Spring 7v7 rosters get picked in December. Decide before the tryout flyer shows up.

Your son’s high school season ends in the second round of the playoffs. Two weeks later, the club 7v7 tryout his teammates keep talking about is already on the calendar.

Michigan Elite Football Club holds its high school tryouts on November 28 and December 5, $35 each, with the first team practice January 4. PA SWAG in Pennsylvania tries out December 6 and 12. Midwest BOOM outside Chicago runs a makeup tryout for 10th and 11th graders on December 13.

The tournaments start right behind them. Pylon’s 2027 Legacy Tour runs January through April with 17 stops and nationals in New Orleans, and its Seattle stop is January 16 and 17. Our 7v7 season calendar says it flat: if your kid wants in, the ask happens in December and January, not March.

Talk to the high school coach first. The coach’s spring and summer plan outranks any club schedule. Ask what the staff wants from your son between January and June. Then pick the club.

Know what the fee buys. Michigan Elite’s $750 team fee covers a uniform, a helmet, the Legacy 7v7 winter league, and practices through the indoor season. Players picked for its travel team pay more after that, and the club tells families not to make travel plans until instructed. G7 in Charlotte listed a $675 club fee for its 2026 season, January through May.

Ask whether the team is local or travel. BOOM splits its program in two, and its regional teams stay home and play once a week on local weekday nights. Its national teams travel one to two times a month across the country. Same club, two very different springs.

Discount the recruiting pitch. Michigan Elite’s own page says the club does “not and will not guarantee that any player will be offered an athletic scholarship, gain additional exposure, or improve their recruiting position” by playing 7v7 with its program “or any other.” Our 7v7 pathway makes the same call: college staffs use the format to confirm athleticism, and they recruit off school film and verified camps.

Linemen have no spot in it at all. Their evaluation runs through padded camps and film, as our position-by-position recruiting piece explains.

Before you pay a tryout fee, ask which tournaments the team is entered in and how many of those weekends mean a hotel. A flyer that says “national circuit” can mean two local qualifiers and a maybe.