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

Parent Playbook. My bad.

Parent Playbook. I it's hard to make that stick, but there you go. We've talked about this, Woody, in the past. We've knocked it around from time to time. The question is, are junior spring tryout camps or or there's a lot of junior showcases out there on a similar vein, are they worth it?

Usually, some parent is saying, should I do this? Is there any chance? Is it just a money grab? And I do love getting this question because my answer is yes and yes. It is worth going and yes, it is probably a money grab.

Teams are making money on these camps. Look, it's not a secret and honestly, it's not a scandal either. Hockey is a business at every level now. There are problems with that we've talked about before, but that ship has sailed. If you're still at the stage where that fact makes you angry, I would just gently suggest set it aside because it's gonna get in the way of actually thinking clearly about what these camps offer for your kid, Woody.

I'm kinda like the Hulk. Everything makes me angry.

That is true. But sometimes we have to take a deep breath and and collect ourselves for our kids, Woody.

That's why I have you my So

we'll just start there. Can your goalie actually make a team at a development camp? Yes, it happens. Not a lot but it happens. It actually happened to our kid.

Sent him to a junior camp with almost no expectation of that outcome. He was 15. That's not why he went. He went because it was a chance for him to challenge himself, to measure himself against players many years older, and to see where he stood. And then they offered to sign him for the following season.

He was too young. Big surprise to all of us, but it led to a season of practices with the team and even a few games as an AP. Pretty cool opportunity. 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 in my opinion, that freed him to just play. Another bit of a foreshadow to the feature interview today. I'll be honest, that age probably played a big role. He was a big kid, played and moved well and he was so young so they saw potential. So if your kid is younger, maybe it's not a bad thing to do.

It is a sad reality. The spring camp opportunity is a lot tougher for a 19 year old than it is for a 15 year old but that doesn't mean don't go if you're older. Again, expectations matter. Now look, all of these camps are not equal and the experience is going to be polarizing depending on how each kid does there and their family's experience. So do talk to families who've been to that specific team's camp before.

Not just hockey families in general, if you can, families who sent a goalie to the camp for the same organization. You'll have everything from great experience to total waste of time. Some will have too many kids. I once saw Woody a lineup not at a rink not far from you actually with more than a dozen goalies lined up at a net taking turns at an apparently BCHL camp. Brutal.

Others, in force sign up limits. I've even seen the first ad from a team goes up and they've already sold out all the spots for goaltenders. So they're being honest in that case. The information you can get from families is really useful. Reach out and collect some of that information.

But look, if you've done that homework and you can manage the time and money, and I do want to be clear, if you can't, that is 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 the team. Go anyway.

It's true. Teams often are already full or close to it. They know their goalies for the season. But if you're there for the experience and if a coach sees a good kid, they won't ignore them. The other thing that's true is maybe you're at a junior a camp.

I know junior b coaches show up at those camps to see what's happening out there. They wanna see kids maybe at a higher level to see maybe how they'd fit in with their level. You 18 coaches go out to junior b camps. The hockey world is a lot smaller than you think and people talk. Another reason, by the way, for staying positive if you don't have a great experience because people will hear you in the stands grumbling and complaining, and I've seen that cost goaltenders opportunities.

So back to what I was saying, a goalie who competes well and carries themself well at a camp where 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 might open up and maybe you can walk through with nothing to lose. It's about the experience. You're getting multiple games over multiple days often against older kids or even if it's your own age group with kids from different organizations, chance to build relationships with some kids you're gonna see over the season. It's an opportunity.

And of course, low expectations, I should say, are not the same as low effort. Send them in to compete like they belong. Just don't send them in expecting or needing a specific outcome. Just go out there and have some fun. Let me know your experiences whether it's one coming up or a past camp experience.

I love hearing from everybody out there. Send me a note parents@InGoalmag.com.

So the answer is yes and yes.

Yeah. Just just go. Yeah. You're right. You're probably not making the team, but if you go in with that attitude but you still wanna have a great experience and you still wanna work hard, something good might happen.

You probably learn something along the way.

See, you're the reasonable voice in this operation, my friend. Because when you told me what you were doing today for parent segment, my first question was, are just gonna rip them for a cash cow?

You did say that. That's right.

But You know, the other PC didn't even say

Like, that that's okay. Just accept it for what it is.

It's a great way of looking at it.

It is. And you need gameplay, by the way, just to learn how to read the game. So it's, you know, relatively low cost gameplay.

And and hopefully, like you said, a chance to push yourself, like, if it's above your head, age group wise or skill wise, see where you rank.

And it's not so far above that you should feel scared off. Like, if you go to a BCHL, a junior a camp, it's not all BCHL current players. They're already on the team. It's guys who want to be there. So it's it's a tier below, but it's probably a tier above where you are right now.

And I have I will say this. I know a family that did one of those camps that had some negative experience at other ones. I'm not gonna name the teams where it felt like a meat market. And to your point, may have been may have even been the same team we're thinking of, the lineup of goalies and 12 guys at a net, and you're not even getting enough reps to show anyone anything anyways. Or or another one where great experience, wasn't a spot, but the team needed a goalie for some summer skates.

And there were members of the team not necessarily taking they were at the camp. I can't remember if they're taking part of it. They were involved in the camp. And he this young man made enough of an impression that he ended up going out with them for summer skates. And, yeah, hey, like, as a goalie, sometimes summer skates could you're out there as a target, but he ended up getting to play much much like yours like Maddie did to play against guys at a much higher level as a result of the impression he made.

He ended up signing with a different team a year later, more than a year later, but, again, it opened the door to another opportunity that he would not have had if he hadn't attended that camp. So there there are there are both sides to that. That's why the answer is yes and yes. But good on you for you know, it really is important reminding parents not to go in blind, not to go in naive, but there's still opportunity even with some of those admissions.

And as much as I said, ask others for their opinions. Just don't assume what everybody else is telling you is the thing either. I mean, the first person you bump into has had a negative experience. Don't assume that gonna be bad.

Well, you bump into me, it's automatically gonna be negative. Mister

It's it's funny. I'm glad you didn't mention the team and I I didn't mention the team that I saw either because there's also a ton of turnover in junior hockey. Teams get sold very quickly to so to label organization x as terrible for tryouts when maybe it was five years ago, now you got a new owner, new GM, new coach, could be completely different. So Good. Good.

Give it a go.

See that happens.

Good reminder. Good point. Also, to make sure try and talk to people that have been involved in it recently because that too can change depending on which parents you're talking about because everything around it changes. Mhmm. Great advice as always, my friend.

Now speaking of great advice, I think it's time for us to get to our feature interview. I have I was maybe delayed in introducing it at the start of this podcast, but let's not wait any longer. Before we get to Adam Brown, we do need to hear from our presenting sponsor, NHL Sense Arena, who have been Hampton Slukkinski