349 Parents: Are Jr. camps/showcase worth it?

In the Parent Segment, presented by Stop it Goaltending U the App, we dig into the truth about junior tryout camps — is it just a cash grab, or is it worth it for your young goalie?

349 parents – are junior tryout camps /showcase worth it?

One of the questions I get most this time of year is some version of this: “Is the junior spring tryout camp worth it, or is it just a money grab?”
I love this question because the honest answer is: yes. And yes.
Of course teams are making money on these camps. That’s not a secret, and honestly it’s not a scandal either. Hockey is a business at every level now. That ship has sailed. If you’re still at the stage where that fact makes you angry, I’d gently suggest setting it aside — because it’s going to get in the way of actually thinking clearly about what these camps can offer your kid.

So let’s start there. Can your goalie actually make a team at a development camp? Yes. It happens. I’ll be honest with you — it happened to our kid. We went in with almost no expectation of that outcome. That’s not why he went. We went because it was a chance for him to challenge himself, to measure himself against players several years older, to see where he actually stood. When they offered to sign him — for the following season, as he was too young — it was quite a surprise, and it led to a season of practices and even a few games as an AP.

But here’s what I want you to hear: that surprise only happened because we weren’t chasing it. We went in with low expectations, and that freed him to just play. I’ll be honest that age probably played a role — big kid, played and moved well, and young, so there’s potential.

So it’s a sad reality that a spring camp opportunity is tougher for a 19-year-old than a 15-year-old. Doesn’t mean don’t go if you’re older — but again, expectations matter.
Now — not all of these camps are equal, and the experience is going to be polarizing depending on how each kid does. Talk to families who’ve been to that specific team’s camp before. Not hockey families in general — families who sent a goalie to that camp, for that organization. You’ll hear everything from “best experience” to “total waste of time.” Some will have too many kids — I once saw a lineup of about a dozen goalies at a net taking turns, which is brutal — while others enforce signup limits. That information is useful. Collect it.

But if you’ve done that homework and you can manage the time and the money — and I want to be clear, if you can’t, that is completely okay; nobody should be stretching themselves thin for a tryout camp — but if you can swing it, here’s how I’d think about it going in:
Your goalie is probably not making this team. Go anyway. Yes, it’s true — teams are often already full or close to it — but you’re there for the experience, and if a coach sees a good kid, they won’t ignore them. That’s true: there are Junior B coaches watching Junior A camps, U18 coaches watching Junior B camps. The hockey world is smaller than you think and people talk. A goalie who competes well and carries themselves well at a camp they weren’t expected to crack — that gets noticed. Maybe not by that team. Maybe not this year. But a door you didn’t even know existed can open in a room you walked into with nothing to lose.

It’s about the experience — multiple games over multiple days against older kids, or even your own age group with kids from different organizations. It’s a chance. And of course, low expectations aren’t the same as low effort. Send them in to compete like they belong. Just don’t send them in needing a specific outcome. Have some fun out there.

Let me know your experiences — parents@ingoalmag.com