<p>very good grades,excellent sat scores,difficult high school courses( AP etc). Not a local standout player but good size
6',3", 230 lbs and plays center. Has been invited to visit this month (Feb 2014) an Ivy to meet and great for a "Jr. Night".
Does he have any chance playing at an Ivy ? Should he bother with a one day summer camp ? </p>
<p>If your sons goal is to play football at the next level and get a great education, I fail to see a reason why not. Opportunities like this don’t happen to everybody. Your son has been selected to become more familiar with the program. Opportunity knocks, answer the door to see what it is all about. You may be pleasantly surprised. At the very least, he’ll learn something and apply it to the next program that wants to recruit him. JMO. Good luck.</p>
<p>I will add to Fenway’s post.</p>
<p>This is where we were last year, I know because I kept a 2013 date journal with all our recruiting information. Yale visited my son’s high school the 2d week of February, and junior days started in March. </p>
<p>When an Ivy visits your HS and pulls your kid from a class or ask to meet with them, it means they very well might be interested. It also could very well mean your kid meets potential recruit standards for many other schools.</p>
<p>Here’s the way it works. For non “big football” D1 kids (who already know by now who wants them), the Ivies serve as clearing houses by holding “clinics” (they’re not supposed to call them “camps”) where they invite up to 30 or more coaches from other good liberal arts and engineering colleges to come see the kids they bring to their clinics. This helps everyone because 1. recruitable kids can’t visit every campus under the sun; and 2. Coaches can’t visit all the kids they want to visit. The Ivy is the “bait” on the hook, but everyone benefits.</p>
<p>By all means go to the Ivy clinic this summer. One thing I would have done differently is to not go to as many clinics - we did HYPD - but really, my son was exposed to almost all the same coaches, it was not necessary to do all of them, and in retrospect we were lucky that he had good showings at all of them. If he’d had a good showing at one of them and a bad day on another, that could have been a big red strike against him.</p>
<p>RE: junior days - they’re not necessary for the big draws like HYP, and in fact they are just massive money makers and tourism cash-cows. There is this great summer clinic in New England called NE Elite. On more than one occasion the Princeton camp has coincided with Elite’s days, and Elite empties out so that all the families can get to Princeton. Huge mistake. Not only are there routinely 700-900 kids at Princeton’s junior days that never get to even put pads on, but they left all those kids back at Elite to get an even BETTER look on the day everyone emptied out. And yes, there was a Princeton asst coach at Elite.</p>
<p>My only message is - with schools like HYP - if you want to visit them, make sure you do it when you can put on a jersey and shoulder pads. </p>
<p>Junior days with smaller colleges are a much different situation. You can have junior days with fewer than 50 kids where they will sort you into positions and take you in all different directions with coaches to gauge their interest in you, and your interest in them. They’re VERY valuable to put you on the radar IMHO.</p>
<p>In the end, we did 13 different college clinics last year. Of the schools that most heavily recruited our son, he did only one junior day at one of them. He did one on-campus clinic in late summer after an invitation following Elite at another. One school he never visited for a clinic or did a junior day and they still recruited him heavily.</p>
<p>He was invited by 4 Ivies to their junior days and clinics. We now realize that none of the Ivies really would have ever had any interest in him, because he was the wrong size for his position. However, what they did do, was invite him and bring him to a place where he could be seen by coaches that did want him, and where he was a great fit.</p>
<p>He has now gone through recruiting and commitment and application and acceptance, and he is headed to play football for a school that never even saw him until July of last summer.</p>
<p>The clinics are worth it - plus, it’s great fun. Bring your lawn chair and a cooler. Enjoy. The weather is usually beautiful.</p>
<p>Thank you both for your advice. Much appreciated.</p>
<p>We went through the summer camp dilemma two years ago now. Here’s some of the advice I gave then, it’s may be a bit repetitive because it was culled from two separate posts. I think it remains relevant.</p>
<p>1- New England Elite is likely the best multi-school camp if you are looking for academic colleges. It is heavily attended by the NESCAC and D3 coaches, and many head coaches. The individual Ivy camps are also attended by many NESCAC and other D3 coaches. My suggestion would be to try really hard to work out the dates for NE Elite, and also figure out which schools you are most interested in and find out which Ivy camps they will have coaches attending.
Get your tape and other info into the hands of the coaches BEFORE the camps. Unless your child is a superstar, it will be very difficult to attract attention at these camps without having first made contact.
I disagree that coaches are looking for position players. I believe coaches are mostly looking for athletes. I read a statistic somewhere that more than half of Ivy and D3 football players end up playing a different position in college than they played in high school.
And it’s not too late, but will be in a couple of weeks. camps start in June/July, and all the Ivies still have camps open. Most important, however, would be to send out those emails and information to coaches NOW!</p>
<p>2- Every coach is going to tell you he really needs you to come to their camp so that “his coaches can work with you.” It’s all a lie. Coaches want you to come to their camp because their camp is a revenue generator for the coaches, period. If you’re a good football player coaches will recruit you whether or not you go to their camp. If you tell a coach you’re going to the camp of a competitor but not theirs, watch how much immediate attention you get from them. It means nothing.</p>
<p>3- Unless your times (40, shuttle, etc.) are so impressive that you’re going to wow everyone at camp, camps are likely to do more harm than good. If your times aren’t that great, coaches will weed you out based on times alone and won’t pursue you further and you’ll never get the chance to have them see your film. Alternatively, if the coaches don’t have camp times for you, they will recruit you based on film alone.</p>
<p>4- If you decide to go to one or more camps - if it’s a multi-day camp, only go for one day (even if they don’t offer a single day, they will let you if you ask.)</p>
<p>5- Know that the NESCAC and other D3 coaches will go to most Ivy camps, but an Ivy coach will never go to the camp of another Ivy.</p>
<p>6- NE Elite is fun but it’s a zoo. Over a thousand kids. Very few kids get serious looks there, but it does provide you with an opportunity to get some face time with coaches.</p>
<p>7- Start sending film and emails now, then send them regularly whenever you have anything that resembles news to report (eg, 1st quarter grades, awards, etc.) You need to make the coaches familiar with your name, etc., so that when you introduce yourself to them at camps they recognize your name.</p>
<p>8- If you go to one or more camps, you MUST(!!!) take every opportunity to go up to every coach and introduce yourself to him. If you’re going to go to camps and run your drills but not be VERY aggressive in meeting coaches the camps will be of little value.</p>
<p>9- Be prepared that if you want to go to a NESCAC school you will only get coach support if you apply ED to that school. More support with ED1, less with ED2 depending on how many commits they already have.</p>
<p>10- Know that the only players who get serious looks and offers at these camps are those players that the coaches are trying to “pick off” from D1 schools or, at the very least, schools higher up the food chain than them. All other players (which includes almost all of the players who eventually end up on their team) are recruited through the regular fall recruiting schedule.</p>
<p>11- The Yale and Harvard camps are, for the most part, D1 camps filled with D1 prospects who are entertaining the idea that they might consider going to Yale or Harvard (maybe to make their moms happy).</p>
<p>12- Don’t forget about the high academic non-NESCAC D3 schools that have football programs - MIT, Hopkins, WashU, UChicago, Carnegie Mellon. Your grades and scores may be good enough to get into one of these schools with coach support.</p>
<p>It’s an exciting time, but filled with much stress and uncertainty.</p>
<p>Try to enjoy the process.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Attended the final camp out of 8 this summer for football. At the end of the day the coach recruiter asked my son to wait at the end of the field for him to take him and family on a tour of the campus . He said he did very well and the coaches liked him. Can anyone comment on this as far as a positive as , i did not see any others being asked to go on a tour . He also was able to meet the head coach outside who gave the impression he knew my son and where he was frm,</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>Individual attention can never be a bad thing. I don’t know what level of school he camped at, but if it was an Ivy or probably NESCAC, I would think the next step would be an admissions pre read. I don’t think there is any downside to asking the recruiting coach some specific questions about next steps. These coaches do this every year. You only do it once.</p>
<p>I agree. Individual attention like what you described is great! It’s no guarantee of course, but it’s usually a sign of serious interest. I agree the pre-read should be the next step, If the coaches did not have an interest in your son, they would not have gone out of their way. Trust me.</p>
<p>NESCACgrad88 , I hope your right , I have seen some of your other posts re your son going to Davidson , they have been after my son as well , if you would not mind discussing , my email is <a href="mailto:GROSSOJ@AOL.COM">GROSSOJ@AOL.COM</a></p>
<p>Jimmyg, I messaged you. Happy to discuss Davidson. Just don’t ask about Middlebury. . . !</p>
<p>Can anyone comment please . Would a NESCAC coach contact a recruit whom they saw at one of the IVY or other camps they attended without permission from the host camp , that they were not interested in the athlete so they are free to recruit him.</p>
<p>Or are they free to go after anyone at the camp as well </p>
<p>Thanks </p>