A short YouTube monologue (posted March 4, 2024) by Trenton Luera arguing that attending high-profile athletic ranking camps (e.g., Rivals, Nike, Under Armour) is largely a waste of time for aspiring recruits. The speaker supports this claim with a personal anecdote about a multi-sport high-school teammate who became a top athlete—attended Stanford and was reportedly drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays—despite mixed engagement with ranking camps.
Chapters
Why Going to Ranking Camps Is a Waste of Time I'm sure you've heard of these ranking camps like Rivals or Nike camps or the Under Armor camps, camps that get major media attention that you're trying to get ranked at. You're trying to get stars, trying to get invited to All Star Games. And you may think like, have some dream or ambition to get ranked hit stars, because generally that means that, hey, you're going to be a top recruit, you're going to get all the offers, all the fame, and then end up going to college football, getting nil deals. All that sounds awesome. And you may think that, hey, I'm not really getting noticed, I need to go to these ranking camps. That's just not the case. Honestly, they're a waste of time. Personally, I never went to them because luckily I found that out. But I'll give you a quick story to explain why. So I had a guy that I went to high school with. Sadly, he transferred, but he was an absolute stud. Played football, baseball, ended up going to Stanford, and then just recently got drafted by the mlb, I believe in the first round by the Tampa Bay Rays. Just an insane athlete. Always was. Growing up, everybody knew that he was either going to play in the NFL or play in the mlb. He went to one of these ranking camps.