My DD is an upcoming freshman in high school. I read a lot of threads about high school ball and travel ball and as everyone here knows, there are TONS of opinions on each. The more I read about how some student-athletes have terrible high school programs, it makes me incredibly thankful for our great high school program! Our HS coach and his staff do a great job with their program and it's not uncommon to see our high school HC at TB tournaments looking at, and supporting, his current and upcoming players. If I had to guess, I'd say 90%+ of the players on our high school team also play travel ball. Same can be said about surrounding/conference high schools and the competition is great (most of the time). When some school play against each other, it's like being at a high level TB tournament except the players for the TB teams have been split up to play for their respective high schools. I know my DD is SUPER excited for high school softball. The more I read, the more fortunate I feel. Just to add the "unicorn" - DD's high school is also great academic public school.