Anonymous wrote:What would be agood U13 day camp? My son has attended many great camps in the area but felt he had outgrown them last summer.

He just wants to have fun, but it's not fun if you aren't a little bit challenged.

He might check out Prep's camp, if he has not yet attended -- it gets good reviews.

Anonymous wrote:No rising 9th grader is going to be noticed at a college camps like Hopkins. You get noticed because you and your club team has been seen a recruiting event and/or you've been seen at a individual recruiting event.

From the perspective of the college coaches, their summer camps are a way to make money and see some HS kids up close that they are interested in. This does not include rising freshmen. You should only attend a college lacrosse camp because your son sees it as a way to get better and/or have fun.

Our neighbor's son was identified by Navy at their camp back in the day and is currently on the Navy roster. They of course followed up on him as he got older via club play and recruiting camps like Nike Bluechip. I agree that traditionally only older players got a look at college camps, but as recruiting ages have pushed back they are looking at the younger players now too. (Have heard this from several Baltimore friends whose sons attended Hopkins camp and ever since then were on the radar there.)

This is still only an infinitesimal percentage of cases, thus, I agree with your overall point that one should attend to get better and/or have fun.

What would be agood U13 day camp? My son has attended many great camps in the area but felt he had outgrown them last summer.

He just wants to have fun, but it's not fun if you aren't a little bit challenged.

No rising 9th grader is going to be noticed at a college camps like Hopkins. You get noticed because you and your club team has been seen a recruiting event and/or you've been seen at a individual recruiting event.

From the perspective of the college coaches, their summer camps are a way to make money and see some HS kids up close that they are interested in. This does not include rising freshmen. You should only attend a college lacrosse camp because your son sees it as a way to get better and/or have fun.

Anonymous wrote:Yep. Start fostering that attitude early.

Sensing sarcasm here, but there are kids who really love a sport and want to be good at it. If you think your child might want to play in college and might have the aptitude for it, there is nothing wrong with putting them in a position to have choices. Naturally 99% of the U13 kids at a Hopkins or Navy or UVA or Princeton camp are not going to be recruited as 9th graders and/or on any radar screens of the coaching staff -- they will just have a fun week being away from home, making new friends, and getting better at a sport they adore.

For the record, I probably agree with your general attitude -- I think that recruiting in 9th grade is absurd (neither logical, given physical development, nor good for the game in a larger sense) and I think that too many parents have ideas about their kid playing in college and the results (pressure on the kid, lack of perspective about the importance of sports v. school) are not good. In the end, though, we do live in a lacrosse feeder area, and there is early recruiting, and there are some kids who show a high level of talent/aptitude early (will the curve flatten out by 12th grade? sometimes. Which is why I think 9th grade recruiting is not a smart move for anyone.). Given the reality of the lacrosse recruiting world, it's not a bad thing to at least try to make sure a broad range of parents has access to information.

Yep. Start fostering that attitude early.

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to attend a camp at a university to have a great experience. There are plenty of camps locally run by either clubs or HS programs that are just fine. The key is finding a camp that has a critical mass of good/great players to make it competitive enough to improve your child, and if they are staffed with experienced adults vs just kids.

Agreed. It can be a lot of fun for a kid to go to lacrosse camp onsite at a college as a youngster, though, if the time and resources permit. It can also be a place for a very talented young player to get noticed, if that is a goal.

You don't need to attend a camp at a university to have a great experience. There are plenty of camps locally run by either clubs or HS programs that are just fine. The key is finding a camp that has a critical mass of good/great players to make it competitive enough to improve your child, and if they are staffed with experienced adults vs just kids.

If lacrosse is a priority, I would (1) focus on finding a good club situation for your son; (2) look into summer skills development camps at places like Navy or Johns Hopkins, so he can work on getting better; and (3) if he's at a school with a HS lacrosse program already (e.g. Landon or STA or Bullis or another school that starts before 9th grade), at some point have a low-key and friendly conversation with the HS coach about his recommendations for outside of school development opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:If your son is U13, you should NOT be considering any recruiting camps. First, only some recruiting camps out there invite rising freshmen (currently Class of 2017). And even those events are either a waste of money or just people just to secure an invite for the following summer.

Most recruiting camps are just ways to suck money out of parents who have dreams of their son playing college. If your son is in middle school, it's way too early to even think about attending one of these events.

That's what I thought. Thanks.

If your son is U13, you should NOT be considering any recruiting camps. First, only some recruiting camps out there invite rising freshmen (currently Class of 2017). And even those events are either a waste of money or just people just to secure an invite for the following summer.

Most recruiting camps are just ways to suck money out of parents who have dreams of their son playing college. If your son is in middle school, it's way too early to even think about attending one of these events.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do they have "invitation only" camps for U13?

Because college coaches are now recruiting players who are currently in the ninth grade. As in, commitments already secured from players in the Class of 2016 who have not yet played a nanosecond of high school lacrosse. See: http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/12/26/recruiting-2016-virginia-2015s-princeton-lehigh

wow! your good!

So (even though I think this is the craziest thing in the world) which invitation only camp should my U13 boy go to?

My H and son will love you (whoever you are) if you convince me to let him go to this.

Anonymous wrote:Why do they have "invitation only" camps for U13?

Because college coaches are now recruiting players who are currently in the ninth grade. As in, commitments already secured from players in the Class of 2016 who have not yet played a nanosecond of high school lacrosse. See: http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/12/26/recruiting-2016-virginia-2015s-princeton-lehigh

Why do they have "invitation only" camps for U13?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PPs. Nice to hear such responsive and knowledgeable responses.

This is what I still don't understand - are the recruitment tournaments for the post-U15 players by team (i.e., Madlax or HS like Landon), or does your son get invited to a tournament somehow, and then play with other invited boys?

Sort of both.

First, college coaches scout the summer tournaments that the club teams play in. So your kid can get a look in the tournaments in which he is playing for his club team.

Second, there are recruiting camps that are "invitation-only." The invitations can come because the recruiting camp staff has (a) seen the player at a club tournament; (b) talked to the club coach about his best players; and/or (c) talked to certain big time high school programs about their best players.

Here's a link to an explanation of the selection system for one of the best known of the invitational camps, Jake Reed's Nike Blue Chip: http://lacrossecamp.com/3d-blue-chip

In the past, Nike Blue Chip invitations were basically by word of mouth -- nominations solicited by Reed from trusted club and HS coaching contacts. From the above, it looks like now they're also establishing a network of regional tryout camps where players can attend to try out for a nomination to the main Blue Chip Camp.

Lastly, players can also get seen by attending the camp of the school they are interested in. Obviously a player is limited in the number of camps he can go to at a given college, thus the utility of being seen by lots of college coaches at the big summer tournaments and at the showcase recruiting camps.

If your son is already at an independent school, the HS level head coach should be able to walk you through the process. Good luck, and try not to get too caught up in all of this. There's still the opportunity to reach out to a coach and send game tape (DVD or YouTube) too.