Prospect camps...

[OHsoftball]

I notice some players attend multiple camps all year long... My daughter plays the “right schedule”, but between work and travel, we just aren’t able to do it. How important is it? If you don’t show up at every camp, do these schools think you’re not interested? How does one compete to be seen when some players are attending every single camp?

 

[First2Third]

The only camps that matter are the ones hosted by the schools your daughter is interested in attending. The others are just padding people's pockets. If you go to camp at the school, the school knows you're serious.

 

[AnotherSoftballDad]

A lot try to keep up with the "Joneses"...First2Third had it right....or go to a camp with multiple schools.

 

[OHsoftball]

My question was... do college coaches expect to see these kids at all of their camps? Or do they assume they just aren’t interested if they’re not able to attend?

 

[First2Third]

Yes. If you're interested in the school. Unless your kid's a stud who everyone's chasing. How many camps is the school having??? Most don't have more than 2-3 a year.

 

[OHsoftball]

Ok so that’s what I’m saying...many can’t afford to go to 3 camps per year to even a handful of schools. Anyone who knows anything about it knows you can’t just focus on one school, many of these players have a list of schools they are interested in and unless you are at least a junior, you get no feedback anymore..

 

[tjsmize3]

Ok so that’s what I’m saying...many can’t afford to go to 3 camps per year to even a handful of schools. Anyone who knows anything about it knows you can’t just focus on one school, many of these players have a list of schools they are interested in and unless you are at least a junior, you get no feedback anymore..

OHsoftball,

The bottom line is that there is no set number on how many camps she needs to be at, how many exposure tournaments her team needs to play, and how many letters she has to write -- you just need to do all 3 on a consistent basis... use your judgement for this. The single most important link in this whole process is going to be your travel ball coach. Generally schools will inform your travel coach (when asked) what their general level of interest is. It is definitely NOT true that schools only express interest in juniors and above.. they absolutely can specify their interest level and some programs (right or wrong) are VERY aggressive in expressing their interest in freshmen and sophomores. If you find yourself in a situation where you just cannot generate more than lukewarm interest in a school on your top 5-6 school list, then you need to take it off the list and stop spending money to go to their camp. I would suggest putting 6 schools on your list if your current interest is at the D1 level: 2 top choices (power 5 or high level mid major), 2 next level choices (solid mid major) and 2 safety choices (i.e. non top-level mid major). I would suggest aggressively writing to all 6 schools on your list and make sure several schedule updates are written so they know where to come see your daughter play. For the top 2 choices you will probably want to also be at camp in the fall and summer and for the next level choices at least 1 camp per year. For the safety choices you probably don't really need to be at camp unless you are past the Sept 1 mark of the junior year. At that point if you have not had high level interest you should re-evaluate your list and probably eliminate power 5 and high level mid majors from your list (most of those schools will complete their classes very close to the Sept 1 junior year mark). You can then focus on the remaining schools until there is genuine interest in your daughter by one of the remaining programs. By that time they can directly recruit and your coach does not have to play the "exactly HOW interested are you in my player" game any longer... you and your coach will know!

 

[Xrayaries]

Fall and winter camps are best. Usually the athlete count is low and you get more reps in front of the coaching staff.

 

[CARDS]

Age, ability and what area of study plays into what pathway is best if the desire is to play college softball.

One does not have to spend a lot of money on camps or, play all over the country unless you as a family want too. I know of ladies that only played HS softball and attended a few camps that ended up playing college softball NAIA, JC or DIII and others that played a national schedule that opted for an in state school for little to no scholarship at the same type of schools that the vast majority of ladies will fall into.

A lot of parents / players are on teams where there is little to no college guidance, The coaches are not part of a professional network, have limited to no college coach contacts etc. This hurts a lot of players where the family's goals and expectations are not a match for the team or maybe players abilities. A good team/coach will help players/parent make the right decisions on camps etc. Sometimes offers are not the best option especially; if they are coming from schools that are private 30k or more a year,

Here is a good link parents can use to check out various teams around the state and country where the majority of players fall.
https://www.fieldlevel.com/n4pka6mg/softball/placements

 

[frenchy101010]

My DD will be a freshman this year, she wants to be a pharmacist, already has a 23 (28 on the math) on the ACT. Other than Ohio Northern what schools have a good pharmacy school and softball programs? Even if she is good enough, she’s not sure she would even play in college because of the demands of pharmacy school.

 

[CARDS]

My DD will be a freshman this year, she wants to be a pharmacist, already has a 23 (28 on the math) on the ACT. Other than Ohio Northern what schools have a good pharmacy school and softball programs? Even if she is good enough, she’s not sure she would even play in college because of the demands of pharmacy school.

Ohio State, Findlay, Toledo, Cedarville offer both... With Clinical s (like with nursing) it will be tough to meet softball and course of study expectations. It may be a better option (and a cheaper one) to go to University of Cincinnati or OSU and tryout for the club teams....
https://www.facebook.com/UniversityOfCincinnatiClubSoftball/
https://twitter.com/osuclubsoftball?lang=en

 

[frenchy101010]

Thx, Cincy was another one she was thinking about.

 

[klinder]

Camps are only one of the ways that college coaches can identify new kids. Through Aspire Higher Softball, I try to host camps that have a variety of college coaches while making the camps affordable. Nobody is getting rich off my camps. By the time we pay for insurance, fields, quality coaches, equipment, supplies, advertisement, etc there is not much left over. My goal in running camps is to educate athletes and parents about the recruiting process which is not an exact science, teach kids more about the game, give them skill instruction and feedback to work on, and introduce mental training strategies for them to incorporate in their game to become more confident and consistent. I invite coaches from D1,2, 3, and NAIA and sometimes juco to work and only hire coaches who have a passion for teaching the game. We structure the camps with a small ratio of player to coach so everyone is active and receiving feedback. I try to make it a win win for everyone.

There are camps out there that do charge too much and have kids standing around way too much. You have to weigh the value of the camp by the amount of instruction, feedback, action, and interaction that is taking place compared to cost.
When you go to a large school camp that has 200 athletes it will be hard for you to stand out. Unless you are a super star the coach probably will not know who you are at the end of the day. Go to camps where coaches can get to know you.

College coaches who work camps are always looking for athletes that they would like to keep an eye on until they are ready to make decisions about who they want. The reality of the process is that not every kid who goes to camp will get recruited. Probably only 2 to 5% of the kids who go to a camp will continue to play in college but those are the national stats for kids who play the game. The value of a camp that has several coaches from different colleges is the athlete gets to know personalities and philosophies of different coaches in one place. Also, coaches get to see kids they may not have known about and get to work with them to see if they are coachable and what kind of attitude and effort they have.

Camps and clinics do provide a way for coaches to see and meet athletes and athletes to see and meet coaches that may not happen otherwise. It is only one step of the process. Coaches find kids in a number of ways and a camp may be the first place a coach sees a good athlete. Chances are a coach will not make a final decision about a kid at camp but it is one way for the kid to get on their radar. I know at my Laser camp a D1 coach made the comment I need to put that team on my summer schedule because there were 2 or 3 good athletes from that team.

Go to a camp to get better and if you make a connection with a specific coach look at it as icing on the cake. Research the camp before you go. Ask questions of the host before you make a decision to go. Just like anything else there are great camps, good camps, and bad camps out there.

Aspire Higher has 2 upcoming camps in July and August with a college staff.
July 19th before Hope's Turn at Bat in South Euclid August 6th in Akron at Firestone Stadium. If you would like more info about them go to the web site at www.aspirehighersports.com or email klinder@aspirehighersports.com.