If you’re looking to find out more information about SPHL tryouts and free agent camps, you’re going to want to read this post in full.
We’ll not only cover this for you…but we’ll importantly provide you with several additional resources plus alternative playing options that may be helpful for you in your aim of finding a new team.
If it’s your goal to keep playing...there’s more than one path.
Let's hop over the boards...
SPHL Free Agent Camps
Each off-season, a select number of teams throughout the SP hold off-season SPHL free agent camps.
These “free agent” camps provide a potential way for prospective players aiming to earn a formal invite to the pro team's main camp with the rest of the prospective team.
Below, we’ve provided a helpful list per each SPHL team's free agent camps and tryouts if they have one.
As any other SPHL teams post their upcoming free agent camps (for the upcoming 2025-2026 season), we’ll post and update them. Until that point, you can view the most recent camps to get a solid idea as they’re quite similar year to year in terms of structure, cost, and when they're held.
Disclaimer: we have some great relationships with a number of coaches/staff/players in the league. That being said, we do not personally advocate for any of these free agent camps as we don’t run them or know how each oneis run. This is important (a bit more on this later in this article).
Our main intention with this post is to share helpful info with you regarding these camps based on everything our team wishes we knew ourselves back when we were grinding and continuing to playing professionally years back...just as you are doing now. We want to share that understanding with you.
Birmingham Bulls Tryouts Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Evansville Thunderbolts Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Fayetteville Marksmen Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Huntsville Havoc Tryouts
Macon Mayhem Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Pensacola Ice Flyers Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Knoxville Ice Bears Tryouts
For the 2024-2025 season, the Knoxville Ice Bears held their free agent camp from September 27-28th at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.
Note: dates above are from their most recent free agent camp for the 2024-2025 season. We'll update these if/once they release their next camp for the current 2025-2026 season.
Peoria Rivermen Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Quad City Storm Tryouts
For the 2024-2025 season, the Quad City Storm held two separate free agent camps. The East Camp in Worcester, MA from August 19-20 and the West Camp closer to Quad City (Moline or Davenport) from October 1-2.
Note: dates above are from their most recent free agent camp for the 2024-2025 season. We'll update these if/once they release their next camp for the current 2025-2026 season.
Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs Tryouts
- Did not hold free agent camp
Are SPHL Free Agent Camps Worth It?
It depends on your situation.
It’s not a NO completely....as there’s a slim chance that it can open a door for you.
Based on many years of historical data on players moving from unknown free agent camp attendee to making the cut (getting an invite) to main camp to then making the team show how very unlikely the path is at this level.
Coaching staff here will attest to this. Every so often, an unknown player will come out of nowhere and make it, but even then...most of these players too played well in prior leagues and for whatever reason (personal reasons, injuries) had a gap in play but still had the skill which allowed them to get back to playing at a high level.
Based on the free agent camp info we shared above, you can see that there’s a few flavors to camps, but they’re quite similar in fees, length, and time of year when they’re held.
Most run for maybe 2 days, you’ll get a select number of hours on ice usually a skills practice and then more formal scrimmages for evaluation, and most teams that hold them make some type of agreement that the top few players they select (maybe 1 or 2) will receive a formal invite to the team’s main camp upcoming.
It’s important to keep in mind that paying for a free agent camp isn’t getting you on the ice with returning/new players on the team…paying for the camp gets you on the ice with all other free agent camp attendees.
You’re then on the ice with a random mix of 40-50 other players trying to earn one or two spots to make it to main camp.
Not landing on the team….just the chance to make it to the next step of main camp.
Those who attend main camp then need to earn a spot on the teams roster. Come pre-season, players from higher leagues (ECHL, etc) get sent down and they grab several spots.
We don’t write this to be pessimistic…we write it to give you candid insights in terms of how it often works. This way, you can best think about the route you take in your own journey to keep playing.
It’s important to remember that coaches in the SP aren’t depending on free agent camps to pull players from at the semi-professional hockey level.
The majority of SPHL players have previously played in the NCAA, USports, junior (if they were a higher end player), the ECHL, or European equivalent tiers. They’re coming to the league with this experience on their resume…
The idea that you show up to an SP free agent camp…dominate everyone there….and coaches drop their jaws at your raw ability sounds nice in your head.
But in reality, most all players get a “thanks for attending, you played well, but” pat on the back and they leave in the same place they came. This same happens for most who make it to the next step too.
Now that you’re informed on this, we hope you’re able to make the best decision for you in your hockey journey.
Although the free agent camp route isn’t that alluring in terms of helping you land a team, this isn’t the only route you can take. You have a couple other select minor leagues in N America which may or may not be of interest to you.
One of the more attractive playing alternatives to the SP is playing pro over in Europe.
There’s way more comparable leagues overseas and living in a beautiful European city is frankly just much more exciting to players than living in a random US city, eating ramen noodles, and sleeping in a Harry Potter closet under the stairs in the same house as 4 teammates (no thanks).
The combination of more opportunity to play in good hockey levels plus the day-to-day experience outside the rink makes it an obvious career choice for players.
Here in closing, we hope that sharing all of the above information with you helps you in your decision making by giving you transparent info (based on what you’d want to know sitting in your skates).We’ve helped players in a wide range of situations over the last decade.
If you’re reading this and you are a hockey player who feels that you still have gas in the tank to keep playing at the next level, don’t hesitate to reach out and send us a message here letting us know why you have the potential.
