Every year in Buffalo, NY the top players from around the country meet for the US Development Camps. It is a chance for the players to test themselves against other top prospects their age from across the United States. For scouts its a chance to get a national perspective of the US talent pool. These players go through a rigorous process to get admission into the camp; they try out for their state or district to get admitted into the US Development District Camps and are then selected from a pool of players to represent that district at the USA Development National Camp. Although there were 180 players selected for the National Camp, there are likely just as many who are either deserving or very close to deserving of being here.
At Neutral Zone, we scout players throughout the US and Canada and we use this event to help assist with our National Rankings that will be updated in September before the 2016-2017 begins. It is also a great opportunity to see how the different leagues and levels stack up. One thing that we noticed was there were several players who participated at the U16 American Division and were better than several players who played in the National Division (the better of the conferences). We also noticed that players in Minnesota who came off Bantams were no further behind the players on AAA programs who travel country wide for showcases and tournaments. In reality, there are very little trends and patterns to say one development path is better than another, as we saw a mix of high school, prep school, midget and bantam players who had success.
The rankings are broken down into grades (A, A-, B+, B, etc.) by our scouting staff who are listed in the About Us section. We ranked players on how they performed throughout the week at camp and not on their overall ability or upside. Their overall ability will be reflected in the September National Ranking where we will rank the top 250 2000’s in the US and Ontario as well as several hundred others in regional rankings like Minnesota, New England, Atlantic, etc. All together more than 400 players will have a ranking.
While the site tries to deliver as much free material as possible, all scouting related articles and reports are for subscribers only. To see the US Select 16 National Development Rankings Click Here
