Looking to start a 10u travel team, am I crazy?

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May 3, 2018
75
18
A little background:

This is the 3rd year we've had a rec league in my area period for softball. 1st year had 2 8U teams and 0 10U. 2nd year had 3 8U teams and 1 10U. This year we have 3 8U teams and 2 10U. We have 3 other small rec leagues in our area that total with us 7 8U teams and 5 10U teams.

I had an idea that involved hosting a C level tournament this year for 8u and 10u (looks like that may actually happen) and to build out a pyramid of 8U, 10U, and 12U (didn't quite get enough for a 12U team this year) by this point. I am now getting people asking about travel ball for 10U.

We do not have any 10U travel teams in our COUNTY. In fact, based on my research, we don't have any youth travel teams at any age level in our county. Hence the reason for considering this Herculean task.

Does anyone think there's merit to starting a 10U B/C level travel team or are we too early? Most likely it would be made up of the best girls from the 4 organizations to start off. I've looked at the expenses to start minus what I've already got and have about $2800 in equipment/uniform costs. We have strong connections to a township building that has carpet down in the gymnasium during the winter for indoor soccer, so indoor practice should be covered at no to minimal costs. $600 x 12 girls should leave us close to 10-12 tournaments for year one. Looking to put this in place for 2019. What are your thoughts? Suggestions? Can this be done? Am I insane?
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Forget about the money.

Sounds like your trying to build an organization, I would leave travel alone for now. Let the better players go if they want too.
 
Jan 30, 2018
252
0
SE Michigan
Save yourself the headache and quit now. LOL What Geographic anomaly do you live in where there are no travel teams? I will send you 8 of our orgs. OK all kidding aside

Sounds like you have a good start but I would start real slow (2 teams) and don't take on more than you can chew. Don't try to do it alone, get a "board" together with some people you can trust that are willing to invest the time and money it takes to take it all on. Keep a good paper trail.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Save yourself the headache and quit now. LOL What Geographic anomaly do you live in where there are no travel teams? I will send you 8 of our orgs. OK all kidding aside

Sounds like you have a good start but I would start real slow (2 teams) and don't take on more than you can chew. Don't try to do it alone, get a "board" together with some people you can trust that are willing to invest the time and money it takes to take it all on. Keep a good paper trail.

Yeah, been there.

First - yes - it is a good idea to take the best/committed/wanting to play more players (and families) and get them to the next level of play. Nothing wrong with that and if you can keep more and more of them in the park longer term then that is great (Note: You WILL lose some. That is OK - Some will come back. Some wont. Some will be successful elsewhere - and is important to take pride that your org was part fo their development rather than resenting them moving on.)

But no - it may not be a good idea for YOU to do it.
You will need help and need to let go of something or at least let others help you more. It is very easy to over-extend yourself and if you have a daughter as well - it is REALLY easy to over extend her as well. At some point you can'r run the local rec league, the travel org, coach several teams and so on.
 
Apr 20, 2017
152
28
A little background:

This is the 3rd year we've had a rec league in my area period for softball. 1st year had 2 8U teams and 0 10U. 2nd year had 3 8U teams and 1 10U. This year we have 3 8U teams and 2 10U. We have 3 other small rec leagues in our area that total with us 7 8U teams and 5 10U teams.

I had an idea that involved hosting a C level tournament this year for 8u and 10u (looks like that may actually happen) and to build out a pyramid of 8U, 10U, and 12U (didn't quite get enough for a 12U team this year) by this point. I am now getting people asking about travel ball for 10U.

We do not have any 10U travel teams in our COUNTY. In fact, based on my research, we don't have any youth travel teams at any age level in our county. Hence the reason for considering this Herculean task.

Does anyone think there's merit to starting a 10U B/C level travel team or are we too early? Most likely it would be made up of the best girls from the 4 organizations to start off. I've looked at the expenses to start minus what I've already got and have about $2800 in equipment/uniform costs. We have strong connections to a township building that has carpet down in the gymnasium during the winter for indoor soccer, so indoor practice should be covered at no to minimal costs. $600 x 12 girls should leave us close to 10-12 tournaments for year one. Looking to put this in place for 2019. What are your thoughts? Suggestions? Can this be done? Am I insane?

One thing I didn’t see is if you have a 10u daughter and that is your reason to start at 10u. Personally 10u is a very hard age to start unless there are some quality pitchers already around you wanting to play for you. Without good pitching it’s very hard to win. Without winning it’s hard to attract players. If your just wanting to start up a travel organization think about starting with 8u. And get girls into pitching lessons and have a plan to develop pitching before getting to 10u. Then as the 8u ages up then expand to 10u & 8u and so on. Starting a travel team is very easy, making it successful and last can be very difficult.
 
May 3, 2018
75
18
I have a daughter that will be moving to 10U. We have two very good young pitchers in 10U that will still be there next year as well. The reason we aren't doing a travel 8U team is that we start out with making an all star team out of our best 8u players and have them play local tournaments in July and the first week of August, give them 4 weeks off, and then into fall ball. I have found that to this point keeping girls in 8u is at least in part due to the idea that their friends are playing too. It's a fair question you ask, and one I've asked myself as well.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
Since there is no TB in your county, I think you should try it.

Check out this site: Naperville Diamongs. A few of us met in a bar in Naperville and started the organization in 1994. We had no field, no teams, no uniforms, no equipment, no coaches...*NOTHING*. We fielded *one* 18U and *one* 16U the first year. You can see how big it is now.

the first few years were very difficult. It was frustrating and took a lot more work than you can imagine.

Don't expect anyone to ever thank you for what you do.

Does anyone think there's merit to starting a 10U B/C level travel team or are we too early?

It would be great if you could

Most likely it would be made up of the best girls from the 4 organizations to start off.

Probably not. You need to find the girls willing to attend the tournaments and games. They probably will *NOT* be the best girls. The best athletes of the bunch will probably also be on basketball, volleyball and soccer teams...and some are going to choose sports other than softball.

$600 x 12 girls should leave us close to 10-12 tournaments for year one. Looking to put this in place for 2019.

Do six tournaments first year.

In the beginning, your team is going to get mauled and the parents are going to be convinced that *you* are an idiot. Once they understand what is going on, they will be semi-rational about it.

After the shock of the first three or so tournaments are over, ask the the parents if they want to do more.

Some parents will quit simply because they didn't understand the time commitment and the uncertainty of softball.

Plan for kids quitting and not paying.

Suggestions?

a) Find some other people to help.
b) Develop a plan for developing pitchers.
c) Add 50% to your estimates for cost.
 
Last edited:
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
Even in 8U, low level travel 4 years ago it was more than $600/player (though we covered a good bit with fundraising). At least around here tournaments have gotten way more expensive since then, too. It seems like $1500/year/player is on the low side of average for travel where I live. That's what we paid in 1st year 10U.
 
May 3, 2018
75
18
Even in 8U, low level travel 4 years ago it was more than $600/player (though we covered a good bit with fundraising). At least around here tournaments have gotten way more expensive since then, too. It seems like $1500/year/player is on the low side of average for travel where I live. That's what we paid in 1st year 10U.

Non-sanctioned tournaments in the Pittsburgh, PA and Morgantown, WV seem to run $225-$300 a piece. The organization doesn't pay for food or hotels or anything of that nature. We pay for entry fees, the usual equipment and uniforms, and fields/facilities time. Our 8u all stars have played in a couple of tournaments each the last two years and this year we're looking at 5 tournaments. Our rec league will pay for the team to go to one tournament if we host a tournament, we have a sponsor paying for two tournaments plus uniforms, and we will probably fundraise for a 5th.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Our 10U costs per year run over $1000 but if you do not have a indoor facilty ($45/ month for us) you could probably get away with charging less depending on how much tournaments cost in your area ($15 to $20 per kid in our area and we will play about 10 to 15 tournaments in Spring/Summer/Fall).

Have fun with it. Like somebody else said, you will probably not have a lot of success at first but the main
thing is for the kids to have fun such that they will be willing to put in the necessary time to improve. Focus on the kids improvement from week to week instead of the scores of the games.
Good luck.
 
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