Interesting article about travel ball and recruiting

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Oct 1, 2014
2,220
113
USA
Thanks for sharing, interesting read that sums up what's going on at this level. Having just been at Disney for a tourney I completely agreed with the term "Disney effect"!
 
Oct 2, 2015
615
18
Thank you for sharing this article!

Read this article...it could save you $50,000 to $70,000.

Is it really worth it, all of this?
When alot of College Coaches would much rather your DD come to their camps to see them play...

After some camps, my oldest DD got invited on a tour by the Head Coach or staff.
And at other college camps she was told to help clean up after the camp.

Both of them were great learning experiences for her...and especially me.
 
Jun 22, 2008
3,731
113
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.
 
Oct 16, 2014
333
0
this is a great article and mirrors a lot of what I've always thought ('Why don't you just put all that money in a savings for college"). It's especially important for parents to read if they have a daughter who isn't interested in playing in college, to make sure you select the right team. My DD1 is 14u eligible still, will be playing 16u this year, and although her level of competition and travel will be increasing some, she is not on a team that is going to be getting on airplanes and flying around the country to play. Some girls just want to play at a high and competitive level because thats where their experience has brought them, but don't want to play past high school. There are teams out there for these girls, make sure if your kid does't want a scholarship that you aren't paying for these experiences (tournaments you have to fly to, college camps. etc) if you have no intention of trying to get a scholarship, that money would be better put away in a savings. As for everything else softball brings, we benefit from it . My older one is going into her 5th year of travel and it has shaped her and given her and our family some of the best experiences and we don't regret a single penny we've spent for that. Some of her best memories are the nights in the hotel at the beach tournament, or how she has sleepovers with girls from her team even though they all attend different schools. My younger one has retired from softball at age 11. I think I shed more tears than her. She just decided it wasn't as fun as it used to be anymore and there was a lot of emphasis on "getting a scholarship" that she wasn't particularly interested in and it overshadowed her experience a little. I sort of think there is an awful lot of pressure and emphasis on scholarships in youth sports these days, and the focus age groups are getting younger and younger. I don't know any 10 or 11 year old who knows what they want to do in college or for a career after that, yet the teams to get them a track to a scholarship are there .
 
Jun 21, 2015
201
0
My daughter does want to play in college, but we are not on a high level, travel all over the country team. She just loves playing and enjoys the tournaments. If she plays in college that is just a bonus.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
A much better investment is the 529 Plan (college savings plan). Gains on contributions grow tax free from federal and most state's income tax liability. Invest early and often and you will not have any problems paying for most 4-year colleges in 18 years. Any unused monies can be used by younger siblings or graduate school.
 

Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
I don't know...do what you want, but the number cruncher part of me says this is a waste of time and money for the vast majority. All tallied together, DDs softball probably cost in the neighborhood of $1500 this year for everything...gear, uniforms, tournaments, hotels, gas, and food. A good portion of that came from fundraisers. As the breadth and depth of competitive softball opportunities is pretty good where I live, we didn't travel far or often. When we did travel away from the local area, it was to someplace fun.

If my kid REALLY wanted to, she might be able to play ball at a small school or JUCO. However, she'll likely go to a D1 school that you've heard of and study something really hard, so the softball she'll play, if any, will be some kind of intramural. So be it. If she were truly a stud pitcher, could hit bombs off the best pitching, or could run like an NFL receiver, I might consider doing SOME of the full-blown "travel" outlined in the article. Then again, if she were all that, the high-level college programs in my state would quickly latch onto her, and we'd have this recruiting thing wrapped up by now.

There are many parents spending tons of money to get their good-but-not-truly-great player some chance to play a college sport somewhere that has almost no professional presence, and very limited opportunities to make a living from afterwards. I know some very good HS and college players who are now working for $10 per hour. They poured everything they had into the game, and don't know much about anything else. It's most certainly their choice, but it just seems like there would be better odds in taking that money into a casino and putting it all down on a turn of the roulette wheel.
 
Jul 15, 2015
87
18
I think it's a pretty fair article. If parents/girls are in it for just the experience that's great, and one thing I think TB helps prepare the girls for is the "business" aspect of college ball. However, my wife and I learned long ago that college ball isn't the be-all-end-all experience that most parents believe and hope it to be. We were both walk-ons in our respective sports in college and understand what it takes to achieve at that level and the demands that coaches/schools make. We prepared all of our kids to understand that to play and excel in college you really have to love the sport. We also committed to helping prepare our kids for high school sports and if the college experience came along then so be it, but it wasn't going to be our main goal and we did our best to prepare financially without scholarships as a benefit. Our oldest ended up playing football at a lower level college and our second one gave up sports after high school. Our youngest has a natural talent for softball/pitching but we are not pushing her to play in college. If it happens it happens, but we want her to be prepared to experience college without it first.
 
Jul 19, 2014
2,390
48
Madison, WI
I am seeing high level travel now for the second time.
I hope it is worth it, because it keeps getting more expensive.

My DS was on a high-level HS rowing club (Camp Randall Rowing Club in Madison). It worked out to be a few thousand a year, because they did things to try to save money. Lots of fundraisers. Some of the kids were there on scholarship, some not. A few had very wealthy parents, which helped the club out. "Oh, you need a new Ford-350 to haul the boats? You need a new $20k boat? Let me write a check" sort of parents. Lots of volunteer work by the parents. When they traveled, they rented a bus for the kids, coaches and chaparones, and the motel fees came out of it.

What was the result? Some of the kids went on to row at top D-I programs. One of DS' friends was on the U19 National Team, and another one of his friends probably could've made the team, but his family didn't have the $$$$$$$$ for international events. A few of the girls would get rowing scholarships (no scholarships for men's rowing). A few used rowing as a way to get into top schools, including Ivies. A few, including DS, went to row at D-III programs. Most never rowed after they left.

Was it worth it? 100% yes, for my DS. Here's the thing. He is completely obsessed with rowing. He is very quiet and shy, but rowing gives him a social support system. For example, the past few summers he NEVER went out of the house to hang out with his friends. This summer he rowed at a development camp at U Wisconsin, and one of the other rowers was a teammate from HS. So he had people to actually hang out with. At his college, he shares an apartment with two other rowers, same major and same year, so they take a lot of classes together. He has a study group and a social group, and also a group do work on his senior research project with. All out of rowing.

My DD 3 just joined an A level softball TB team. Will it be worth it, for her? I have no idea. I hope so. Every kid is different. She had a lot of fun with a B level team, but let's see how she does with an A level team. If she puts the work into it, it will be great for her. If not, it will wind up being a complete waste of time and money.
 

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