ClevelandDad - I can tell you what we know so far. We decided that we needed to make a team change after last summer that didn't turn out the way we expected. Son played really well however, we did not have the opportunity to play higher level teams like we were expecting (even playing up with 2024 team). We played in a lot or tournaments on college campuses but, the high level competition just was not there for the most part. We had received offers to play for 4 other teams. We did a number of tryouts in Dec and picked what we thought was the best fit. This team (coaches) showed a lot of "love". Coaches called a number of times and were able to answer all of our questions before we made the decision. We also talked to people we knew, who had played at other age groups in this organization and it seemed like what the coaches were saying was very truthful.
We ended up going with a team made up of players for Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, and El Paso (those were the cities that they had tryouts). Like you said, you do not really need to leave the state of Texas to see high level comp or be seen but, you do have to play in the right tournaments where those teams go (I guess like most places). The bigger teams normally play (as we have seen in the past) in Houston and Melissa Texas. That is where most of the games will be played this summer. The organization is a Texas based (not national) team with a lot of connections that has made deep runs in WWBA and other large tournaments the past few years.
We do not know much about this years summers 2025 team yet. Last years 17u teams (they had 2) had 9 D1s, and a mix of D2s/D3s/NAIAs/JUCOs (30+ total commitments).
We will see how this summer goes and adjust as needed. There will be a lot of travel but, that will just be quality time with the son/family before he heads off to school somewhere in just a couple of years.