UCLA Girls Junior Elite Camp
- Thread starter KONI
- Start date
JustAParent
BRONZE
Look at this year's freshman class at UCLA: http://uclabruins.com/roster.aspx?path=wsoc
Among them are a number of players receiving playtime on the YNT, and the rest are highly decorated. Exactly zero were identified in one of these camps, which is how they are being marketed. It's an income stream that colleges are increasingly exploiting. If you are interested in getting your player seen, play in the GDA, or Surf Cup, or attend a college ID camp in which lots of college coaches attend.
Among them are a number of players receiving playtime on the YNT, and the rest are highly decorated. Exactly zero were identified in one of these camps, which is how they are being marketed. It's an income stream that colleges are increasingly exploiting. If you are interested in getting your player seen, play in the GDA, or Surf Cup, or attend a college ID camp in which lots of college coaches attend.
smellycleats
SILVER ELITE
My daughter went last year. Another teammate had planned to go and was looking for a buddy. I thought it was a valuable experience for her at 12 because she got a chance to stay in the dorms and eat in the caf at UCLA, train under some UCLA girls that were mentors and experience a little bit of what life is like in college.
My daughter has done the UCLA residence summer camp the last few years. It is a bit pricey, but the accommodations/food/program are quality. She enjoyed the experience each time. I think it was a great overall for her to be on her own in a safe environment and helped her grow as a person with a glimpse of what college life is like. The actual training experience is a mixed bag -- she was placed with random girls each year & the skill levels vary greatly. She has loved the UCLA players as her coaches -- she even got her favorite player as her coach two summers ago. I think if a team goes together (or a larger group) it will be a better training experience. For reference, she did the CSUF camp with her team last summer and while the facilities were not as nice, she enjoyed the training portion much more as she was with a group of girls she knew and of similar skillset. (and the price tag was more reasonable)
As mentioned above, UCLA will not be recruiting anyone at their ulittles summer camp, but for what it is I think it was a positive worthwhile experience for my daughter.
MakeAPlay
DA
Umm that isn't exactly true. The ULittle camp is just an experience for the kids but the summer camp for the high school aged girls and the positional camp were very good. Several of my daughter's current UCLA teammates were at the camp too.
My player is on that roster and she went to the UCLA summer camp (only for the scrimmage day) and she went to the positional camp in February. She was already on their radar and was the top recruit at her position on their board but they still wanted to see her in camp. She got to work with Abby Dahlkemper (she was 15 so she was stoked) and it was one of the things (along with the coaching staff) which made her choose UCLA over the two Bay Area PAC 12 schools.
I liked the camp for the high school aged girls and thought that it was useful.
I think it is only useful for recruiting if your player is already on their radar. Other than that it can be a fun experience but have the right expectations. I would be curious to hear of any on the current roster that we're ID'd only from the camp and they were not already aware of and interested in.
MakeAPlay
DA
I'm not sure I only know the specifics on players since my player was recruited. I can tell you that there is a player on the roster that was ID'd from a random showcase late in her junior year and she was an all American.
I will be the last to tell you that that team isn't full of unicorns. What I will tell you is that most of them went to the camp at some point. The cool thing about that team is that players that can help them win will be recruited. Those that can't help probably don't want to go there anyway as it is like the Hunger Games and with all but 2 starters returning there aren't a ton of minutes to go around.