In just a few days we will turn the calendar over to April. April marks the real beginning of massive marketing efforts for team and league camps. It also marks the beginning of time when it is important to make smart and informed choices on which camps, if any, to attend.
The simplest piece of advice I can give is this;
If an email from a team or league is the first time you have ever heard from this team or league, you need to be careful and do a lot of investigation. Why?
There are companies out there that have your contact information, that are selling lists of players and their contact information to anyone who has the money to buy them. Yes, your personal information is being bought and sold daily without your permission, or without you knowing you gave permission for it to be bought and sold.
The most important thing to remember when sorting thought all of these invites, is not only that you need accurate information to legitimize the opportunity, but that this is a decision for you. The individual player. There is no “buddy system” for making decisions, and just because one camp worked for someone you know does not mean it will work for you.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
For those of you with advisers, the leg work and investigation should be done by them. They should be evaluating opportunities for you and presenting you with options.
Chasing a bunch of Pre Draft or Open camps is not opportunity, it is not a way to get noticed, and it is not a way to get your name out. It is a waste of time and money. So, if you feel like you are chasing, you definitely are, and you definitely need to stop.
Smart camp selection, and smart time management will result in big financial and emotional savings. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of the summer having wasted thousands of dollars, and having a lot of disappoint with nothing to show for it.
I hope, as I do every year, that those of you who think you can figure it out on you own, that you actually do. If you’re not in the top 1%, your path wont be easy. It is always better to be smart than to get lucky.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
