America's Team?

[JAD]

I went the website and hunted around but did not find any pricing information. How much would something like this cost?

 

[thatcrazymom]

I wonder how many spots are open. DD asked how many girls are on the team and he said they shoot for 12, but sometimes it is 11 and sometimes 13. DH and I are also thinking that there are not many opportunities like this, so we are really considering it. We are just worried about having the money by mid-April.

 

[wichita]

I went the website and hunted around but did not find any pricing information. How much would something like this cost?

It was around $4000.00 just for my DD to go to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and the same for anyone else that wanted to go also. So if a parent wanted to tag along it would be $8000.00. We didn't take the opportunity to go because it was a lot of money at the time but from what I remember it was a study / softball experience and you actually received college credit for the trip. Her coaches would have been Leah Amico and Dot Richarson which would have been cool. If you have an extra $8000 laying around go for it. We were also invited to go again this year but she would miss champions cup and possibly PGF so I doubt we will go because they are to of the top recruiting tournaments of the year.

 

[Cannonball]

If I didn't make it clear before, we didn't go with America's Team. I don't know who we went with as the wife took care of all of that. I do know we didn't spend over $4,000 per person. I asked the wife and she said somewhere around $3,700 each. In fact, I think the kid was cheaper. We didn't go to Rome or south of Florence. We did spend two days in San Marino. Our protocol said that we would be sightseeing as a part of the trip but softball came first. If we had bad weather and a game was delayed, the game had precedent over sightseeing. We were also told that there was to be a tournament at the end of the trip and that tournament took precedent over everything. It was rained out and so, we only played, I think, 7 games.

Here is the url to a thread I started earlier on this topic:

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/college-softball-news-discussions/15421-couple-pictures.html

Correction, I posted that the team was called "Team USA." I was wrong. It was called, "NCAA Dream Team."

 

[Lozza]

Looza, DD's team must have played against at least 10-12 girls from Australia who were playing professionally in Italy.

A lot do play overseas now. They won't make money in Australia, but the European and Jape see seasons are opposite our national championships (which are playing now) so it works well. I've had friends play in Japan, Netherlands and Italy.

I went to New Zealand and USA with club teams. It's an AMAZING experience. But I'd have been uncomfortable if they called us Australia.

 

[Changeupmom]

There will be plenty more opportunities over the next few years. The first offer is flattering.. We chose not to go and use the money we would have spent on a trip for recruiting. Camps, Queen of Diamonds, good Travel team with schedule she wanted, lessons and so on. Those trips don't help the recruiting effort, in my opinion. My dds goal is to play in college, not to travel, yet. Happy to say she reached her goal

 

[jinjet95]

We took the trip as a wonderful experience and vacation for us. The softball was fun and a great way to interact with local people and experience some of their customs as a group. We didn't look at it as a way to help her recruiting. We met a wonderful group of people that we still stay in touch with. We are fortunate that we were able to do this as a family and did not have to make a choice whether to take the trip or participate in recruiting activities.

Changeupmom. Glad to hear your daughter has reached her goal. It's tough when they're in high school to try to do everything. Congrats to her.

 

[thatcrazymom]

If DD goes, it will be for the experience. We aren't considering it for recruiting purposes. DD's schedule will only get more hectic from here, so I think we are going to take the opportunity.

Thank you all for the responses!!!!