/recruiting "experts" think it is.

There's this illusion that you have to get on the radar early and that if you don't have an offer early, you are behind. These people also think that coaches are on Instagram.

It's an illusion, though. Very few coaches are offering young kids or even paying attention to them. Sure, the ones that DO get early offers get a lot of attention but tons of kids don't even get offered until after their junior year (coaches need to set that they are going to reach their size potential ). This doesn't even recognize that these early offers aren't commitable and often get pulled (either actually get revoked or they just stop recruiting the kid).

Almost no coaches use Instagram for recruiting. It's almost exclusively Twitter (not even email).

And 7s may be decent for getting more experience and competition but it isn't something that coaches are putting effort into watching.

You know who benefits from this stuff? The guys running the 7s tournaments. And that's about it.