My son is currently u15, but will be u16 next summer. He is interested in playing soccer in college. I am wondering what are the best camps for the summer before his sophomore year. I know he's a little young for the coaches to be interested in him yet, but I figure there are good camps that would give him experience as to what college coaches want. For background (read only if interested, but my question is in the first paragraph)- We live in a highly competitive soccer area. My son is on a good but not elite team. We know that top coaches mainly look at MLS Next teams but my son started soccer pretty late (he was 10.5) and he's a late bloomer puberty wise, so he's just been working his way up with teams. However, from what I can tell from trainings, pick up games, and camps with kids from those top teams, he is very competitive with them--he has great speed of play, technical skills, and soccer IQ. In fact, he looks to be better than most of them from what I have seen, but since I am seeing them at trainings and not in games, it's hard to tell. But one thing that most of the kids on the top teams have in common is that they are very advanced in their physical maturity. I figured he would try out for those teams when he had caught up puberty wise, but now he is already going to be a sophomore and I am not sure what team he will be on next year, so I want to figure out how to get him in front of college coaches even if he's not on a top academy team. I know sending videos to coaches is the main thing to do for next year, but I want to know what are the best camps for next summer. Camp options: Multi-college camps-like Exact ID and Totally About It camps-good to give him experience or money grabs? College ID camps--we will do one local one that is good, but would doing another one or two be beneficial? PSG or Barcelona/La Liga branded camps--good camps or money grabs? Local camps run by local club coaches--not college related but might still be good options to make connections with different coaches
Is his ultimate goal for this camp exposure to a number of college coaches or is it skills training / development? I would generally lean towards going to a week-long overnight camp at a college within a few hours of you that has a strong soccer program - they'll get high quality college coaching and exposure to players from a pretty wide area. Not to mention, they're usually fun as well. My son in the past has gone to camps at Syracuse and Univ. of Akron (the summer after they won the national championship). For recruiting purposes, you could have him do a one-day ID camp at a local college as well. I do think the PSG / Barcelona branded camps are generally a money grab, IMO.
My son (2005) hasn't done them in the past because of the cost, but we know a couple of players who've done Exact camps and like them for the shear number of coaches who attend -- lots of opportunities to contact coaches ahead and of time and connect at or after the camp. One of his teammates has interest from a couple of schools that he met coaches from at an Exact camp. This has been COVID-influenced, but we've mostly looked around for one-day ID camps where more than one college is represented. They tend to be less expensive, too.
This would be to meet college coaches. He has skills training and team practices with his club team 5 days a week so he gets plenty of development training through his club.
My son has just signed with a college (DIII). We've done one day camps put on by colleges, we've done one day (and half day) camps put on by organizations, we've done multiday camps put on by colleges and multiday camps put on by organizations. First, let's get one thing out of the way, with rare exception, they are ALL money grabs. If they weren't making money off them, they wouldn't do them. As far as how much he can get out of them... it can be a lot. I wish my son could have done more when he was an underclassman, but that's when Covid hit and the camps were basically shut down. A lot of colleges are still doing some ID camps. These might be good to see where he is in relation to the HS kids older than him and possibly college players. If there's a particular school he's interested in, see if they still have a one day camp. Even the college sponsored camps had coaches from other colleges/universities. I think overnight camps are beneficial if you can find one the price is right. We've done Exact one day camps as well as College Prospect 1/2 day camps. They all offered multiple coaches and multiple levels (usually one each D1, D2, D3, NAIA). I liked the Exact ones better. We got not only a written evaluation from one of the coaches, but access to the video from the scrimmages. Exact camps can be pricey. I don't know if we got in early, but we paid 1/2 of what the cost is now. College Prospect was ~ 1/2 the price of Exact, but I don't think was quite as good. The camps have led to exposure. At one of the Exact camps, one of the coaches called DS while we were driving home (we had literally just left) and invited us for a visit. We ended up not going there, but the coach didn't even have him on the radar until that camp. When he was U15(?), he attended a week long camp put on by ISL (they were tied to Barcelona). As a result of that camp, he was invited to play on a US based team in the MIC tournament in Spain. Of course not for free (ie: money grab), but he got to play against some REALLY good teams/players (including Barcelona's academy at that age group). The same camp the year before didn't result in anything. Whew, this turned into a long post. I would find some cheap one day camps to go to this spring, and see if he likes the coaches/players. If so, see if that college offers a 3-4 day camp. If he goes to the camps and makes "all star" teams, that's a good sign. But it doesn't necessarily mean anything. DS attended Xavier's one day camp his Sophomore year, their week long camp between Sophomore & Junior year, then their one camp back in January. Made "all star" all three times. Never heard from them in the recruiting process. Hope this helps (not that I'm sure I gave any good information).
Sam_Gordon, this is exactly the type of information I am looking for! Thank you! I would love to continue to hear from others also.
CANNOT STRESS THE ABOVE ENOUGH. Once you understand that you can make the system work for you. Do your research, is the camp one that the coach is never at and has his players run it? Skip it. Is it a camp that draws in head coaches from all the schools nearby, DI, DII, DIII, NAIA, etc. Those are the ones you want. These camps are as much about your child learning about the school and coach as they are about the coach learning your child. My daughter's dream school, she walked over to my wife within 2 minutes of meeting the coach and said I can't play here. The state school I wanted her to attend, she hated campus. You have to shop around. Go everywhere, email every coach that is attending the showcase tournaments, get yourself known. DO NOT trust your club to find you a school, it is all on you and your player. In the end, remember, coaches come and go, do what is best for you and your family. Maybe the money matters more than the soccer, maybe you want a coach that will help your child become more of an adult, maybe you need all the best bars and frats (LOL). Don't be afraid to start early either, the more you know, the better it is for you.
Is the IMG camp something also to consider? I don't know anything about it, but i constantly see it on my feed for soccer camps. It looks more for improving speed/skills rather than being ID'd but it is a week long camp. Don't know anyone who attended
Isn't that in Florida? I think location plays a big part. DS went (with three other HS Teammates) to a one day camp to a school in Florida. That coach had attended their HS camp and invited the three of them down. One parent drove, another parent provided the hotel room (points). We got off easy (just gave some gas money). Another thing to find out is what your child wants to do? Are they interested in a specific school? A specific major? If they're like mine, it wasn't until fall semester of senior year before he decided on an interest. I know that's not a requirement, but it helps to narrow down schools. If you're just starting out, find some one day relatively cheap camps in your area. I think it would be good for them to go through the process. Then if you want to travel to a camp or go to a more expensive one, they'll have a better idea of how things work. Oh, one of the best things I did... I created a business card with a picture of DS, name, contact information (cell & email), and a QR code to the website we had for him (can be a youtube channel). It was literally $10 for 500 at Office Depot. He then handed them out to every coach at the camps. He got a lot of good response when he handed them out, don't know if coaches actually used them, but they all seemed to like the idea.
I'll second this. We're not quite as far along in the process, but as a sophomore my son went to an inexpensive, one-day camp at a small university in the next state over that included coaches from five(?) schools (one DI and the rest DII and DIII). He's very unlikely to attend any of them, but it was a great way to get his feet wet and see how he stacked up against something like 80 other field players from across the region.