# of Travel Teams

[schwabach]

Here in N.E. New Jersey, the rec and town programs are pretty healthy. Rec programs are so valuable at a number of levels, not least of which is allowing parents to figure out if their daughter is good enough to play on a travel team.

 

[quincy]

We played area cities for rec. We also competed with another local Team for players and against slowpitch with both. Slowpitch had the most younger players. Players would leave our Team to go to another city or visa versa. This is just rec. TB adds a whole another level of confusion.

I am buying the number of players are going down in FP and mid to lower TB Teams quality has reduced but it is hard to tell just then my opinion.

Heck DD played on 16U team, how good can they be?

 

[Cougars]

Obviously the cost goes up with travel, but again, that varies a lot depending on level. The town I live in costs about $150-$180 to play in the rec league. That gets you around 20 games mid April through June. You can find travel teams that only play local (Chicagoland area) with fees around $800. That will include a basic level of "year around" softball, with friendlies, local leagues, local tournaments for games (no hotel, airline, long car trips, etc.)

 

[quincy]

DD played in SWS in Chicago area.

 

[Hawk_]

As I sit here in the home of Glory..... yeah there are a lot of teams lol

 

[GunnerShotgun]

There isn't a problem with the number of players or teams. There just isn't enough pitching for all of the teams.

 

[KrisHur]

Our local rec organization was pressured by parents to start a travel team. Their daughters are too good for rec but they don't want to leave the organization.

 

[mikes781]

Our local rec program has morphed over the years since I have been involved. Started out with a very large rec program and one or two travel teams that mainly competed with other towns and a USSSA regional.

Rec numbers have dropped in general over the past several years in all of the local programs. Some of it is attributable to more travel teams, but other year round sports have taken their toll also. We still have rec but also field USSSA at C through A level depending on the talent level. I do feel that the competitiveness in USSSA has shifted down over the past few years… C is now town rec level and B is what C was a few years ago with A being hit or miss. I don’t have too much of an issue with it as long as their is still rec as an entry point and for those players who are just looking to have fun without the commitment.

 

[kennykozman!!]

Rec ball can be absolutely horrible. Kids don't come to practice. Custody issues at the field. I have lived it. I consider it close to babysitting.

I live in a small community outside a medium sized city. We created a 10U team last year......yes a C team. We have rules; if you don't follow the rules you there are consequences in writing. It is amazing how many families are looking for structure, rules and order.

I am not sure if the C stands for community or crummy.....lol. For $450 each kid played in 25 games and received uniforms, helmets etc....team did have a couple sponsors....one paid for a player who financially was unable.

Now this team won 8 games. Watered down? Yes. Developmental? Yes. Great group of kids committed to getting better? Yes

Better than our local rec? Yes. Did I have fun? Yes.

Will some of our kids leave for bigger and more talented programs? Yes....one did recently. I am proud of her!

People can say what you want. THIS IS HOW YOU BUILD A PROGRAM for your community. No problem finding games or scrimmages. Probably will be never be an A or GOLD team but without small community clubs these kids will play REC and have NO chance of even playing high school ball.

We returned 10 players for 2022. Rec and LL are on life support. Staying in rec is not going to change that.

 

[prsboogie]

Our local rec league actually imploded because of the director. He and his minion children ran everyone who knew which end of a bat to hold to different TB clubs locally. He would humiliate kids on the field, talk to you like your his best friend and walk over to the next set of parents and tell them how bad he though your daughter was. Horrible human. He lost his 12,2-14s and 16u teams just last fall. There is one other town based TB club that was formed 8 or so years ago because one of the coaches got into a huge fight with him and she left to form her own team and eventually fielded a 12,14,16 and18u team.

Worst part is he has control over the local fields (6 in total) with no intention of handing over the league to anyone in the near future. He had 10-11 rec teams in various levels 4-5 years ago a had to combined with the neighboring town to put together 5 this past season. The only thing he is good for is his tournaments are well run and well attended. Everyone he has has a minimum of 12 with a max of 18 and are always full. Even without his own TB teams this year he put on 7 tournaments. I wish he would just run the fields and let operations be managed by someone who actually wants to be there for the right reasons.

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