Smart move by JR. Charge for an ID camp. Send out a picture that the kids/parents can post saying they are going to the camp. Attend the camp and then have something nice written about them that the kid/parent can post on socials. Given how socials are now I would expect more of these ID camps and attendance to start to grow. I wonder if anyone performed poorly at this camp. I'm thinking no
I went to the camp. There were about 45 kids out there broken into 4 groups and 4 college coaches working with each group that rotated about every 45 min or so.
Most kids were ECNL, GA, RL and a few NPL sprinkled in. Maybe 3 kids if I recall on national teams (1 Dominica republic, 2 Philippines) and I’m sure there were a few more that I’m missing.
One group did some technical passing drills, another did rondo drill and a 3rd did some shooting. Keepers were in their own group.
Afterwards the teams broke off into small sided games and everyone scrimmaged each other. There was a 30 min rest / break and kids went and got in their cars in the AC and some had some light snacks.
Then 2 full fields were used for scrimmages between all the players. Some players had left early due to injury or over exertion at that point and didn’t participate.
The scrimmage was pretty competitive. There were maybe less than 5 girls that looked at a lower level but for the most part the playing field was pretty competitive.
There seemed to be a bias as to who the top performers were as there were 3 defenders who stood out that weren’t made mention and a midfielder that went unnoticed. There was keeper that looked like a total standout as well too that I didn’t see mentioned too.
Given the write ups in the 2010s that were mentioned and at check in the coaches knew them by their names prior to check in, I’m pretty sure that the writers knew ahead of time who they were going to write about. Needless to say, I don’t think they wrote anything inaccurate about those players either, rather, those players were noticed and others were not given much attention.
I thought the camp was well ran and had a great group of players out there. Given that part of the camp, I felt it was a great opportunity to attend the camp but felt they should have taken an better look at and acknowledged some of the players that performed well that were unknown to the writers prior to that camp.
After the camp, the players got 50% off a subscription to their website and articles. It was also free to claim your player profile and put in pertinent information and a personal statement field about the player.