@anotherparent posted:IMO, a HS travel team should have selected players of roughly equal ability, so that all players get roughly equal time, varying only when/if college coaches are asking to see them. There is very little point to playing on a travel team that is being run as "the best play", with some rated much better than others. The only reason would be that the coaching (away from tournaments) was especially good. My son played on teams where the coaches did not play all the players, and the ones who weren't playing usually quit by mid-summer. It wasn't pleasant.
At the very least you need to find out what the playing time philosophy of the 15U team is, so that you are not spending a lot of money to go pitch one inning in a weekend.
Great point and agreed. We dealt with this last summer with teammates quitting from playing time issues. Was a total train wreck. Having lurked here for some time, I was surprised at the general notion/ consensus of "if you pay you play". Our personal experience with club ball here in TX has never been that going back to 10U. That's just our experience, and I don't like absolutes.
Son had options to be PO with another organization, but I felt it was too early to specialize, as his offensive and defensive capabilities are intriguing. Coach WAS clear that he was being brought on to hit and defend, and that pitcher space was crowded. Barring injury, he will likely get plenty of opportunities in spring HS to pitch and get performances on video for recruitment. There are also opportunities to move up, down, and all around intra-organizationally to meet playing time hopes. I reviewed organizational tourney rosters from previous seasons to verify this. I left some other things out too, as I didn't want to make it about money per se, but the costs were notably less than going rate for summer as well, even before subsidized uni's. That was just icing.