re: I don’t get dripping $1000’s on kid’s travel ball in hopes of a scholarship

We spent 4 years doing tourney ball. We enjoyed it. We all missed it when he started playing high school ball. I found it to be a great family experience. Your together, doing exciting things, seeing different places. Good times, sad times, competition.

To each his own. If you don't like it, don't do it. But, if you have not experienced it, you are in no position to judge it.

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I found it to be a great family experience. Your together, doing exciting things, seeing different places. Good times, sad times, competition.

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question: do you only have the one child?

and how much doing exciting things and seeing difference places could you do around a tournament?

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To each his own. If you don't like it, don't do it. But, if you have not experienced it, you are in no position to judge it.

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i judged it from the outside for a long time


now my daughter plays softball and I agree, I feel like we get as excited about her playing as she does

our team also isn't into spending gobs of cash, so it hasn't been a financial burden at all...we stay pretty local

most of the people in here concerned about it taking up all their time must not like doing things with their kids

if your kids enjoy playing ball, that should make you happy to do it as a parent, but I will say that we aren't playing every single weekend like some teams may be

My 12 year old son and his teammates from rec ball last year just started playing as a full time travel team. But I don't think a single one of our parents has them in this in expectation of getting a scholly. We have kept the cost low, play within about an hour drive and the boys get more competitive ball than they did in their Cal Ripken league. Our last 2 years in Cal Ripken, our regular season record was something like 23-1. The boys were bored and wanted more. Each kid family had to pay $500 for entry fees and unis.

That said, this past weekend, we played a team from a neighboring state that travels all around the southeast and parts of the midwest playing pretty much year round. One of our parents said one of their parents told them it costs over $4K a year to play on this team. They are constantly working at their indoor facility and since the beginning of the year, had played 2 Florida tourneys and had practice three times a week. We had hardly practiced because of all the rain.

We run ruled them. Just because you are paying more doesn't mean you are getting that college scholarship type preparation and it doesn't entitle you to results. I felt bad for their kids. Their coaches constantly berated them, while our boys were just having fun and playing loose.

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The people who typically hate on travel ball are the parents who weren’t ever good enough athletically to participate in any sport at a more advanced level. It’s common, and I see it quite often.

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My Dad only let my brother and I play travel ball for 1 season and his reasoning was that he didn't want to burn us out and also that we needed to have time to play the other sports we liked. We both went on to play multiple sports at one of the best athletic high schools in the state and my brother got a D1 scholarship and was a 3 year starter on that level.

I'm currently a high school basketball coach. The biggest issue we fight is the bad habits our players learn in the summer playing AAU. I know travel baseball likely has better coaches than AAU. I'm not anti travel ball but I wouldn't let my kids get super involved in it and have their lives revolve around it.

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My exact point.

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If a guy can afford 8-10k a year on travel ball, I bet he can afford college tuition

My son’s almost retired from tournament ball, but one day he’ll open the box all of these are in and think...well, who knows what he’ll think.

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AAU basketball is much better than high school basketball if your team plays at the higher levels.

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False. They have better players but the actual basketball isn't anywhere close to better to high level HS basketball. And this is coming from somebody that coach high level AAU for a few years when I was younger in my coaching career.

Why are you taking other men’s personal inventory? You might consider focusing your own faults.