Non travel ball options

Pull them out of baseball, let them play soccer until the get to junior high. Then let them play football. That’s how you avoid the travel ball

Start the revival of rec leagues. It’s bullshite that travel ball has killed those leagues.

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Pull them out of baseball, let them play soccer until the get to junior high. Then let them play football.

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good way to still get a scholarship op. let them become the kicker. they wont have many friends and the girls will think he is a homo but he will get to play at some commuter school like USL on the scholly

Travel ball isn't even remotely close to as bad as this board makes it seem. They do have the ultra competitive teams, but they don't make up the majority. You can find a team that plays twice a month, and always stays local. The people that always rag on travel ball here are probably just jealous because their kids suck and didn't get asked to be on a team.

“Travel ball“ is a misnomer for most teams. Most teams Play local to 30 minutes away. There might be one or two tournaments an hour or so away depending on your team. Hammond it might be the furthest Most teams play 2 to 3 weekends a month. A total of about 9 to 10 tournaments from spring through mid summer. The words really are “Tournament ball“. There’s a faceBook group here in Louisiana and you can ask around. Hold on and I’ll get it. It’s called. OTC Louisiana travel baseball 24–7. Just ask to join and he will let you in.

Travel ball

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You’re about to get that Facebook group trolled.

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That dude will ban people faster than the admins whack anti-Trump posts on the Poli Board.

If you want something more competitive, you are right to get away from HP. The t-ball and CP teams may be ok but I can say their kids pitch teams were painful. Your best bets for rec ball are Traction or BREC if you are in EBR. Pards if you are in Denham or the equivalent in Ascension. If you go to traction, you can try to see if they can place you on a team. The problem is there are a good bit of tournament teams that form teams they dont want to send to tournaments and put them at traction so their teams are pretty set. But there's usually a team that can pick him up.

How would you gauge his talent level and passion for the game? My son struggled pretty bad when he came from HP because the coaches were really just volunteer dads. Once he got with legit coaches he got much better faster. It also helps that he really loves baseball.

I ask because youth baseball is not like it was just 15 years ago much less when we were young. Now, more and more kids are playing tournament ball which means they are playing WAY more baseball than any rec league. When they get to high school, they will have a huge advantage over a rec player because they have way more experience. That is if they aren't sick of baseball by then. That's the only "risk" so if they dont LOVE the game, tournament ball is not the way to go.

Like many have said, there are quite a few local tournament teams with teams of different talent levels so they place your son on the appropriate team. They play mostly local going to Hammond or Lafayette at the furthest. They also keep a pretty manageable schedule so you dont play every weekend. The downside is it is considerably more expensive than rec but the teams I've dealt with make it worth the cost if you can swing it. They mostly have their tryout/placement evaluations about this time of year so if you are even open to it, now would be the time to look.

I was an assistant coach for an American Legion team in 2006. The talent level reallY dropped off from when I played and I asked the manager what happened. He said a lot of the top talent was playing travel ball/ showcase. They paid 5 grand to get their kids on a travel ball team,
Ten years prior we had a 60 game summer schedule, with competitive teams all within an hour drive for less than $200. I played against future 10-15 year major leaguers, first round draft picks and numerous D-1 players. I’ve since seen this morph into my 6 year old being invited to a t-ball travel team.
My kids are doing the rec league. Their skills a definitely not as developed as the travel ball players but they get to play every position, pitch and have fun.