[papagrit]

As a parent of two that played college football, we were "educated" to a considerable degree from our first son's recruitment when our second son was recruited. We got a lot of correspondence from those camps you all are talking about from middle school through their senior years and we learned how to cut through the bologna of these camps and some coaches. Having gone through all of that, you all are giving some good advice about those camps. Our sons attended some select college camps they were interested in attending and went to a few college camps where more college's coaches were present. Those camps never cost us more than $70 to attend unless the boys spent the night one night. A tour of the campus was included in those overnight camps. Good advice from you all.
My best advice is to encourage your kid to not put the blinders on and focus on only ONE or TWO schools. Keep all options open and let most every coach know you are interested in their school most of all. If those "dream" schools don't work out and your kid hasn't shown a lot interest to other schools, then they will be left scrambling in November and December if they want to play football. Most coaches play the "Your on our list of most wanted players" game to get as many fish on the line as possible and then will start sorting out who they want in October. Your kid has to play the game as well and play the "Coach, I want to come to your school more than any other" game as well. It sucks, but, there is a LOT of crap shoveled in both games and those coaches WILL do it to your kids. Get your kid to pick eight or ten schools and then dig in deep with that bologna shovel because your are just shoveling the bologna off you that is shoveled by coaches. Coaches are trying to get the best players possible and their jobs depend on it. They have to be part coach and part car salesmen to put food on the table. Can't blame em. But our second son's recruitment went a LOT smoother with the experience we had from the first son.