PitchingFan I've heard of these wonderful free opportunities. I know of one player for our area that took advantage of this sort of opportunity this past summer. My son's not top D1/P5, so there's that. The issue is getting discovered for that sort of opportunity. I think one, it has to be early enough to generate talk and two, there also needs to be an opportunity to perform in front of such an organization. My son has never played in a PBR or PG event. To keep costs down we also refrained from being on a travel team that competed far enough to require lodging. This past summer as a 16yo was the first time we had to utilize lodging. To follow tournament rules I would make the required reservation, then right before the tournament I'd cancel the reservation and stay at the cheapest most ghetto place one could find because the rule only stated reservations had to be made through a particular agency, there was no mention of actually staying at the reserved hotel. For us with a player that's not top D1/P5 we unfortunately have expenses. We save where we can, like continuing to use the same $60 glove for five years, or graciously accepting gear to borrow from friends and coaches. Packing meals instead of eating out. Even after all the cost cutting maneuvers we are not under $2k. Guess I'm getting hosed then?