Short version, IMHO:
1)Unless you are an athletic outlier in the Ivy (think P5 level, 3-4 star recruit) the camps are very important
2)Only after they have initiated some level of contact
3)Find a hosting site, cut up a highlight reel and fill out questionnaires at target schools
4)I think the high school coach is crucial.
Longer version:
Going in to junior year, the most important thing for your son to do is lay down some good tape this season. Once the season is over, cut the tape up into a short highlight reel (no more than 3-4 minutes, max). Then host that video on a recruiting site. If your son is pointing towards the Ivy, then the site of choice is GoBig recruiting, which is run by Ross Tucker, a former Princeton offensive lineman. GoBig will host a profile that can be seen by all schools who subscribe, and then the recruit/parent can pay to release video to the schools on a one at a time basis. It is pretty cheap as these things go and I believe I spent less than $200 on it during my son’s recruitment. I am sure there are other sites that work just as well, but I can definitely recommend GoBig.
After the tape is done and you have a hosting site there are two other things I would do before I would start thinking about camps/junior days/unofficial visits. First, your son should find your local SPARQ or Rivals Speed camp and register. These are free, and are really designed to get some neutral and at least half way accurate numbers for height, weight, 40, shuttle, vertical, etc. Second, have him fill out the recruiting questionnaires on his target list of schools.
I would advise that those three things be done prior to the beginning of the new year (he likely won’t have results from SPARQ/Rivals at that point, because those events are generally held in the spring), because coaches in the Ivy will start to turn their attention to the entering class of 2020 during the January/February contact period is 2019. The idea is that some combination of the tape/information on the questionnaire will prompt some schools to reach out during that time.
I am not a huge fan of cold contacting coaches, at least in football. The Ivys cast a pretty wide net at the beginning of recruiting, and if you fill out their questionnaire and provide them with a way to access tape I believe they will reach out if they see any kind of potential. Another way schools will reach out is through visits to the high school during the second semester. I don’t know the profile of your son’s school, but some schools are on a regular visit list with coaches, and others seem to only be visited if there is a prospect of particular interest. Here is where the high school coach plays his first role. At schools like my son’s, where a number of coaches make regular stops, recruiters will often ask the coach who he should talk to/look into in that particular cycle. This can be immensely helpful to spark interest. However it happens, I would let the schools initiate contact, because that gives you your first data point to gauge if the schools are interested.
Once contact is initiated the game really starts, and the task becomes trying to figure out who is potentially a serious landing spot and who is just going through the motions. If your son is a legit prospect, it is likely that he will get several junior day invites. Pay attention to the contacts that come in, and do your best to get your son to engage with the schools. Over a bit of time, you will begin to see differences in how schools reach out to him. Some will be form letter/mass email type contact. Others will be personal e mails, texts or schools visits/phone calls (when allowed). If feasible, I would use this information and try and attend a few junior days/unofficial visits during the spring of junior year at schools which seem interested. The travel is kind of a pain, but at least in my son’s case very helpful, because it got his list of schools down to 5-6 where he knew there was legit interest and as importantly he was also interested. It was primarily from this list that he picked his camps.
Personally, I don’t think the camps are worth attending unless there is both real interest from the school and a certain amount of confidence that the kid can play at that level. Here again the high school coach can be very helpful. If your son’s program has had any type of success in getting kids recruited into college, the coach can be a great source of information on whether your son can actually compete at the lower D1/Ivy level or whether a different focus would be better.
If your son can check both of those boxes, then unfortunately the camps are in my opinion a necessary evil. The vast majority of each roster in the Ivy will have attended one of the school’s camps. Sure, some kids get offers without attending the camps. My son played with two in high school, one now playing in the Big Ten, the other in SEC. For most kids though, the straightest path is to attend the camps, and hope the kid flashes. It is just how the system works.