Anonymous wrote:What is an official visit

School arranged for DD and a parent to come onto campus and has paid for the trip - airfare, hotel, meals. About 1-1/2 days on campus meeting with the coaches, touring the facilities, meeting the team, touring the campus, etc. IIRC, only 1 per athlete per school.

Unofficial visit athlete is footing the bill to visit the school, but can still meet with coaches. Can do this as many times that you want.

What is an official visit

So, my DD is a rising junior, Class of 2027. As far as ID camps go, this was our approach.

Went to (1) that was local her freshman year with some teammates to get a feel for things. Club had placed players at that school, so the coach knew the program.

Went to (4) more during the course of her sophomore year at vastly different schools to get a feel for different environments. Small D1 local to us, bigger D1 a bit further away and then (2) really large D1s. All within driving distance to us, max was about 6 hours. Has not attended ANY ID camps since Spring 2025.

In all cases, she had some communication and interest with the coaches through her club.

Ironically, only (1) of the schools that she attended an ID camp are still are her radar from a recruiting standpoint and they really have fallen to the bottom of the list.

On official visits with (3) different schools, all have made offers, no ID camp attended at any of them.

Anonymous wrote:As a freshman and across sophomore year it’s ok to go with no formal outreach from coach inviting you. By sophomore summer that becomes a waste.

By then- Only go to ID camps where you have interest u less it’s a dream school and you believe your kid can ball out and hang on the top field with the other vetted recruits.

This is not true in many cases. Sure, I would never suggest going to a big D1 ID camp, with 0 interest, and expect anything. But many D3 IDs are pretty small and I have seen players get recruited/offered from them with 0 prior engagement. Heck, my own kid got offered, at lunch, while at a D3 ID. They say him at the morning session, talked to him over the lunch break and made an offer (he is going into his senior HS year). It helped that he already had other offers already (for when they asked him who else he was talking to). This was a D3 that made the NCAA tournament 2 times in the last 4 years.

He randomly went to a D2 ID last week and the coach called him the next morning. Zero previous communications. This is all from this summer.

Anonymous wrote:My son has been to some ID camps this summer and they all say they want their 2026 recruitment done by end of this month. If that is the case, why did I see so many coaches scouting U18/19 showcase games last winter? Do they just say that to instill a sense of urgency, to get players to commit early?

Because sometimes coaches don't get what they want?

Also there are plenty of U18's who are juniors.

Anonymous wrote:My son has been to some ID camps this summer and they all say they want their 2026 recruitment done by end of this month. If that is the case, why did I see so many coaches scouting U18/19 showcase games last winter? Do they just say that to instill a sense of urgency, to get players to commit early?

All coaches and everyone involved says that. Its to create FOMO and urgency. Its also to make you feel like you need to spend money to get into college.

My son has been to some ID camps this summer and they all say they want their 2026 recruitment done by end of this month. If that is the case, why did I see so many coaches scouting U18/19 showcase games last winter? Do they just say that to instill a sense of urgency, to get players to commit early?

As a freshman and across sophomore year it’s ok to go with no formal outreach from coach inviting you. By sophomore summer that becomes a waste.

By then- Only go to ID camps where you have interest u less it’s a dream school and you believe your kid can ball out and hang on the top field with the other vetted recruits.

Anonymous wrote:Is your kid writing emails to coaches, inviting them to games, sending footage etc . . . ?

I think there is value in going because it exposes you to different kinds of coaching and different kinds of colleges, and lets you know how the ID camps work so that you can be at your best when you attend an ID camp where they do know your name. But I think if you can use the strategies above and arrive with them knowing your name, it's better.

Agree with this. Emails with links to video before camp.

I think you ideally have some contact with a coach prior to an ID camp. DS went to a few early on where he’d had no prior contact and felt nobody really gave him a look. He’s a GK and they had so many GKs that had to rotate into games that he felt it was impossible to show what he was capable of. So he decided to stop chasing schools that hadn’t shown an interest prior.

Is your kid writing emails to coaches, inviting them to games, sending footage etc . . . ?

I think there is value in going because it exposes you to different kinds of coaching and different kinds of colleges, and lets you know how the ID camps work so that you can be at your best when you attend an ID camp where they do know your name. But I think if you can use the strategies above and arrive with them knowing your name, it's better.

Kid was at an ID camp recently with over 120 players. Kid played quite well, but the idea of standing out in a crowd like that just seemed nearly impossible.

When some of the players spoke about how they were recruited, they said they were noticed at showcases and regular club games by coaches and encouraged to come to the camps. But no one said they came to a camp out of the blue and were noticed.

What say you oh wise soccer parents? Is there really any point, or is it a needle in a haystack kind of thing?