Interesting article about travel ball and recruiting

I'd love to hear from a parent or coach on this board of a girl they KNEW was going to be on a D-1 team...the girl had the skills, drive, desire, work ethic and grades to take them to the top.
At what age did you know your DD had the Right Stuff, so to speak?
Knowing they had the Right Stuff, was that one of the factors that allowed you to push on financially in this endeavor?

I am not a gambler, it was not worth the cost of $20,000 a year to us, HOPING she had a chance of getting on one of her dream teams.

My oldest DD started out so late in skill development, that to think of her getting a verbal offer as a middle schooler is literally laughable.
She did very well in 10th grade, and that's when she started thinking about playing at the college level.
She was laughed at by nearly everyone, except myself and her HS coach....for merely having the dream of playing college softball...anywhere.
From a very early age she wanted to go to one of the two D-1 schools up here in the Upper Midwest, not because of there softball program. Just because of their proximity to home. Playing softball in college literally didn't enter her mind as a possibility until 10th grade.
So those were the schools she contacted first.
It was a great learning experience for her...bottom line she wasn't good enough to play there.

So, if she couldn't get a second look from one of the lower to mid-level D-1 schools around here, why would we spend $20,000 a year traveling around the country, hoping Awesome U. would send her a camp invite.
It made no sense to us.
There were a handful of D-2/D-3 coaches who reached out to her from the beginning with camp invites from her performance in the high school ranks and well as a Individual Showcase put on in Minneapolis. (Great job Sean!)
No they weren't begging her to come to the camps, just an invite.

Even though the glamour of traveling across the US playing ball was appealing, it was not feasible for us.
In the Upper Midwest (MN, Dakotas, Iowa), we've heard they are very few early verbals to middle schoolers, even up to 10th and 11th graders...
The PGF tournaments in the Twin Cities were the best tournaments we could have been in. Because there were many D-2 and D-3 coaches there....something realistic for my DD as well as her team mates.
My DD and her teammates got camp some invites, they played in Friendly's, and had a blast.
In Iowa City, they got to play in front of Trachsel, who was at Iowa State then. (trust me, she wasn't there to see my DD).
It was hotter than hell, they were chuggin gatorade, and showering in bug spray since the mosquitoes and gnats were so bad...I ran back to the car 2 times to get re-fills of OFF for all of the girls.

The girls played their butts off, even when a college coach wasn't there...and I admire the heck out of hard workers....not just great ball players.
The last game they played in Iowa City was over in the Rhubarb 5 complex and off by itself a 1/4 mile or so...
It was the last of 5 games in 2 days, none of the parents gave a schlitz anymore...so we were cheering for each other's team every time a player for either team made a great play or hit.


If I would have dumped $20,000 on ball last year...I don't think I would have a positive outlook on it looking back.
For us, we stuck around the Minneapolis area. And it all worked out in the end.

From my perspective, having done the math, the cost of travel ball more than paid for itself.

Total cost for my oldest daughter was somewhere in the $75K range over the course of her years of travel ball from 10U to 18U. Obviously the cost goes up as they get older and play on the bigger teams at showcases and such.

Her scholarship (full ride, combination of athletic and academic) will be right around 4X that amount at the end of four years. Roughly 70% of that is athletic money. Right around $220K.

If I had invested the $75K over the course of those nine years, would I have tripled it by the time she got to college? Not a chance. She has a 529 investment plan, the gains aren't close to that.

And I would have missed out on all of the games, the travel, the hours spent on the bucket catching, the people I've met, the time in the car just talking about life with my growing daughter. Plus the fact that she grew up playing a sport instead of sitting on her butt watching television or hanging out at the mall. Instead she learned about sportsmanship and teamwork and the value of working really, really hard to achieve a goal.

I recognize that for every story like hers, there are 100 (or 1000) that don't end so well. You need to recognize the talent level and the ability early in order to avoid wasting time and money. But if your kid has the passion, the talent, and the drive to do it...it's money well spent.

Jeez...if I spent that much per year I would be homeless. I think we spent about the same as Strike2 had mentioned, in the neighborhood of $1500 for everything last year. The team that DD plays for is largely dependent on the cost rather than her skill. At 13 years old I have no idea what kind of softball player she will develop into by the time she approaches the college years. She is not a stud by any means, but I have seen flashes of definite high level (maybe D1) talent, and I've seen her struggle in spurts. Realistically I don't expect her to get a D1 scholarship, but that ultimately is not the goal or why she plays the game.

I would say I spend 3000-4000 a year. (Tuition cost, travel, its light travel, lessons, weight and agility training and equipment.) I probably spend the most
on private lessons and training.

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Here's a question that would have the broadest spectrum of answers to it...

What is the average cost (everything included) spent on a Top 25 D-1 Fastpitch player on anything related to softball before they started playing for a D-1 program?
$50,000 to $100,000 over the course of 4-6 years of travel ball?

What is the lowest amount you guys think was spent on any Top 25 D-1 Fastpitch players out there today over the course of their Travel Ball career?

Is it almost a pre-requisite for any girl who ends up on a Top 25 D-1 team, to spend top dollar and to travel across the country to play ball, just to make it to that level of play? And to be considered good enough to play on a Top 25 D-1 team?
(All skills being equal)

I suppose you could go to the websites for all of the Top 25 D-1 teams and start reading player bio's, to see who was playing for Top Level Gold team. Aptly named ....Team Airline Miles...

Or who was working in a lumber yard the summer before they started playing college ball.

Comp said:

When my daughter first started playing club ball about 15 years ago we went to a recruiting seminar and the woman's first statement was, "If you are doing this to chase a college softball scholarship, stop right now, take the money you are going to spend on club ball, travel expenses, wear and tear on your vehicles, meals eating out because practice or games keep the family away from home at meal time etc. Put the money in a savings account and you will easily pay for college and have money left over."

We probably easily spent more than my daughters college tuition would have cost for an in state education. Yes, she did get a scholarship that pretty much paid for all her education expenses but that was never our intent in playing club ball, it was merely a positive outcome of her passion for playing the game. She was very competitive, wanted to play at the highest level and it put her around other girls with similar interests and values in life. It taught her valuable lessons in life is not fair and how to overcome obstacles in life. It also taught her the value of hard work and the outcome it brings later in life. She graduated with a bachelors in history, a minor in political science and went on to get her masters in secondary education. She is now a successful high school history teacher and was just promoted to head coach of her schools softball team which has gone deep into the state playoffs the last 3 years.

Playing softball strictly to chase a scholarship is a complete waste of time and money just as the recruiting speaking said. But, the life lessons and values it can ultimately teach were well worth the expenses involved and the memories we created along the way will last forever.

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This..yes...my thoughts exactly. As a family this is what we love. Watching our baby play the game she loves at the highest level she can. We aren't campers, or fisherman or leaving behind other things we love for this.

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ScottyDont said:

From my perspective, having done the math, the cost of travel ball more than paid for itself.

Total cost for my oldest daughter was somewhere in the $75K range over the course of her years of travel ball from 10U to 18U. Obviously the cost goes up as they get older and play on the bigger teams at showcases and such.

Her scholarship (full ride, combination of athletic and academic) will be right around 4X that amount at the end of four years. Roughly 70% of that is athletic money. Right around $220K.

If I had invested the $75K over the course of those nine years, would I have tripled it by the time she got to college? Not a chance. She has a 529 investment plan, the gains aren't close to that.

And I would have missed out on all of the games, the travel, the hours spent on the bucket catching, the people I've met, the time in the car just talking about life with my growing daughter. Plus the fact that she grew up playing a sport instead of sitting on her butt watching television or hanging out at the mall. Instead she learned about sportsmanship and teamwork and the value of working really, really hard to achieve a goal.

I recognize that for every story like hers, there are 100 (or 1000) that don't end so well. You need to recognize the talent level and the ability early in order to avoid wasting time and money. But if your kid has the passion, the talent, and the drive to do it...it's money well spent.

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What college did your dd wind up at. My son and dd went to a typical State university and their schooling including rent and food cost some where around 30% of what your dds school costs.

Most of the girls I’ve followed from around here who verballed or played in college either switched schools or quit playing altogether. As difficult as it is to earn the chance to play in college, it’s even harder to stay there. If your DD is playing high level travel ball it better be because SHE loves it and it’s not the parents chasing scholarships or reliving their youth.

I agree with almost all of what the author writes, but the problem I have with articles like this is that they assume that if your DD isn't playing softball, you won't be spending money on some other activity for her. As the parent of a musical theatre student I can verify what we all know, softball isn't the only activity out there or even the most expensive one.

Now, the parts of the article that I agree with (don't chase a scholarship, don't assume spending money on lessons and exposure showcases or tournaments will lead to an offer, and don't assume that you can pay for enough lessons to make your DD a star if she doesn't have the innate ability to excel) are all well-taken. I do know parents who push their kids so hard that I suspect they are guilty of all of these issues, but most of the families I've met who play travel ball are doing it because the kids love to play. I don't see my 11 year-old as a college softball player in 8 years, I just see her as an extremely competitive kid who wants to prove that she belongs. She doesn't ever talk about softball beyond the current season, this is just what she enjoys doing now. And if we weren't playing softball, we would be trying something else and spending time and money getting good at that activity.

MNDad said:

Most of the girls I’ve followed from around here who verballed or played in college either switched schools or quit playing altogether. As difficult as it is to earn the chance to play in college, it’s even harder to stay there. If your DD is playing high level travel ball it better be because SHE loves it and it’s not the parents chasing scholarships or reliving their youth.

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This ^^^ !!!!!!