Headfirst Honor Roll Camp and / or Northeast Academic Camp at Pennsbury

[NoGolfTil2017]

Either one, SAT or ACT. My kids tried both and the scores were basically equivalent. They sent both to colleges since both were good.

We are in an SAT area. Eldest took the SAT twice, the middle kid took it three times. Both took the ACT just once. They thought the ACT was easier to score well on without prep. Also, if you live in an ACT area, but take the PSAT (and are NMSF material), remember to take the SAT for a qualifying NMF score.

Many schools will superscore the SAT, fewer superscore the ACT. Need to check the policy for each college.

 

[girliesmom]

You didn't ask, but our experience with the Riseball High Academic camp was great. It has coaches from all the schools you'd expect coaching your kid during drills and on the sidelines during scrimmages. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and others. DD attended a couple of years ago and I was impressed. I don't think they have minimums but after attending several high academic camps, they won't take you unless you are the cream of the crop.

Thank you InsidePitch. That's good to know that your experience was a positive one. Good to know that they won't take a player unless they were tops academically as well. Thanks.

 

[girliesmom]

We thought about sending my 2016 to a Headfirst camp, but it seemed expensive. I'm not sure of the academic requirements, but she started receiving the "invites" for these camps after attending a specific college camp, and the first "invite" implied they got her name from a college coach. Interesting, since this college coach never seemed interested in my kid, though she did know my kid's academic credentials.

My older two have attended the Pennsbury Academic Camp. Yes, coaches watch from the sidelines while players go through a series of skills "stations". It has become larger each year. My eldest attended in 2012 and there were about 120 kids there. My middle kid attended in 2014 & 2015 - there were about 250 there this year. Pennsbury clearly states the academic requirements, though a kid will likely need to exceed those if they want to play at top academic schools (especially DIIIs that do not give much leeway on test scores, even if you are a stud player).

Pennsbury resulted in some DIII coaches contacting my kids. I suspect it had more to do with their test scores than their playing abilities - coaches tend to get panicky when they realize that they don't have enough recruits who meet academic requirements, so they start reaching out to kids with the academic credentials (with some level of softball ability).

If your kid is DI material, she may benefit from these camps. And if she is a top notch player, she probably only needs an 1800 on the SAT to be recruited by an Ivy. If she is more DIII material, then I think attending individual camps may be the way to go, assuming she has an idea of where she wants to go. And have her score as high as possible on ACT/SAT. One DIII coach at a NESCAC school told us that it makes her job a lot easier if a recruit scores at least 32/2100 - admissions doesn't question her recruit list as much when they have those (minimum) scores.

Agree. The Headfirst Honor Roll camp is spendy, isn't it? We are definitely doing the academic camp at Pennsbury next year but still somewhat undecided on the Headfirst one. Could still change our mind and attend but these camps can get expensive and it's not like we have $ growing in our yard. So trying to make the best decision based on dd academic abilities and softball skills. We certainly wouldn't be having this dilemma if she was a stud. But unfortunately she isn't. She can play and has competed on the national level but finished in the top 15 gold bracket.

Is she D1 material? Definitely not a major or mid major.... To be honest, I really don't know because other than the Ivies, dd has not once considered playing D1. D3 is where she wants to play. Now knowing that the minimum goal on the ACT is 32, I guess she'll have to aim for that or higher.

Thanks for your valuable info.

 

[girliesmom]

Agree. After attending the one camp last year, we've come to the conclusion that unless a player is extremely tall or a flame thrower, they won't be noticed by any coaches.. To get coaches to watch you, I believe that the player needs to write to them and invite them to come watch them play.