand you might be able to get in front of sometimes 50-60 college coaches at a third party camp. EXACT Soccer, CCSC, Future 500 are all examples of third party camps. On the other hand, they can get expensive. I have worked most of these at some point. I enjoy them, I get to see a lot of kids play in a couple days, but they can get expensive. So yes, I do recommend them, but I see them as an opportunity if you have the extra income to go to them. Bonus, you do get a few good days of quality training, lots of soccer, and then environment is usually a very good one!
Thanks for reading! I will definitely be posting much more often through out the spring and summer!
The Recruiting Dad
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