What does a camp invite mean?
This entry was posted on 5/11/2008 2:07 PM and is filed under Boys Basketball News, Girls Basketball News.
During the summer you may receive a number of invitations to attend various basketball camps. All colleges have summer camps at their various schools. The camps break down generally into two categories of camps. One is the general basketball camp designed for all participants. The second are their "elite" camps where the players are generally selected or invited to attend. Each college will generally have one camp that they use to have the better players attend.
The following is an excerpt from an article regarding college camps from the website Recruiting-101.com.
"A few years back, I profiled an athlete who was a talented all district wide receiver who was able to make some big plays as a junior. I was told that the big school in state personally invited him to attend their camps in hopes that he could receive a scholarship offer. While it is pretty obvious any school with ethics would not promise an offer, my guess would be that those athletic scholarships are not extended very often. Anyways, the athlete attended the camp and guess where he ended up at the college level? The answer is playing junior college baseball.
That example shows that just because you have received a personal invite, it does not mean they are really serious about you in the recruiting process. While coaches at the major Division I level do get paid well, these programs use this money to boast their pay. For example, if there was a graduate assistant working eighty hours a week all year, this might be the time that the head coach pays him back in a way by giving him a few thousand dollars in recognition for the hard work that he has done.
So if you realize that this money is likely going to help the coaching staff, it shows that the more kids they get there, the better chance that they have to increase the pay of their coaching staff. This happens at all levels, from Division III to Division I but the larger schools are the ones that really make the push towards inviting lots of kids. It really doesn’t matter if you are on their radar or not because it is a no lose situation for the school. If you decide to come to the camp and pay the $300 to $500 to get in, they are getting paid regardless. If you are the best camper overall and really shock the coaches, which eventually leads to a scholarship, that helps the coaches in the recruiting process.
These coaches really are using a lot of the camp to weed out prospective athletes that they are looking at in the recruiting process as well. But with most camps, the amount of athletic scholarship offers extended is very, very small. So keep that in mind when receiving an invite to a camp that costs $400 for a week. Like I said, the more athletes at the camp, the better for the coaching staff. "
The remainder of the article can be viewed here What does a camp invite mean?
Whether to attend a camp is a personal choice and should be based on each player's time and resources. If you feel the camp is beneficial due to the teaching and competitive level of the camp and you have the time and resources to attend it would probably be a good thing. If you are a younger player (class of 2010 or younger) it may be beneficial to attend so you can make the coaches aware of your abilities. If you are a class of 2009 player, unless you are being CURRENTLY AND ACTIVELY recruited by the school the merit of attendence from a recruiting perspective is generally not overly productive.
