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Kids travel sports - unreasonable request? (1 Viewer)

First off by and large Travel Ball is an absolute racket. It has diluted the talent so much that it has diluted itself. It is no longer the elite players playing against elite players. It has also destroyed rec ball because if you have any talent at all whatsoever you will not improve at all playing rec ball. Rec ball has become 85% daisy pickers that are only there because their parents are making them play a sport with the other 15% being new kids with some ability that will quickly realize they are getting nothing out of rec ball.

That is all a generalization as I am sure there are some rec leagues that are in big enough areas that can survive and be ok for kids with solid skills where they can improve somewhat.

I will also say that all Travel Teams are not created equal and you must do your homework on all teams in your area to choose the program that is right for you. There are terrible ones out there like described in the OP that may fit for some but not all (paying full price for practice only and no opportunity to play in games and then making travel mandatory for tourney's you won't play in is ridiculous). That being said, there are quality programs out there. There are also a ton of daddy ball teams as well. You need to do your due diligence to find the right fit for you. They are out there.....you just need to find them.

In my area we are relatively small. Our Little League had maybe 4 teams per age group when my son was playing. His 9 yr old season he was drafted to the Majors (typically for 11-12 years old - the LL World Series age group is what most people will recognize). He was good enough to play with the 11-12 yr olds in our area and did well. There were nine other 9-yr olds that were also drafted to the Majors that year and they all held their own. At the end of that season the league entered a 9-10 yr old All Star team into the LL district tournament and we took those ten 9-yr olds and few other 10 yr olds. We won one game and lost the next two and it was the first all star game a team from our district had won in many years. After seeing these players play me and another dad asked the parents if they wanted to do a couple tournaments to finish out the summer. We decided to play three tournaments that were in our area (maybe 45 minutes to an hour away). These players progressed more in these three tournaments than they did in the entirety of the LL season. That was how diluted the "rec ball" league was in our area.

After we finished those three tournaments the parents decided to ask us to give up rec ball and just do travel ball with this team. We weren't part of any organization or Baseball Mill. Just an area team that had a good crop of 9 yr olds. We split the costs evenly among all players. Got an insurance policy (relatively cheap), had access to a community field (free), and started it up. We began practicing in Feb and played into August. We averaged 2 tournaments a month (so we had two weekends off a month). We practiced 2-3 times a week for that time frame. We stopped in August so kids could do football/soccer/baseketball/etc.

We also played everyone evenly and rotated positions so every player knew how to play every position. Obviously as they got older and developed skills that narrowed in a bit but never really below 2 or 3 positions per player. It was important to us to develop total players.

We played about 50 games a season and the boys quickly improved. The idea was to have this group go to HS together (they were all in the same HS area) and we could develop them to be ready for HS. We kept the team together (for the most part, had a few stop and added a few as well as some fill ins when people weren't available). Then when we got to HS 75% decided to go to the rival HS because they were "better". My son and a couple other kids stayed and went where they were supposed to. They played Varsity as freshman (the other's that left did not play Varsity until junior year) and we lost to them two times (once freshman year and once sophomore year) when we played head to head over the next four years. Our team ended up winning lead both Junior and Senior years and went to the State Finals their junior year while the other "better" team did not. It was very satisfying. hahahaha.

Anyway, all that to say that you can make travel ball make sense for you. It's not all bad and terrible but you have to do your due diligence and find a program/team that matches your goals and desires. They are out there.

Our costs were $500 a year to cover uniforms, insurance, and tourney fees. We rarely traveled over 1 hr away but did go on overnight trips 2 or 3 times a year just to get away and see some other teams as well as to have fun staying in a hotel, swimming, seeing sites etc. We treated them as family vacations with your 10 closest friends. All the families had great times. We never signed up for an overnight tourney without having everyone agreeing to it ahead of time so they were planned.

My son is now playing at a D2 school in Colorado. Four of the other kids are playing at a local JC in California. Not bad to have half the kids succeed enough to play college ball in some manor.
My wife, son and I talk about all our travel experiences to this day. We had so much fun doing our one big summer tourney with the other families. We also had a blast winning the 13U and 14U league titles in the two leagues we played in….beating on paper better teams…..that was the sweetest part.

We played probably between tournaments and league games around 50 a year. We played September thru Thanksgiving. Then February thru June sometimes into very early July. Yes Travel ball was a
Commitment. And we had 12 committed players….and cut a few along the way like I mentioned. But the core group all went on to play high school and then of that 9 player core I was able to help 5 of them realize their college baseball aspirations including my son.

It was a satisfying experience. I was asked to coach again this past summer high school showcase ball and graciously passed. But I did go out to the tryouts and spoke to all the players and parents on what it takes to become a collegiate ball player and the amount of work it takes for both the player and parents. Also what not to do…..there is so much exploitation these days….it’s sad.

My son was just hired to coach this summer for high school showcase. He will be an assistant coach with his former summer coach (and a close personel friend of mine who coached travel and high school showcase with me). He is excited for that….getting paid to coach baseball on his summer break.

He will have a blast. He will have a 2026 team.
 
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In my case the all star thing is really just a barometer for how seriously he’s taking it and ensuring that he wants to play badly enough to justify the additional investment, more so than making sure I’m optimizing his skill development with an eye toward being a college player.
This shouldn't ever be about having an "eye toward being a college player". As @Todem pointed out the chances of any player getting to that point is very slim. The decision should be based on the kids desire to get better, his willingness to put in the work to get better, and what options helps that happen. Many kids can get improvement through rec leagues depending on their area and talent in those leagues (although these leagues are getting more and more diluted). The point of my comment to you was to evaluate whether or not the rec league is helping his development/skill improvement or not.
 

Baseball: Probability of competing beyond high school

When we survey NCAA student-athletes about their expectations of moving on to professional athletics careers, the results indicate surprising confidence in that possibility. The reality is that very few go pro.

Estimated probability of competing in college baseball​

High School ParticipantsNCAA ParticipantsOverall % HS to NCAA% HS to NCAA Division I% HS to NCAA Division II% HS to NCAA Division III
478,45138,8498.1%2.4%2.4%3.2%

 
I'd be doing backflips if my kid got a D3 scholarship to play volleyball.
D3 doesn't have athletic scholarships but they are pretty good about academic scholarships if you have the grades and they want you to play there. My son got offered a 65% academic scholarship to a D3 school that wanted him for baseball. The coach was trying to help with other scholarships to swing them to his first choice but he had his sights set on a D2 school that he liked better due to location, major, and he thought he was good enough to play D2 over D3. So he went to the D2 school. The D3 coach pressed him to see what he could do to make his school the top choice and my son's response was there was nothing baseball wise that could be done. The main things the other school had were location and major and the D3 coach understood. It was actually one of the things the D3 coach pushed my son to figure out. Look at the total package of the school not just one aspect so he respected his response. I really liked that coach. If he was at the D2 school it would have been the best of both worlds.
 
I'd be doing backflips if my kid got a D3 scholarship to play volleyball.
D3 doesn't have athletic scholarships but they are pretty good about academic scholarships if you have the grades and they want you to play there. My son got offered a 65% academic scholarship to a D3 school that wanted him for baseball. The coach was trying to help with other scholarships to swing them to his first choice but he had his sights set on a D2 school that he liked better due to location, major, and he thought he was good enough to play D2 over D3. So he went to the D2 school. The D3 coach pressed him to see what he could do to make his school the top choice and my son's response was there was nothing baseball wise that could be done. The main things the other school had were location and major and the D3 coach understood. It was actually one of the things the D3 coach pushed my son to figure out. Look at the total package of the school not just one aspect so he respected his response. I really liked that coach. If he was at the D2 school it would have been the best of both worlds.
Yep...my son had a couple of D2 offers and in the total picture loved the D3 he is currently at over the two D2 schools. It is truly important to know what you are looking for not only with the sport but the other things you mentioned. Location, academics, weather, coaching staff, teammates, facilities. The level of competition between D2 and D3 is pretty close and in some cases the same. Same with NAIA.
 
Im still hung up on the fact that they make practice players pay the full tuition.

My son did this with ice hockey years ago. He made the big club as a practice player. The deal was that he played for the lower team, same amount of games, would do their normal 1 practice a week, plus practice with the big club 2x a week. If they needed him that could call him up.

The best part was that the big club tuition was somewhere around $3k, but the lower team was only $1500, and then $500 extra for the other practices. I was in my glory....same amount of games, and 3x a week practice (1 more then everyone else) and we were still paying $1k less then the big club.

He really needed the extra practice at the time, he had just switched from playing goalie to now defense. I figured this would catch him up over the long run.

Buuuut. a week after tryouts, 1 kid left the big club and they called him up....and with that my extra $1K lol
 
I'd be doing backflips if my kid got a D3 scholarship to play volleyball.
D3 doesn't have athletic scholarships but they are pretty good about academic scholarships if you have the grades and they want you to play there. My son got offered a 65% academic scholarship to a D3 school that wanted him for baseball. The coach was trying to help with other scholarships to swing them to his first choice but he had his sights set on a D2 school that he liked better due to location, major, and he thought he was good enough to play D2 over D3. So he went to the D2 school. The D3 coach pressed him to see what he could do to make his school the top choice and my son's response was there was nothing baseball wise that could be done. The main things the other school had were location and major and the D3 coach understood. It was actually one of the things the D3 coach pushed my son to figure out. Look at the total package of the school not just one aspect so he respected his response. I really liked that coach. If he was at the D2 school it would have been the best of both worlds.
Yep...my son had a couple of D2 offers and in the total picture loved the D3 he is currently at over the two D2 schools. It is truly important to know what you are looking for not only with the sport but the other things you mentioned. Location, academics, weather, coaching staff, teammates, facilities. The level of competition between D2 and D3 is pretty close and in some cases the same. Same with NAIA.
Same here, my son actually just committed earlier this week to a D3 over a D2 he had an offer from for those same type of reasons. He liked both schools equally campus wise, the D2 had a little better facilities (dedicated soccer field instead of a multi sport stadium, a little nicer locker rooms, etc.). But the D3 in his major offered smaller class sizes which when he got to the labs was really attractive to him, their freshman dorms weren't as nice but the apartment style dorms they get their sophomore year look awesome, you get a private bedroom instead of having to share one like most other schools we looked at. The D2 also didn't offer athletic money until your sophomore year and only offered a small academic, the D3 offered him over 50% "merit" based. It really only brought it down to about the same since the D2 was a state school and the D3 is private but it was enough that he could make his decision based on the academic and soccer stuff and not the cost.
 
I'd be doing backflips if my kid got a D3 scholarship to play volleyball.
D3 doesn't have athletic scholarships but they are pretty good about academic scholarships if you have the grades and they want you to play there. My son got offered a 65% academic scholarship to a D3 school that wanted him for baseball. The coach was trying to help with other scholarships to swing them to his first choice but he had his sights set on a D2 school that he liked better due to location, major, and he thought he was good enough to play D2 over D3. So he went to the D2 school. The D3 coach pressed him to see what he could do to make his school the top choice and my son's response was there was nothing baseball wise that could be done. The main things the other school had were location and major and the D3 coach understood. It was actually one of the things the D3 coach pushed my son to figure out. Look at the total package of the school not just one aspect so he respected his response. I really liked that coach. If he was at the D2 school it would have been the best of both worlds.
Yep...my son had a couple of D2 offers and in the total picture loved the D3 he is currently at over the two D2 schools. It is truly important to know what you are looking for not only with the sport but the other things you mentioned. Location, academics, weather, coaching staff, teammates, facilities. The level of competition between D2 and D3 is pretty close and in some cases the same. Same with NAIA.
Same here, my son actually just committed earlier this week to a D3 over a D2 he had an offer from for those same type of reasons. He liked both schools equally campus wise, the D2 had a little better facilities (dedicated soccer field instead of a multi sport stadium, a little nicer locker rooms, etc.). But the D3 in his major offered smaller class sizes which when he got to the labs was really attractive to him, their freshman dorms weren't as nice but the apartment style dorms they get their sophomore year look awesome, you get a private bedroom instead of having to share one like most other schools we looked at. The D2 also didn't offer athletic money until your sophomore year and only offered a small academic, the D3 offered him over 50% "merit" based. It really only brought it down to about the same since the D2 was a state school and the D3 is private but it was enough that he could make his decision based on the academic and soccer stuff and not the cost.
Congrats!
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests. Going into a Holiday weekend my son has a two practices and "friendly" game vs. another local club. You would have thought that with no soccer tournament this weekend given it is a holiday that would take the weekend off or just keep the maybe the standard Monday evening practice but guess not.

Will say I wouldn't pay for travel soccer if my kid just sat on the bench.
 
I'd be doing backflips if my kid got a D3 scholarship to play volleyball.
It's all academic money. However coaches can swing the acceptance if borderline or find the kids some other scholarships or easy campus work etc......
d3 gets really slushy with the money i have had kids go to d3 get big merit scholarships that covered over 75 percent of thier tuition and then the school found other things like presidential scholarships and scholarships because they were german or whatever they cant give out athletic scholarships but if they want you enough they will find a way take that to the bank bromigos
 
d3 gets really slushy with the money i have had kids go to d3 get big merit scholarships that covered over 75 percent of thier tuition and then the school found other things like presidential scholarships and scholarships because they were german or whatever they cant give out athletic scholarships but if they want you enough they will find a way take that to the bank bromigos
The bolded for sure. The coach kept asking us if the "number" was good enough or if we needed more to push them to the top of the list. Luckily for us money wasn't the end all be all and we told our son that he needed to choose without taking the "money" into account. We didn't want that being the deciding factor where he went somewhere he didn't like as much just because it was cheaper.

The only thing I did tell him was that his opportunity would be different at each school because of how much the coach wanted him. At the D3 he was being recruited hard so I equated it to being a 1st round draft pick vs being a 15th round draft pick (the D2 school offered him a preferred walk on spot - no money initially). So his baseball opportunity would likely be given more leeway as a "1st round pick" over the "15th round pick". He said he was up for the challenge and believed in himself. So far so good.....after the fall the D2 coach gave him some athletic scholarship money.
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests. Going into a Holiday weekend my son has a two practices and "friendly" game vs. another local club. You would have thought that with no soccer tournament this weekend given it is a holiday that would take the weekend off or just keep the maybe the standard Monday evening practice but guess not.

Will say I wouldn't pay for travel soccer if my kid just sat on the bench.
There's sitting on the bench as in coach prefers other starters... And there's the nonsense our OP posted where they'll never play.

Still in Bklyn? What club is the kid playing for? My old college asst coach (and alum) runs DUSC.
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests.
Not necessarily. This is where you need to find an organization that fits your needs. They are out there but you have to do the work to "interview" them to find out if they mesh with your mindset.

Also, if you communicate with the organization regarding your availability upfront and they fit your needs you can work around things that don't fit your schedule. Communication is key.
 
d3 gets really slushy with the money i have had kids go to d3 get big merit scholarships that covered over 75 percent of thier tuition and then the school found other things like presidential scholarships and scholarships because they were german or whatever they cant give out athletic scholarships but if they want you enough they will find a way take that to the bank bromigos
The bolded for sure. The coach kept asking us if the "number" was good enough or if we needed more to push them to the top of the list. Luckily for us money wasn't the end all be all and we told our son that he needed to choose without taking the "money" into account. We didn't want that being the deciding factor where he went somewhere he didn't like as much just because it was cheaper.

The only thing I did tell him was that his opportunity would be different at each school because of how much the coach wanted him. At the D3 he was being recruited hard so I equated it to being a 1st round draft pick vs being a 15th round draft pick (the D2 school offered him a preferred walk on spot - no money initially). So his baseball opportunity would likely be given more leeway as a "1st round pick" over the "15th round pick". He said he was up for the challenge and believed in himself. So far so good.....after the fall the D2 coach gave him some athletic scholarship money.
Yep my kid got something like 75% and a couple other things sprinkled in which made it 80%>. She keeps the 75 going into JR year but will lose that 5% because she is moving off campus

Still expensive LOL
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests. Going into a Holiday weekend my son has a two practices and "friendly" game vs. another local club. You would have thought that with no soccer tournament this weekend given it is a holiday that would take the weekend off or just keep the maybe the standard Monday evening practice but guess not.

Will say I wouldn't pay for travel soccer if my kid just sat on the bench.
There's sitting on the bench as in coach prefers other starters... And there's the nonsense our OP posted where they'll never play.

Still in Bklyn? What club is the kid playing for? My old college asst coach (and alum) runs DUSC.
I was referring to the non-sense in the OP re: sitting on the bench.

My son plays for GJOA who we do like. They have a philsophy that every kid plays half the game if they make the team. My son starts at the 8 and probably plays 2/3rds of each game as they definately make sure everyone plays. I really like that philsophy though each club team is run differently.

Heard good things about DUSC and a bunch of my son's friends on his HS team plays with them. Of course that is more of a Manhattan team.
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests. Going into a Holiday weekend my son has a two practices and "friendly" game vs. another local club. You would have thought that with no soccer tournament this weekend given it is a holiday that would take the weekend off or just keep the maybe the standard Monday evening practice but guess not.

Will say I wouldn't pay for travel soccer if my kid just sat on the bench.
There's sitting on the bench as in coach prefers other starters... And there's the nonsense our OP posted where they'll never play.

Still in Bklyn? What club is the kid playing for? My old college asst coach (and alum) runs DUSC.
I was referring to the non-sense in the OP re: sitting on the bench.

My son plays for GJOA who we do like. They have a philsophy that every kid plays half the game if they make the team. My son starts at the 8 and probably plays 2/3rds of each game as they definately make sure everyone plays. I really like that philsophy though each club team is run differently.

Heard good things about DUSC and a bunch of my son's friends on his HS team plays with them. Of course that is more of a Manhattan team.
Thought it might've been them...why I asked about BK. Had a couple Gjoa teammates in college. Good guys.
 
Isn't the definition of travel sports unreasonable requests.
Not necessarily. This is where you need to find an organization that fits your needs. They are out there but you have to do the work to "interview" them to find out if they mesh with your mindset.

Also, if you communicate with the organization regarding your availability upfront and they fit your needs you can work around things that don't fit your schedule. Communication is key.
I live in an area with many different options. Not sure that is always the case for people and even my son's team which is bit more laid back than others is a major year round commitment.
 
Commitment can be intense. My son played travel baseball. You can play baseball year round in So Cal. Kids never get a break. Between season, fall ball, travel ball it's endless (though we did have a rule that my son couldn't touch a baseball during August. Complete physical and mental break). But traveling to tournaments was grueling. Could be hours away, 3 games a day. Taxing years for sure.
 
Commitment can be intense. My son played travel baseball. You can play baseball year round in So Cal. Kids never get a break. Between season, fall ball, travel ball it's endless (though we did have a rule that my son couldn't touch a baseball during August. Complete physical and mental break). But traveling to tournaments was grueling. Could be hours away, 3 games a day. Taxing years for sure.
I think a lot of the "commitment" can be self inflicted. I know I have a bit of that "gotta keep doing" and fear of missing opportunities. But in general in most places you can find tournaments/games closer than hours away.

I live on the central coast (an hour north of Santa Barbara). We could find tournaments every weekend between SB and Paso Robles (that's basically an hour each way). We didn't have to travel far if we didn't want to. We also didn't have to play every weekend. Now I was somewhat lucky in that I was involved with coaching the team and had decision ability in how much/far we played. Our philosophy was to not play every weekend and we didn't want to travel so we didn't. There were a multiple different teams in the area that also were similar. You can find them but it depends on what you want and how much effort you put in for finding those type organizations. I would expect that in your area (Thousand Oaks if I remember correctly) had many, many options close by. Southern CA is full of organizations.

I also think that many people feel obligated to play year round if the team is. There really is nothing preventing you from being upfront with the organization and tell them you are playing from March to August (or whatever time frame) and see if they are accepting of that. Many will be as long as you are up front and communicate your availability with time to adjust. If they aren't then it's probably not a good fit (or at least it wouldn't be for me).

Being done with that life now there are things I miss and things I don't miss. But traveling to play baseball and watch my kid play is definitely in the "miss" category. We enjoyed that as a family so those were like mini vacations for us. The boys loved playing in the pool and hanging out with their friends. It was a great time and great memories. If you don't like those things or don't get along with the other families it can be a drain on you. If that is the case you need to find a different organization.
 
Club volleyball tournament here in SoCal on Saturday morning for 15U. Wake up at 6:30am, get to location no later than 7:45am because the girls have to work the 8am game... 5-6 bucks for the toll road there. Their games are at 9, 11 and 1, which means we won't be home until 3 or so. It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too. Not cheap.
 
It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too.
This is the thing that bothers me the most with these damn tournaments. I am already grossly overpaying to enter the tourney as a team and now you charge parents even more just to go watch the games. Dumb. You want to make more money then set up concession stands and do it that way. Don't charge already over charged parents to watch their kid play.
 
It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too.
This is the thing that bothers me the most with these damn tournaments. I am already grossly overpaying to enter the tourney as a team and now you charge parents even more just to go watch the games. Dumb. You want to make more money then set up concession stands and do it that way. Don't charge already over charged parents to watch their kid play.
Yeah for real. One place we went to a couple months ago had nothing but a vending machine... another place had Domino's Pizza at $4/slice and some canned sodas and bags of chips. If we're there from 8am-3pm you'd think they'd try to get some better food options. Gouge me if you must, but now I have to run out between games and get fast food.

I'm thinking the entry fees go to pay the refs/scorekeepers, though. But who knows.
 
It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too.
This is the thing that bothers me the most with these damn tournaments. I am already grossly overpaying to enter the tourney as a team and now you charge parents even more just to go watch the games. Dumb. You want to make more money then set up concession stands and do it that way. Don't charge already over charged parents to watch their kid play.
Yeah for real. One place we went to a couple months ago had nothing but a vending machine... another place had Domino's Pizza at $4/slice and some canned sodas and bags of chips. If we're there from 8am-3pm you'd think they'd try to get some better food options. Gouge me if you must, but now I have to run out between games and get fast food.

I'm thinking the entry fees go to pay the refs/scorekeepers, though. But who knows.
We knew one of the owners of one of these facilities before they sold it:

Generally speaking, the finances worked out like this:
Tourney Entry Fee - This basically covered the organizers cost to rent the facility
Admission Fees - this went to the tourney organizers to pay refs/scorekeepers and any extra was the profit
Parking Fees - this went to the facility

They also said that for the facility, volleyball was a lot more profitable than basketball, largely because volleyball was made up of more "beach" families that would prefer to pay for convenience, so they could charge $20 for parking and have lines down the street of people trying to get them to find more spots. For basketball, they could charge $10 and folks would rather park half a mile away and walk rather than pay the $10.
 
Club volleyball tournament here in SoCal on Saturday morning for 15U. Wake up at 6:30am, get to location no later than 7:45am because the girls have to work the 8am game... 5-6 bucks for the toll road there. Their games are at 9, 11 and 1, which means we won't be home until 3 or so. It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too. Not cheap.
You guys playing at Ladera Sports Center?
 
It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too.
This is the thing that bothers me the most with these damn tournaments. I am already grossly overpaying to enter the tourney as a team and now you charge parents even more just to go watch the games. Dumb. You want to make more money then set up concession stands and do it that way. Don't charge already over charged parents to watch their kid play.
Yeah agree but our tournament prices are high but it covers everything
 
Club volleyball tournament here in SoCal on Saturday morning for 15U. Wake up at 6:30am, get to location no later than 7:45am because the girls have to work the 8am game... 5-6 bucks for the toll road there. Their games are at 9, 11 and 1, which means we won't be home until 3 or so. It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too. Not cheap.
You guys playing at Ladera Sports Center?
No we're at Clava in Lake Forest. Beers soon?
 
Club volleyball tournament here in SoCal on Saturday morning for 15U. Wake up at 6:30am, get to location no later than 7:45am because the girls have to work the 8am game... 5-6 bucks for the toll road there. Their games are at 9, 11 and 1, which means we won't be home until 3 or so. It'll cost $20/person to go watch 'em too. Not cheap.
You guys playing at Ladera Sports Center?
No we're at Clava in Lake Forest. Beers soon?
I’m sure we can make that work soon
 

Baseball: Probability of competing beyond high school

When we survey NCAA student-athletes about their expectations of moving on to professional athletics careers, the results indicate surprising confidence in that possibility. The reality is that very few go pro.

Estimated probability of competing in college baseball​

High School ParticipantsNCAA ParticipantsOverall % HS to NCAA% HS to NCAA Division I% HS to NCAA Division II% HS to NCAA Division III
478,45138,8498.1%2.4%2.4%3.2%

11.7 scholarships for a D1 baseball program. If you’re a Friday or Saturday starting pitcher you might get more than 50%. Everyone else gets scraps
 
Commitment can be intense. My son played travel baseball. You can play baseball year round in So Cal. Kids never get a break. Between season, fall ball, travel ball it's endless (though we did have a rule that my son couldn't touch a baseball during August. Complete physical and mental break). But traveling to tournaments was grueling. Could be hours away, 3 games a day. Taxing years for sure.
I think a lot of the "commitment" can be self inflicted. I know I have a bit of that "gotta keep doing" and fear of missing opportunities. But in general in most places you can find tournaments/games closer than hours away.

I live on the central coast (an hour north of Santa Barbara). We could find tournaments every weekend between SB and Paso Robles (that's basically an hour each way). We didn't have to travel far if we didn't want to. We also didn't have to play every weekend. Now I was somewhat lucky in that I was involved with coaching the team and had decision ability in how much/far we played. Our philosophy was to not play every weekend and we didn't want to travel so we didn't. There were a multiple different teams in the area that also were similar. You can find them but it depends on what you want and how much effort you put in for finding those type organizations. I would expect that in your area (Thousand Oaks if I remember correctly) had many, many options close by. Southern CA is full of organizations.

I also think that many people feel obligated to play year round if the team is. There really is nothing preventing you from being upfront with the organization and tell them you are playing from March to August (or whatever time frame) and see if they are accepting of that. Many will be as long as you are up front and communicate your availability with time to adjust. If they aren't then it's probably not a good fit (or at least it wouldn't be for me).

Being done with that life now there are things I miss and things I don't miss. But traveling to play baseball and watch my kid play is definitely in the "miss" category. We enjoyed that as a family so those were like mini vacations for us. The boys loved playing in the pool and hanging out with their friends. It was a great time and great memories. If you don't like those things or don't get along with the other families it can be a drain on you. If that is the case you need to find a different organization.
Don’t get me wrong. Loved it. Miss it. It was a big commitment though. Hard for kids to make it on HS starting rosters without being on key travel teams. Wasn’t really optional in that circle. Fun times. Christian Yelich was on the team. Few other future major leaguers. Lenny Dykstra was around since his son was on the team. That was a trip
 
Don’t get me wrong. Loved it. Miss it. It was a big commitment though. Hard for kids to make it on HS starting rosters without being on key travel teams. Wasn’t really optional in that circle. Fun times. Christian Yelich was on the team. Few other future major leaguers. Lenny Dykstra was around since his son was on the team. That was a trip
Out of curiosity, is baseball recruited more heavily from the club/travel tournament circuit, or is it more through high school? I'm a lot more familiar with the football, basketball and soccer side of things (and a little lacrosse via a nephew and friends)
 
Don’t get me wrong. Loved it. Miss it. It was a big commitment though. Hard for kids to make it on HS starting rosters without being on key travel teams. Wasn’t really optional in that circle. Fun times. Christian Yelich was on the team. Few other future major leaguers. Lenny Dykstra was around since his son was on the team. That was a trip
Out of curiosity, is baseball recruited more heavily from the club/travel tournament circuit, or is it more through high school? I'm a lot more familiar with the football, basketball and soccer side of things (and a little lacrosse via a nephew and friends)
I would say it is likely more recruited from showcases but those are even difficult to get looks. Speaking from a pitching perspective it is also really tough to get any looks at all if you aren't throwing 90+ and/or 6-2 or taller. My son threw 85-86 and was 6-1 and a right hander. He got zero D1 looks and he went 10-0 with 0.71 ERA over 80 IP's his senior year. He had no D1 looks. In fact he had a few schools say that unless he threw 90+ he wouldn't even be looked at by them.

He did a couple showcases in Arizona during the summer between his Junior and Senior season and got some interest from D2, D3 and NAIA schools. In our area (central coast of CA) there weren't a lot of colleges scouting his HS team during the season. I think it's hard for colleges to do that since their season is going on at the same time so they likely rely on summer showcases and their own college camps to put players on their radar.

Overall, I don't think we did enough in this area to get scouted as much as he should have. Partly because we didn't really know what to do and partly because there are so many pure money grabs you have to be very careful you aren't just throwing money away so we were hesitant in a lot of instances. Luckily for my son he had a local coach with a connection to a pitching coach at the D2 school he is currently at. The Pitching coach was in the area visiting his family over the summer and we were able to set up a bullpen session with him so he could see Gally Jr throw. Because of that chance he was able to stay in touch with a coach directly into his senior year and was able to get an opportunity from that. It's where he ended up going.

Since he was recruited by the pitching coach, when we talked to the head coach about possible scholarship money he basically said even with the videos and stats and recommendation from the pitching coach he didn't really know much about Gally jr so he didn't have any money to offer up. But he did say he can earn it if he did well. After the fall the coach had one on one sessions with each player to give them feedback on the fall and how things went. At that time he did give some scholarship money to Gally Jr as he said he was impressed with him and that he didn't handle himself like a freshman (pretty high praise). So Gally Jr went from the head coach not really knowing his name to getting some money in the coarse of 3 months in the fall. Pretty cool.

All that to say, you just need a foot in the door if you are willing to work and have the ability. It's hard to get seen and if you don't have measurables it makes it that much harder. For baseball, trying to be a pitcher is especially tough as everyone wants velocity. They don't really care about pitching. It's quite sad but it is the way of the world these days.
 
@Gally Thanks for that info. Not that dissimilar to some of the other sports in that you have to work really hard to get your name on the radar of coaches.
Yep. I don't really know of any solution either. It has to be tough for coaches because many times they are worried about their season at the times they could be looking at potential players. I understand why the measurables are the easiest thing to rely on because by and large they should be an even playing field. Where stats (especially in baseball) can be wildly inaccurate and/or influenced by quality of opponents.

A few coaches that watched my son pitch put it very well in that they said you cannot appreciate what he brings to the table until you actually watch him pitch a game. He isn't flashy but he just gets outs. So looking at snippet of videos or measurables or even stats don't really give the whole story. But once coaches see him handle himself in a game and set batters up and get weak contact (while pitching to contact) they all love what he does because he just gets outs. There is always a place for that.

I am sure other sports have similar types of things where stats/measurables/etc don't really tell the story and you gotta watch a person play to appreciate what they bring to the table. This is where coaches miss a lot. They have to rely on the things that don't show if they are a gamer or not and by the time they are in the program it's too late to realize they don't know what they are doing in games.

I have no idea what the solution is. Just hope to get a chance and then capitalize on that chance.
 
One day "tournament" (not really a tournament since their three opponents were predetermined) for the U15 volleyball club this past Saturday.

$20 to park (or park a LONG ways away and walk), $20/person to get in.

Anyways, point being they pulled up a developmental squad girl since we were missing one player due to a prior commitment. She actually played a little bit in the final game. I would have felt bad for her (I don't think her family came, got a ride with another girl) if she didn't play at all. She actually scored a critical point for us, too.
 
One day "tournament" (not really a tournament since their three opponents were predetermined) for the U15 volleyball club this past Saturday.

$20 to park (or park a LONG ways away and walk), $20/person to get in.

Anyways, point being they pulled up a developmental squad girl since we were missing one player due to a prior commitment. She actually played a little bit in the final game. I would have felt bad for her (I don't think her family came, got a ride with another girl) if she didn't play at all. She actually scored a critical point for us, too.
Other than the regional championship tournament, we never paid for one-day tournaments. I always got the feeling those were intended to get teams ready for the real tournaments.
 
I'll start by saying that I've had multiple children participate in several different travel sport leagues. We've done Soccer, Baseball, Cheerleading and Gymnastics which all came with commitments and travel requirements that were difficult, but we did our best to make everything work. We've even had to book airBnBs for regional events several states away.

My youngest daughter started school volleyball this year for her first season and she did pretty well for a first-year player. She's naturally athletic and picks up things quickly. Her issue was confidence and not knowing all aspects of the game well enough. We signed up for a local 14U girls travel volleyball club to get more experience. She was 12 at the time of tryouts and made the team as a practice player. That means she can practice with the team and if she shows enough improvement will be moved up to the team for games. We sort of knew what we were signing up for at the time, but didn't ask all the questions because she was happy about it.

It's a month later now and the travel schedule is out. There will be weekend-long tournaments up to 4-5 hours away, starting in two weeks. Come to find out that practice players are required to travel with the team and there is zero chance of them getting into any game while on the practice team. The reality of the situation is setting in for our daughter and she's taken a more pessimistic view on the situation. The tournament in 2 weeks is about 2.5 hours from home and starts at 8am Saturday with the final match being roughly 4pm Sunday. This is a big time and financial commitment to an event where my daughter won't play, so I suggested skipping it.

My wife was talking to other parents about it and the vibe was that practice players who don't travel with the team have reduced chances of getting called up to the team. I got a little heated at that point because I found the situation to be pretty unreasonable. This is 14 year old girls volleyball. We paid the same fees as everyone else, but if our daughter isn't going to play, don't make the whole family give up their weekend. I don't know if I'm getting too worked up over it, but I'm not happy with the situation. Every sacrifice we've made before was to support the kids. I don't feel like this situation is in the same bubble.

Not sure what we are going to do yet. Wife and I thought it was best to sleep on it. I'm typing this out to try to figure out if I'm overreacting or justified to pull her from this. I also wanted to vent about kids travel sports... it's become a racket.
This.

This is what is wrong with youth sports. It is unreasonable but that is what has become the norm.

This sucks. I agree with you fully. If there is little to no chance of your daughter actually playing, then it shouldn't be the same fee. There is a reason you see all these new baseball, basketball, and volleyball organizations popping up. People are make money.

Wishing the best for your daughter to find a good place to play.
And this.

This makes me glad none of my kids play travel sports

I’d skip it just tell her to play for the school and have fun
And this.

I have three kids in three different travel/club sports. Which is fine, I guess. I love that they play sports that they love, and I enjoy watching them do well (and have fun). Unfortunately, though, a lot of club organizations (and coaches) demand so much of these kids that there is no longer a realistic opportunity for them to play multiple sports, try different things, etc. Which, pretty much any expert (not to mention 99% of pro athletes) will tell you is best for kids. They should try different things and figure out what they have a passion for. Play multiple sports to improve coordination, mental toughness, how to deal with adversity, etc. But, that's not what we're teaching kids today, in many cases.

I've seen too many travel coaches tell kids (at the age of 9-12 even) that they need to choose a sport. That, if they want to play soccer and not make baseball their #1 priority, they probably won't play on the baseball team (or vice versa). It's sad, really. Teaching kids before puberty that they should be deciding what they want to do/play for the rest of their lives (or at least through HS) makes no sense. Let them figure it out. Let them diversify and become better athletes (and better human beings).

But, it's a vicious cycle, and unfortunately, most parents fall into the trap of "if we don't do it, but everyone else is, our kid will fall behind." Which is silly. So, you fall into a "if you can't beat em, join em" mentality.

My biggest issue is that my ex disagrees with pretty much everything I typed above. She looks at sports as an opportunity for a full scholarship in college (which she had). My feeling is that, if that's your reason for having your kids play sports, you're doing it wrong. Because, let's be real.... 99% of these travel kids aren't sniffing a full ride. Heck, over half of them won't make their high school team. More importantly, kids who play more than one sport run circles around kids who play one sport year-round, generally speaking. Not to mention the "burn-out" factor becomes so much higher if they play year-round, etc.

Don't even get me started on how on the cost of club sports, the goal of many parents to get that full ride for their kid, and the irony surrounding the fact that the $$ spent on club sports (if invested correctly) would likely pay for a pretty good school for most kids, or at least a good chunk of it. :wall:
 
$20/person to get in.
That is highway robbery
Absolutely. One of the dads I was talking to said he refuses to pay these entry fees anymore. He just walks right in and has yet to be stopped by anyone. It's usually some kid at the door collecting cash and Venmo, anyways. I may or may not try this next time :oldunsure:
$20 parking (at some random parking lot of a business that's closed for the weekend), $20 per adult to enter the venue, and no food/beverage allowed inside (while they charge Dodger prices for what basically amounts to cafeteria food). It's a joke.
 
$20/person to get in.
That is highway robbery
Absolutely. One of the dads I was talking to said he refuses to pay these entry fees anymore. He just walks right in and has yet to be stopped by anyone. It's usually some kid at the door collecting cash and Venmo, anyways. I may or may not try this next time :oldunsure:

I should have taken this guy's approach this weekend. I paid $18 for one day entry on Sunday for my daughter's tournament - walked in and they gave me a wristband but no one ever confirmed I paid. I also parked with a 10 minute walk in negative temps purely on principle against the $30 lot fee.
 
I've seen too many travel coaches tell kids (at the age of 9-12 even) that they need to choose a sport. That, if they want to play soccer and not make baseball their #1 priority, they probably won't play on the baseball team (or vice versa). It's sad, really. Teaching kids before puberty that they should be deciding what they want to do/play for the rest of their lives (or at least through HS) makes no sense. Let them figure it out. Let them diversify and become better athletes (and better human beings).
Until you get to high school (and even in high school) you can play multiple sports and not fall that far behind. Playing other sports will actually help you in all sports. It is better for your body (and injury prevention) and mental development for the games. This is such a false narrative and it's sad it has taken hold.

No doubt your kid will be behind the year round kid to start the year but as long as your kid works on the sport on their own (not just doing it during practice/games) they will come up to speed fairly quickly.

I am talking about the majority of kids. Of course there are some kids that will specialize and just have "it" and be better but that would happen whether they specialized or not. It's the same that there will be some athletes that are so good it doesn't matter they miss time regardless.
 
$20/person to get in.
That is highway robbery
Absolutely. One of the dads I was talking to said he refuses to pay these entry fees anymore. He just walks right in and has yet to be stopped by anyone. It's usually some kid at the door collecting cash and Venmo, anyways. I may or may not try this next time :oldunsure:

I should have taken this guy's approach this weekend. I paid $18 for one day entry on Sunday for my daughter's tournament - walked in and they gave me a wristband but no one ever confirmed I paid. I also parked with a 10 minute walk in negative temps purely on principle against the $30 lot fee.
It many cases if you just act like you belong and go about your business you will rarely be stopped. I like using the line that I am part of the game management team and just walk on by.
 
You should have found a travel team where she would play. Paying fees to practice and travel but not play . . . what's the point. At 12 it's should be about having fun.
 
$20/person to get in.
That is highway robbery
Absolutely. One of the dads I was talking to said he refuses to pay these entry fees anymore. He just walks right in and has yet to be stopped by anyone. It's usually some kid at the door collecting cash and Venmo, anyways. I may or may not try this next time :oldunsure:
I did this at the 2 high school football games last year I went to. :shrug: I figure all the dough I forked over in 4 years would cover my two entries.
 
A good friend’s daughter is starting travel volleyball. I think she’s pretty good. Mom is 6’. Kid is tall too. in the their team pic, she’s front and center and is the tallest. I’ll ask him what it’s costing him. They’re in TN
 

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