SoccerMasters Camp in DelMar

It was just okay. Second one we have been to and this just didn’t live up to the event they put on in Florida at the beginning of 2020. Great list of schools but it just seemed like most (not all) of the coaches were anxious to just get it over with. A few were more consumed with their phone screens than the players who had travelled at great expense to have a chance to impress them. Only played 7v7 in front of half the coaches and they only had goals for one half of the field using cones for the other. Hard to be a striker impressing with a ball to the upper 90 or for the same matter a goalie in those circumstances. 150 kids x $700 should have been enough to secure goals for the fields which by the way were sitting behind the fence. The truth is the director and coaches did not seem to care which was my impression of their attitude to the whole event. Given the opportunity to do it over again I would have had my 2023 at home taking recruiting calls on the 15th instead of putting them all off until today. If the camp was a TDS player profile I would give it a 2 star rating. It simply didn’t live up to its potential.

The quality of players was generally quite high which helped create value for my daughter’s experience.
 
It was just okay. Second one we have been to and this just didn’t live up to the event they put on in Florida at the beginning of 2020. Great list of schools but it just seemed like most (not all) of the coaches were anxious to just get it over with. A few were more consumed with their phone screens than the players who had travelled at great expense to have a chance to impress them. Only played 7v7 in front of half the coaches and they only had goals for one half of the field using cones for the other. Hard to be a striker impressing with a ball to the upper 90 or for the same matter a goalie in those circumstances. 150 kids x $700 shouquiu have been enough to secure goals for the fields which by the way were sitting behind the fence. The truth is the director and coaches did not seem to care which was my impression of their attitude to the whole event. Given the opportunity to do it over again I would have had my 2023 at home taking recruiting calls on the 15th instead of putting them all off until today. If the camp was a TDS player profile I would give it a 2 star rating. It simply didn’t live up to its potential.

The quality of players was generally quite high which helped create value for my daughter’s experience.
this is great info @coloradopapa ; thanks for taking the time to share with our community. i also heard mostly just scrimmaging and not much coaching.
 
My daughter and I were also there. Appreciate hearing Colorado’s take on it. Yeah, kinda lame that small sided games didn’t have goals set at both ends. Morning of day 2 sprinklers were dousing the main entry area. Would have been great to have a food truck pull up at lunch.

But all in all, the camp was focused, ran on time, players got exposure with all the coaches, experienced different drills and styles. They had refs out there for all the 11 v 11 games.
Athletic trainer was solid and kinda busy keeping players healthy.

Contrary to Colorado’s take, I was impressed by coaches post-scrimmage talks with the players and it seemed like coaches were focused when running drills. (I didn’t see anyone on their phones but only watching where my kid was so maybe just missed that.)

My kid has been to a few SM camps before so several coaches know her by name. She’s a 2022 so chances are good that the major programs are already done with 2022 and have moved on to 2023 and watching 24s…

Here’s my advice to younger players: go back again and again so the coaches get to know you.

Good luck out there.
 
on the boys side for soccermasters, any comments?

was our first and don't have any compares thus not the most informed opinion. (but that's never stopped anyone on this board...)

our player was able to take measure on how he compared to peers, received some positive attention from about half the coaches and performed well.

coaches seemed invested. mostly ivy league guys, who likely haven't had a chance to see socal players in person much this year.

compared to an east coast camp recently attended, SD quality of players was better from a technical pov, w/ better decision making (although fairly selfish) but a little smaller physically.
 
Yeah the selfish play thing is a bit of an issue with boys and girls. Seems natural since no one knows tendencies, capabilities of their team mates and frankly, no one wants to make someone else outshine them. My kid scored a nice goal and no one on their side even gave her a high five…
 
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