How do you know when a camp invitation is a generic "come to our camp" or when it is a "we want to evaluate you as a possible recruit"?

My son received a letter from a school saying they saw him at a recent showcase and they invited him to a camp. So, I am trying to read between the lines to see if there is real interest or if they are looking to fill a camp.


What would you do? Any suggestions?

Posts or Pm's would be appreciated.

Take a look at the team roster on their website. Are there any players from out of state? Any players from your state? If not, assume they are filling a camp.

Call the coach or send him an email and ask. If you don't get an answer then you have your answer. If you do get an answer, you'll know exactly what's going on.

Natural - Good suggestion..The roster does give us an idea of how much they recruit out of state.

Holden .... also a good suggestion....he will give it a try.

Hi bbFan 09,

Another thing you need to consider is how much does your son want to play for the school and does he really want to play for a school half way across the US from your home as you described it.

I am a firm believer that you need to pursue the school(s) you want to play for (one that you have the ability to play for and is the right fit) as much as you want the coaches to pursue your son. Pursue your top choices for schools/baseball with a passion and the coaches will notice. The coaches will notice this and sometimes this will make a difference in their choice.

But DO NOT put all your eggs in one basket. Pursue different schools at different levels, don't limit your perspective.

Baseball fan 09...you have a pm

I got to the point when my son went through the process that I became rather mercinary when it came to camp invitations. If my son had an interest in the school, I would call either the recruiting director or the head coach and ask two questions.

1. Have you seen my son play and if so where? and can you tell me what makes him a prospect for your program?

2. Given his GPA of XX and his SAT scores of YYY, can you get him into your school if he fills your baseball needs?

Without a solid answer to these questions, I assumed that they were looking for bodies to fill their camp. In the end, he choose a school where the coach gave good answers to the two questions.

Two thing to remember. Camps are used to generate MONEY, not recruits --- AND --- coaches are ALWAYS looking for talent so if a talented player shows up at the camp you can rest assured they will notice. Makes no difference WHERE they see talent (game, camp, showcase, or a sandlot) they will be attracted to it and the player's talent starts the recruiting cycle. Coaches want parents (like yourself) to THINK their camps are an important part of their recruiting machine but they aren't. Camps are not the most cost effective way to gain exposure UNLESS you're targeting that particular school. Al MA 08 best describes this:
I am a firm believer that you need to pursue the school(s) you want to play for (one that you have the ability to play for and is the right fit) as much as you want the coaches to pursue your son. Pursue your top choices for schools/baseball with a passion and the coaches will notice. The coaches will notice this and sometimes this will make a difference in their choice.

I would NOT go to a camp based on an invite. I would however go to a camp if that college appears to be a good fit and is a college your son wants to target.

My son played for Auburn University. He had attend just two college camps while in high school -- University of Alabama and Mississippi State. Mississippi State continued to send my son invites to their camps up until his junior year at Auburn ---he had already played 6 games AGAINST MSU. Ron Polk (then head coach at MSU) had even sent my son a congratulatory letter when he signed at Auburn. Just a name on a mailing list!

My son got one of those letters the other day too, "we saw you at the ***** Camp the other day and we would love to have you come to our prospect camp next month". The catch was that my son did not attend the showcase at all. They were just going off the list and looking for a few more dollars.

Mine received two invites to the same camp on the same day, worded completely differently. It was painfully obvious that the coach had gotten hold of two mailing lists that he happened to appear on.

I recieved just the registration forms from one college. Not even an email nothing. Just the registration forms..Im going to choose not to go...Any opinions?

quote:

Originally posted by Holden Caulfield:
Call the coach or send him an email and ask. If you don't get an answer then you have your answer. If you do get an answer, you'll know exactly what's going on.

Holden - thank you for the advice. My son has used this advice 3 times so far....heard back from 1 out of the 3.

Also, he has rec'd multiple e-mails regarding camps from the same schools/coaches several times in the same day, usually about 30 minutes apart. Hmmmm, I am going to guess that they were mass mailing e-mails using the mailing list from two different recent showcases.

Baseball Fan--We've had the same experience. I suspect that the coaches go to showcases, get the player contact lists, and create mailing lists for their camps. Some of them, apparently, are too careless to cross check the lists and just hit "send".

We've found that the schools that are truly interested in our son have not invited him to camps--they've invited him, and us, to come and visit.