Softball experience here, yes most travel teams are watered down. The average "ring" tournament with an alphabet organization will not get you recruited. If your average travel organization goes to a high dollar exposure tournament you will not be guaranteed to play in front of any college coaches. I was told a year ago the name on the front of the jersey matters. I now know about brand recognition and the politics of recruiting.

If you want to play in front of coaches you have to play with an established organization that will make the super pools. The rest are just paying the bills.

After joining a recognized program this fall my daughter was able to pitch in front of coaches from USM, AUM, Troy, South AL,Auburn and others this weekend.

You'll also need to hit the college camps too. Especially at schools you have a shot at getting offered by. Every kid wants to go to a camp at Alabama. But there will be 300+ kids at the Bama camps. Choose wisely.

Travel ball can be a real mess. In my area, travel baseball is still daddy-ball. My kids have learned a lot of life lessons in their exposure to daddy-ball. It was frustrating at the time, but worth it in the long run.

We've done it, and my kids are very athletic and have excelled. But the drawback is that, since we are in a large school district, only the travel kids make the school teams. Hate to see it for my kid's friends, but at some point the better players have to make the team.

Essentially, it's a pay to play system. My son was just nominated to play on a regional (southeastern team - several states involved.) I'm proud of him, but I've got enough sense to explain to him that our end game it's not to put him on a college team/olympics/semi-pro, etc. We're doing youth sports because it has positive aspects to it, and we try to be more focused on God, family, friends and academics. I'll admit that we sometimes fall short on our priorities, but we're raising kids to be productive adults with a good moral compass, not athletes.

Communicate with your kids, understand what is important to them, and show them, as a parent, the correct path.

Good luck in your decisions.

I know a lot more people that got scholarships, and made millions, by going to college and actually studying, than I do that succeeded in sports.

To build on what FastXD said:

Pitchers:
6'2" 90mph = never played travel ball (1 yr of high school ball) = scholarship
5'9" 82mph = One of the best players for the past 10yrs on travel ball (4yrs high school ball) = D2/3 school playing for fun = ZERO chance of being drafted

Never tell a kid this, but hard work is not #1. #1 is Genetics, coupled with hard work = scholarships, professional. There is not a professional athlete that is not a freak of nature. Most people don't comprehend this.

Here is a good guideline:
http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/SportsSpecificRecruitingGuide1.pdf

You will either be playing a game or at practice every weekend, the kid I know that plays travel softball even has to practice on Sunday's and it seems they have a tournament every weekend, yes they are usually only a 1 day thing but if your team keeps winning yopu may not leave the ball park till midnight, which still isn't too bod unless you are in Troy or Huntsville and you live in Jemison....

My wife has a cousin that plays at the college level (D-1) and we know several of his team mates. Some of them played travel ball and a good bit of them did not, just rec league and school ball.

I am not planning to let my son play any travel ball until possibly high school if he really wants too.

Fall travel seemed to be more 1 day tourneys. Spring travel will start 1 days...and finish at 3 or 4 day tourneys. Fall travel is more watered down and less expensive. Spring/summer gets more competitive and a lot more expensive. My 2 cents...

Dang , y'all done got Neck's boy in the MLB HOF.

B.C. Reb, when did you play @ G.W. LONG? My grandson is going there (8th grade), playing baseball under Drew, pitcher.

Lol. That's his dream but I haven't explained the shucks in one hand wish in the other part of real life yet.

One other thing with the larger D1 (SEC) schools if you are a stud in the 10th grade many of them will give you an offer but that is all it is and worth about nothing because if they feel you don't improve they will pull that offer. We had a kid on our summer team that committed to Mississippi State his Sophmore year and they pulled his offer last month in his senior year so if you do get an early offer you better make sure you improve to the schools expectations or you will be without that scholorship when it comes time to sign. Once a kid commits he is basically off limits for other schools to recruit in baseball, basketball and football are different until you sign that paper you are free game.

I don't have kids so this is way in the future for me, but my wifes cousin has a six year old girl who plays travel softball and they had a weekend tournament in Louisiana... for six year olds!! I couldn't believe it. Who knows how much they spent to get in the tournament plus travel, food, and hotel... again for a six year old!

I am a coach for a 18u and 16u boys travel baseball team, we are a top 50 in the nation program. Our goal is get these young men into college, period. We as coaches receive nothing in compensation. It is about those young men getting a shot at an education. It takes time and money from families, but....factor in tuition, and the 5k you spend for travel ball over 3 years instead of shelling out 40 or 50k for school or that child having that loan fresh out of school. JMO,

If you are using travel baseball to help facilitate the HOPE that it will somehow help pay for College I would suggest you spend that time with your kids studying and improving their grades for an academic scholarship.

You will be more successful in that venture.

If you are doing it because your kid wants to spend every weekend traveling somewhere to play in a baseball game and loves it so much he can't just play during the regular season I would suggest that it might be time to help your child re-evaluate. There are no life lessons to be learned at the ball park that cannot be learned somewhere else. Like overcoming adversity, defeat, not giving up or quitting.

If you are doing it for the social aspects or living vicariously through your kids and sports since you can no longer play yourself maybe it is time for you to re-evaluate.

I did club ball for a while growing up. My Friends were doing it, etc. Looking back I would say I wasted a lot of extra Saturday's and study time, a whole lot of things I could pick or name. And I didn't learn anything playing ball I could not have learned elsewhere. enjoyed it at the time, but the biggest takeaway.... it is easy to go overboard as a parent. Parents who've gone off the deep end is nothing new.

We did park ball and then coached travel ball for several years..our kids enjoyed it and we did it for the love of the game/sport not the expectations of them doing it forever..and yes we played almost every weekend and both Saturday and Sunday from daylight to dark depending on the teams and set-up..we also have had to play at one park and then make a drive to a different ballpark for the other games..and it can be expensive and crazy but the team we had loved it and looked forward to it.(we had 2 sons on the same team)

My daughters have both played travel softball. I absolutely loved them playing. yes it takes a lot of money, but we had so many great times at the ballpark it was well worth it. But some advice, don't try to get on the big teams, you will spend too much money, the smaller teams will give your son/daughter just as much practice and playing time and they won't be spending as much money. Drop me a line if you have any questions. Both of my kids are extremely smart my oldest got scholarships to college and my youngest will as well. Even though they both could have played college ball my oldest didn't want to play. don't know about my youngest she's playing HS softball now as an 8th grader!

$5,000 over 3 years? I’m calling bulldoodoo on that. You must not travel al all. You are obviously not including anything but the fees to be on the team. Travel, hotels, meals for the kid and at least one parent (many times the whole family) and it is going to be more than $5,000. I know 5 teams that went to Cooperstown this summer. That trip with family cost more than $5,000 by itself.

5 Grand won't touch what the dad I referenced in my earlier post spends in a summer, not counting spring and fall. It also won't touch what he spent on the baseball diamond in his backyard years ago. His son plays on a team sponsored by a bat manufacturer, so they catch a bit of a break there, but the whole family travels, the grandparent are often with them too.

Before you think we need to start a GoFundMe account, his name does include the letters Dr. in front of it. He and his whole family love the game and the travel ball life and have a another little 10 years old athlete coming along too so they will be living it for awhile.

turkey neck
you're gonna have to get leroy to tell you how the typical travel ball dresses. LOL. that post still cracks me up. Maybe someone will explain it in this thread.

This may not hold any weight at all. But when I was in middle school my dad and a few other dads formed a local travel team to play in the summers. All the players were the same players I played school ball with. We played up until the last weekend in July. We usually played one big tournament a month. We did this all the way up to junior year. We were all pretty comfortable playing together which really showed in school ball. Just my .02