Gauging a Camp's weight

[corlay]

Question: How do you know if a camp offered by a college is a "cattle call" or is a legit recruiting opportunity?

DD attended a camp at an Ivy recently.
Format was 2-day, 7hrs. each day.
Morning skills/drills, afternoon live scrimmages.

Less than half of the attendees were what I would consider "regional" (or easy driving distance),
and I met many families from Cali, TX, FLA, and the mid-west.

If this was simply a fund-raising cattle call, would folks really make this sort of travel commitment?
Seems like parents/players would be more wary than that, but I could be wrong?
It is an Ivy, after all...

Really I suppose I'm wondering if this University likely has a separate "invite camp" that the real recruits attend,
or was this likely it? There were certainly some very good players that attended.

 

[djcarter1966]

I don't think families are flying in from CA, TX and FL to attend a random Ivy camp without an invitation.

Now they could be visiting other schools in the area, they could have relatives they are visiting and just figured it was a good opportunity to kill two birds so to speak but my guess would be they were asked to come.

How many kids showed up less than 20?

 

[marriard]

Question: How do you know if a camp offered by a college is a "cattle call" or is a legit recruiting opportunity?

DD attended a camp at an Ivy recently.
Format was 2-day, 7hrs. each day.
Morning skills/drills, afternoon live scrimmages.

Less than half of the attendees were what I would consider "regional" (or easy driving distance),
and I met many families from Cali, TX, FLA, and the mid-west.

If this was simply a fund-raising cattle call, would folks really make this sort of travel commitment?
Seems like parents/players would be more wary than that, but I could be wrong?
It is an Ivy, after all...

Really I suppose I'm wondering if this University likely has a separate "invite camp" that the real recruits attend,
or was this likely it? There were certainly some very good players that attended.

Technically a D1 school can not do an invite-only camp - any camps they run are meant to be open to all eligible players. There are ways around this of course, but for the most part most don't and deal with players they are actively recruiting individually.

A camp like this can be both. There can be the 'invites' who generally get most of the attention and the general cattle call. Often the 'invites' are separated out from the herd and the HC pays all the attention to them while AC's and current players handle the cattle.

As for far away attendees - 99% of parents don't come onto boards like this so are flying blind so yeah, they will travel that far. Often just getting to come out and see the school and get in some softball can be enough especially early in the process. Or they are doing a series of 3 or 4 like camps and the timing works. I remember the one we did over new years a couple of years ago several of the attendees were heading to Chicgao afterwards for a different multi-college camp.

.. and as you know, yes DD attended one of these at an Ivy as a sophomore and was part of the cattle (but we knew that going in) but we were really up there to get DD a feel for the area, get a feel for the type of college she likes, and see if the Florida girl she is could hack the cold. And there were plenty of long-distance people at that camp - and there were probably 60-75 players from memory.


Quick add... Headfirst camps seem to be the best place to first engage with Ivy's as far as we have been able to tell. Although I will say DD's Ivy interest came through a camp where the HC took an Ivy job, through one of DD's teammates already playing there and through DD's high school catcher's video who is going to an Ivy and the HC asked her dad who the pitcher was she was catching in her videos.

 

[corlay]

I don't think families are flying in from CA, TX and FL to attend a random Ivy camp without an invitation.

This was my thought as well. but am interested if others here would corroborate that thought.

How many kids showed up less than 20?

There were quite a lot of girls.
They split them up into 6 team rosters. (each team had 9-10 kids)

But I did not observe any preferential treatment of any of the 6 groups/teams.
They all did the same skills/drills in the same rotations, and they all pretty much scrimmaged eachother over the course of 2-days.
It was all very "equitable".

Back when DD was still pitching, we did do a pitching-specific camp at an ACC school,
and that one seemed to have a small handful of girls that were definitely known to the coaches and probably "invited" to be there.
And they got a LOT of head coach attention, compared to everyone else.
That did leave a slight sour taste in my mouth, I will admit.
It was the first collegiate camp we ever attended and learned a few lessons! lol

 

[Lemond]

This was my thought as well. but am interested if others here would corroborate that thought.

Many, like me, go because they are alumni. We did that over the holiday. DD is very unlikely to play there, but getting exposure to D1 coaches while in town to visit family made it a lot of fun for all and very worthwhile.

 

[BT3100]

We have been to some of the Penn camps and we met people from all over the nation. Not a very high level of talent as many were Juniors and Seniors that were not yet committed and waiting for SATs or ACTs to see if they could make the cut. Several were kids who parents were attended the school and they use the camp as a weekend to see the school (Probably would attend if they didn't play softball) and see the city. Since no pure athletic money is available most kids are paying some out of pocket.

 

[BT3100]

Many, like me, go because they are alumni. We did that over the holiday. DD is very unlikely to play there, but getting exposure to D1 coaches while in town to visit family made it a lot of fun for all and very worthwhile.

Exactly! ^^

 

[UB40]

How many kids showed up less than 20?

Curious why you asked about this number. Is that number indicative of something about the school or the program?