​College ID Camps, Clinics, or college showcase tournaments, may not be the best solution for everyone. Most paid soccer organizations boost how they can get your kids to play in college showcase tournaments and be seen by all the big schools. Although that may be true to some degree, at what cost do you want to follow that path. Furthermore your child may not have a great single game or tournament while that particular college coach is watching or he/she may have a great game but that particular coach is watching another game. Now what? There are other ways to get your child noticed by a college coach that are much less costly. College recruiting has become BIG BUSINESS and some outfits may not be the best possible solutions. Do you ever get emails inviting your child to a camp or a clinic after they claim they have seen your child at a particular soccer tournament and were impressed by their skill level? The only problem is that your child was never at that tournament. How about being invited to a ID Camp that are supposed to be tons of schools recruiting. Sounds great but it is not free. It costs money. You can accomplish the same thing for free by contacting the schools you are interested in. Following is a video discussing some these pitfalls and some helpful alternatives.

​It is that time of year again. You know what I am talking about...The snow has not melted off the ground yet, the trees have not bloomed, the soccer fields are not dry for all the winter rain and snow and most teams have not even played their first outdoor soccer game yet. But wait SOCCER TRYOUT MADNESS is here.
Every year, every youth soccer family has to go through the stress of tryouts.
Even the families that have been playing for a while on a the same team, stress over the fact that the team coach will see enough value in their player to ask them to come back on the team. For the new families or for the families that  are looking for a change it is even more difficult. 
Every paid soccer organization is competing for your dollars and they are starting tryouts earlier and earlier every year. It almost seems that playing soccer for a non profit soccer club is not good enough any longer. If you are a good soccer player you must play for a paid soccer organization. Sometimes skill may not be the first requirement for these paid soccer organizations but rather can your parents write the tuition check.We need xyz number of players to fill a team so let's just make offers.
Following is a presentation with some valuable insight on the DOs and DON'Ts of youth soccer tryouts.