Roanoke Times Top 100 Va HS Sr prospects

[VolNation85]

No doubt Mr. Ramsey is a great athlete but his best bet is landing in a Jr. College and proving himself off the field. Even though all high school athlete's can improve this young man is definitely head and shoulders above the rest. Unless you are absolutely elite most colleges won't take a chance on you not being eligible to play from week to week. At this point he is in charge of his own destiny and I hope he can make the necessary changes. Wishing him all the best.

Recruiting can be a game of promotion. I'm still confused about how to get a kid rated. What if you can't afford to take your kid to combines? How can they get rated?

Believe it or not, there are a lot of free camps and combines available. Nike and Adidas have several combines and camps across the U.S. every spring/summer at no cost. The catch is, these specific camps are only open to D1 prospects so they're invite only. A player can recommend himself or a coach has to recommend him. The staffs of these camps evaluate the film and accept or reject the recommendation. This is just two examples.

 

[falcettik]

What kind of camps? I've found the school camps seem to be more money makers than recruiting opportunities.

Generally speaking, IMO, that is correct. A camp might have several hundred kids participate, but the coaches are only seriously interested in maybe 10-20 players. The other players are there for several reasons: 1) they bring in revenue for the coaches working the camp; 2) the school is displayed to prospective students/parents (to a small degree); 3) the extra players provide good, but not top notch, competition for the real recruiting targets to go up against.

 

[cb2018]

There are the elite camps that Hamspear mentioned but the best ones I’ve found are school sponsored ones that invite other schools. VT usually has Marshall, VMI and others. ODU does several combination camps . The best bet is scope out the programs with the help of the high school coach and be realistic about the kids possibilities. Avoid the combines unrelated to a recruiting service. There are tons of them that charge quite a bit and have zero value. As for ratings, hard to get rated without an invite to one of the elite camps until the kid starts getting offers.

 

[bulldog1150]

[QUOTE="hamspear, post: 290688, member: 3848"if you are a stud, best bet is to at least play 4A or above football. ✌️[/QUOTE]

I completely disagree that your best bet is to play 4a or above. Play where you are and go to camps in the summer. The Edmunds boys didn't have any trouble getting noticed at Dan River. Oregon was in there recruiting Tremaine. James Mitchell had offers from Clemson, Georgia, and Tennessee. College coaches can tell whether you have the goods by simply watching you play regardless of whether it is versus Oscar Smith or Haysi.

Notre Dame didn't have a problem with the level of competition when they signed Julius Jones. Heck the Long boys played at STAB and they are playing 8 man ball next year. Mac McClung didn't need to transfer to Oak Hill to get Patrick Ewing in the stands at his basketball game. The #1 ranked girls hoop player in the country for 2019 is at William Monroe.

Level of competition is a great thing, but if you can play and you go to the summer camps (on campus) then you will get the appropriate attention.

I've seen 6A schools that would lose to 1A Riverheads by 5 touchdowns. BTW Riverheads has a kid on scholarship at Pitt as well. Sherando got beat by Fort Hill who would be a 2A school in Virginia