Francis7 posted:
The alignment with the right travel program is on my radar. Currently, the program that he plays with has GREAT coaches/instructors. These are guys who know their stuff and really care about the kids. From that respect, it’s been AWESOME and he’s learned, and benefited, A LOT from being with these guys. However, their teams struggle to compete because they just haven’t been able to recruit enough talent – especially pitchers! – on their rosters. Therefore, I do have so concerns about how their credibility would be perceived at higher competition levels. And, while they have some D1 commits in the program, I think it’s more a matter of kids coming to them to train and play, and being committed on their own, rather than the coaches helping the kids get committed.
Sometimes its not about winning (queue those who disagree) when it comes to a quality travel program. I've put many posts on here about travel programs and our experiences. We used to regularly play the travel program my kid ended up on in High School. Used to beat them a lot. I could not understand why there were considered such a great program. They are known nationally, not one of the top top programs, but known enough that they regularly showed up on lists of good programs when PGStaff used to post here.
My kid switched to their program in HS due to some recommendations by numerous folks who understood the recruiting process in our area. Once we started playing for them I saw the light...They were more concerned about developing the player and showcasing them then they were in winning games. Yes they wanted to win but they would sacrifice that if it meant getting a kid some reps to work on a hole in his game or getting someone into a game to be seen by a scout or recruiter. We would primarily play like minded programs in the area with the occasional tourney thrown in. There were times where we stopped games early because it was too hot and the catchers were becoming dehydrated, or extended games because some college guys requested to see a specific player play in a specific position. We lent players to the other teams and vice versa to help fill in gaps at times. The normal substitution rules were thrown out as well. We would swap kids in and out all game long, bat continuous order, etc. The only time we played normal baseball rules was during tourneys and then we may have one team on the field day one and a different team on day two. Kids were not assigned to one of the three teams until the Wednesday before the weekend. This provided the program with the opportunity to adjust teams based on getting kids in front of the proper recruiters.
When it comes to selecting the right travel team its not about winning. They are many programs out there built around that. You really need to be looking for a program that has deep contacts with the college recruiters, works to develop the player, understands what level the player should be playing at and works to get the players in a position to be seen by the right folks.