My youngest daughter played travel softball...played ball from one end of the country to the other...Ft Lauderdale, Disney World so many times I cant count...Denver, Huntington Beach CA...
Shes good, I saw that...and she wanted to play Collegiate Ball, played her first 2 seasons at Old Piss...Coach is a giant dick...it wasn't worth her torment from him...Shes transferred to USM and is happy as hell
A. I spent way more time with my kid growing up, just her practices with the Bolts was a 3.5 hr drive...I didnt have to worry about who she was with and if she was safe.
B. It challenged my kid in TB, she played the best competition the country had to offer and did well...Compared to good travel ball teams, HS ball is very weak BTW
C. Its expensive, but so is deer hunting, golf etc...its all what your priorities are, you make that decision...
D. BE VERY HONEST ABOUT YOUR KIDS ABILITIES...remove the Daddy
goggles...

Loved it 99.9% of the time, met some great people across the USA and a few dirtbags...learned a lot...wouldn't have missed a minute of it

Time for daddy to get a second job

My daughter started limited travel ball at 12. I made her take the fall off to play other sports and occasionally played as a pick up player. Some of the girls that had played travel ball from the age of 6 got burned out in high school.

She graduated last spring from UAH. She played JUCO in Tennessee. Her Act scored where ok not great. Her talent level was pretty decent. She needed more speed. She went to the JUCO and graduated with a great GPA and luckily they scrimmaged against UAH her sophomore season. She had a great season. They offered a little bit for sports and a lot for academics

We may have broke even on the scholarship....maybe.

The things with Alabama juco= 24 scholarship
Div 2= 12 ish
Div1= 13 ish(these may have changed).

The first thing both coaches asked her after seeing her play is what is her gpa?

This may not be helpful just trying to pull back the curtains about that the grades are very important. Especially for the kids that are not the studs on the teams.

It depends on the kid and the team. Also, year round baseball is bad. I don�t care what someone else says, kids need a break and need to play something different. Some teams play all the damn time and some don�t. I know some great teams that you have to be invited to play for, teams with sponsors and they don�t play the same year long ruin your life and arm schedule as some of these teams.

The thing that cracks me up is talking about getting a college scholarship. Heck, I know some families that have spent as much as a college education for travel softball around the country.

This times eleventy billion. I know several people who fall into this category.

I have 4 grandkids where 2 play travel soccer and 2 play travel baseball. Both play about 8 or 9 months a year and play practically every weekend sometimes a Saturday or Sunday but sometimes both Saturday, Sunday and some Fridays as well. With practice once and sometimes twice week, a LOT of time is at ball fields with mom at one and dad at the other.
Living in Phenix City, they travel to Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta, Destin, Huntsville and the likes too often. Hotel rooms and gas mileage and food all tends to get expensive. Not to mention cost of lessons, tournaments, and uniforms.
Even though the oldest granddaughter has been offered a 3/4 ride at AUM on their girls soccer team, I personally think all this is just too much on the kids, the parents, and the family as a whole.
I have given my opinion freely but old Dad/Grand Paw knows nothing!!

I wouldn't do it!

I have a senior in high school and am going through the recruiting process so I will try to elaborate on what I have seen so far.

1) If your kid is a pitcher he will not get recruited by a D1 school unless he is 6'2" + and throws 90 mph. There is a kid in Florence, Al who just turned 15 and is already throwing 92 mph. He is 6'2" 200lbs. https://www.perfectgame.org/Players/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=412144

And there are many more like him out there

2) The money you spend playing travel ball could pay for your kids education.

3) A D1 college gets 11.7 scholorships
4) A D2 college gets 9 scholorships
5) A D3 college gets 0 scholorships
So a full ride scholarship for baseball is non existant unless you are another Bryce Harper type player.

6) High School ball sucks compared to travel ball

7) The cost is dictated by the team you are on, some play every weekend some play every other weekend some only play a few tournaments. I will tell you when they get to 15 years old and up you will travel further and pay a lot more money.

8) Travel ball is watered down with rec ball players so unless your kid is on one of the Elite teams it is just a little better than the park. If the parks would do a competitive league they could get the kids back play Monday thru Thursday and then let them play tournaments on weekends if they want, but they are afraid little Johnny or his parents will get their feelings hurt because he is not on a competitive team.

() Get your kid some lessons whether it is hitting, pitching or fielding most coaches don't have the time to dedicate to a kid to really improve especially with travel teams.

I have done it for 8 years with my oldest and going on 7 years with my youngest and would not trade the time or experiences with them and ball for any amount of hunting time by myself. They will be gone before you know it. If you decide to do it then do it because your kid loves to do it not to get a scholarship or play on the school ball team but if they get on a decent team with decent coaches they will get much better.

A D3 college gets 0 scholarships I think is what was meant. I do know for sure as i have a son who is playing D3.

In my opinion, it's overrated. Most of the travel teams are about your money. If a kid has talent and plays ball consistently (doesn't have to be at highest level) they will play school ball just fine...even college. I know kids who play all year and have since they were 8 and never be what everybody expected them to be. They got burnt out, hated the sport and never got any looks. If a kid loves it and begs you to play travel ball, then it may worth it. A kid that plays a healthy amount of ball and works on it in the offseason can go as far as they want. I've seen it with my own eyes.

All I can say is that I'm glad my son was an average player and was more interested in hunting/fishing than ball so travel ball was never even a possibility.

Janet's youngest is an entirely different scenario. He was an excellent player. He was pretty much Mr. Baseball around here and the 3A all metro player of the year for the region. Every moment was baseball from age 6 until he graduated. He got a D1 scholarship to UAB and played 4 years there as a center fielder and lead off batter for the last 2. He could have moved on but minor league life didn't appeal to him so after graduation he opted to get on with life.

He's now in law enforcement, married, and just doing excellent.
I think travel ball is probably good if you have a decent chance to play further. It would have been real tough for me to give up all that time travelling to ball games every weekend.

Dr. B

You are correct

What I found is the cost and travel depends on the team. A friend of mine son played for a 10u team this fall cost was $285 for everything. Don�t remember how many tournaments they played. My son played for a well known organization in Athens which was a 7u team and it cost us $1000 plus fuel and food. It started out we were supposed to be playing 3 or 4 tournaments. But we played more like 6or 7. We played back to back tournaments one weekend which ended up being 9 games in 2 days. That was the breaking point for me. I hate our rec league due to daddy ball but my kids health and safety is more important than travelball. If you do it tryout for multiple teams and ask a lot of questions if they have a huge turnover of players there is probably a reason as to why.

Eli has played travel ball since the summer he was 8. He loves the game and ask me to catch him or get some extra hitting in at least once a week besides practice. He 12 now and still playing this fall. The coach that he is playing for this fall is the best coach he has had up to this point. He is very strict on stretching and pitch count along with arm and shoulder care before and after every practice and game. Our local rec league is a joke normally a 12 game season and I�m driving all over the county all the time. Eli�s teams normally play every other weekend during the summer and fall. There are 3-4 different associations that put on travel ball tournaments now we never drive more then a hour to play and there is really no need to travel crazy at this age. Three out of the four tournaments this fall are in huntsville and the other is in cullman. I believe at some point of being a junior or senior in high school the �extreme traveling� maybe worth it but my opinion is at the younger ages it really don�t make a difference. Eli did make the middle school team this year and I don�t think he�s going to benefit much from playing and being coached by the school but I do believe that because of the coaching and experience he has got from playing travel ball helped him make the team. The kids will get better by playing better competition without a doubt.

As far as hunting and travel ball goes this past spring the team started playing every other weekend at the end of March and played two tournaments in sept and two in October. We have been able to get a couple of hunts in so far this year without it being a issue. Their last tournament is October 28th after that he won�t pick up a baseball again until the middle or so of January.

My son played D3 for 3 years and there was no scholarships to be had. Just the love of the game.

Went to school with this guy. He didnt play travel ball...he was just really good! You can find on the innerweb if you care to look. He is retired now at 48 or 49 yrs old I believe.

Russ Davis
Baseball player
Russell Stuart Davis played at Hueytown High School and is a former Major League Baseball third baseman who played for the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants from 1994 to 2001.
Born: September 13, 1969 (age 48), Birmingham, AL

I don't think there was much if any travel ball back when he would have been playing.

Travel ball wasn�t what it is now back then. Colleges used to go to high school games then. Now they go to very few. But they are at every perfect game tournament. I�ve been down the travel ball road. The cost is tremendous after you tally everything up after 6 or 7 years of doing it. After they reach 14 the cost will be high just to join a team and the tournaments change to Thursday-Sunday and even earlier. Examples of cost are, Excel out of Oxford $1800 to play and East coast baseball is $2500. These are prices to join and play for the summer. There are some that are more and some a little less. Traveling expenses are extra. It�s a huge commitment and I made it for my son. It�s what he wanted to do so I made it happen. Did I spend more than he got on scholarship? No, but probably real close. But I try not to think about how much I spent. All in all I wouldn�t change any of it. I missed a few bow hunts here and there and never went turkey hunting. I think it was worth it. But that�s my opinion. But remember this, youth baseball has become a huge moneymaker. Preying on the hopes of parents that their child is gonna be the next Bryce Harper. But very few even get to college by way of baseball.

How old is your son? You're gonna haft to dedicate yourself to learning the game. Take him to the field and hit him fungo/throw bp most everyday if he wants to get good.(fundamentals,reps,muscle memory) He won't get any better playing a better "brand" of baseball, unless he can keep up with the speed of the game.(lots of quality practice) Travel ball is great for showcasing talent, once he's gotten to that point. I played year round GW Long, Wiregrass cardinals, then team under armor in the winter. In my 4 years at Troy I bet there weren't 50 pitchers we faced that sat 90+ consistently, and 8 of those pitchers were at Vandy. Velocity is so overrated.. Don't let him get stuck with a subpar travel team just because you like the parents. I loved every minute of it, but baseball isn't something you're gonna get your money back with.(very few exceptions) IMO