What to expect at a college ID Camp

[Unregistered]

Hi there,

First college ID Camp coming up. Just wanted to ask anyone who has been to one what to expect.

[Unregistered]

My DD has only been to one and it was a one day camp. The first part of the day consisted of splitting the kids out into groups. It appeared to me that the groups were based on age. The groups did drills and were observed by different staff members. The second part of the day was small sided games and the coaches watched. The final part of the day consisted of scrimmage games with mixed teams. Overall it was fun and not stressful. My DD seemed to enjoy the experience and it was friendly. There were coaches from all divisions and they all just sort of watched.

It was my observation that not all the girls were not really collegiate level players and it showed. These players looked entirely pooped by the end of the day. The better players which there were only a handful were rock stars.

[Unregistered]

ID camp comments

I'm not sure about the type of camp your player will be attending. Is it for a group of coaches to view or for one particular college? I'll make my comments brief. ID camps run by for-profit entities seen of little value. The ones I've seen advertised seem to be able to attract lower level college program coaches with some exposure for the players. Better than nothing, but not be as good as playing in highly ranked tournaments like Surf Cup or ODP Regionals. Individual college camps are better, and I'll discuss one my daughter attended the Summer before last. At these, a player needs to stand out the first day or be relegated to a certain group for the duration.

At the one well known, highly successful college program camp she attended, the structure was not as she expected. There were four groups of players. The first group consisted of mainly players the coach knew about and was interested in recruiting. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th groups were separated by age and on paper ability. After the first morning drills and scrimmage, she was placed in the first group. No one else got the chance to play with the best group of players. Seemed pretty pre-determined and useless for most of the participants. After her verbal was published, the coach of the ID camp team contacted her about coming to his program. He was rather egotistical about it and asked why she hadn't waited for him to make an offer. We had no clue that he was interested. Bottom line, it was a waste of time, physical stress, and considerable money. Also, very few of the first group players later became part of his program.

Another coach communicated with us on a Tuesday night to invite her to a "college ID" weekend with her to arrive that Friday. We found out that his ID camp consisted of just 4 players that he wanted to recruit. Not sure this met with NCAA rules. With such short notice and the cross country, last minute airplane costs, she didn't go. BTW, none of the 4 invitees later attended school there.

[Unregistered]

My child has attended 2 ID camps and is scheduled for a 3rd. We picked these because we have specific interest in the colleges. Both of the ID camps that we attended were for a specific college but had other lower division colleges in attendance. Our experience at the 2 camps was almost identical to the first response. They pretty much did the drills, small sided games, scrimmage format with some lecture and touring time. One of the colleges we knew very well and we went since there is a verbal offer on the table and they wanted us to attend. It was close so it was not expensive. The other was a college where we did not know the coach and it was a excellent way to become noticed. We are hoping for a similar experience with our 3rd and final camp.

My child treated the camp very similarly to a tryout and was prepared to show off her talents. While I agree that these can be a waste of money if you like the school and you can afford it then it could be a very good way to be noticed. You don't want to spend a lot of money to go and blend in with the crowd. The only reason that we signed up for the distance camps is because of strong interest and the fact that the coaches do not know my child personally.

Good luck to your child and I hope that they enjoy the experience. What an exciting time for these kids!!!

[Unregistered]

Thank you for your replies - The ID Camp mentioned in the initial inquiry is offered by a Division 1 College with multiple coaches attending. The information about the camp was sent by the college coach.