How to find the right summer team for freshman?

I would find a team where he will play and have fun.  As a freshman, unless he is 6'3 who hits for power or a pitcher who throws with velo, it doesn't matter.  Find a team that will play tournaments against good competition. 

My 2015 and I were just having a convo Christmas Eve  about his travel days.  His younger years 12-15 he played on national and state competitive teams and was a good experience however during his Junior and Senior year of high school he played on a team with a bunch of friends and had more fun!  At the end of the day he ended up playing college ball where he was going to play no matter what team he played on.

You don't need to "be" on a competitive team rather you need to "play" on a team that plays against the competitive teams.  You will get the same opportunity to play in front of the same HC/RC.

I’ve never heard of aau baseball only basketball.  Is it competitive or rec ball?

need to find a team that plays showcases and tournaments.  

@PitchingFan posted:

I’ve never heard of aau baseball only basketball.  Is it competitive or rec ball?

need to find a team that plays showcases and tournaments.  

https://www.playaaubaseball.co...ge/show/1414139-home

AAU baseball is a thing. Not all states have it.  Son played in tournaments up until 14 yo, then moved on to showcase baseball.

It used to be pretty competitive with rankings....until it isn't, meaning if you are on a very good team, you could really whip up some teams.

@Dadof3 posted:

Middle son is an 8th grader (14).  Played aau for the first time last year with a new team.  The team has one younger team and the new team created last year.  The younger team is newer (4 years old) but put together a very good team and have continued to build on it.  Son's team last year was pretty bad, but I was figuring it would be since it was just created and it was created shortly before summer.  Got rid of a couple of kids and added a few who I am not sure are that much better than the ones they replaced.  So, that being said I am thinking this summer's team won't be a whole lot better than last years.  Son is pretty good and I have had some other parents make some comments to me about his future.  Same with the HS varsity coach (6a).  Now, the one positive thing is the coach for the younger team (who owns the teams) has some college connects, including a couple of local d1s.  I know there are a lot of things to consider and a lot that can happen between now and the summer of 2024, but if this year's team is a flop I want to figure out how to find a better team to get my son on.  More of a state or national type team.  Again, I am assuming he will have improved year over year, gotten stronger, bigger faster, all that.  But if there is something i need to be doing this summer to set him up for the following I want to be doing that.  TY

What state do you live in?

For 14u a player should get the best coaching on the most competitive team possible that he can get in the lineup. The best coaching should be the priority. You don’t need to travel out of the region at fourteen. If it’s a quality team it will face the better pitching in tournaments.

@PitchingFan posted:

I’ve never heard of aau baseball only basketball.  Is it competitive or rec ball?

need to find a team that plays showcases and tournaments.  

AAU baseball is big in New England. It’s mostly league play with some tournaments. It was in Pennsylvania until 2005 when the local organization switched to USSSA.

Even though my 13u to 16u teams never played in an AAU tournament we were registered through them for their team insurance deal.

It’s not “aau” per say, just a summer team I guess.  We are in PA.  I guess that’s the thing, find out which team are competitive, playing against good competition and has good coaching

Are you in SE PA? If so, you want to find teams that play ECTB, Ripken-Aberdeen and Sports at the Beach tournaments. You can probably go through ECTB and whomever they’re associated with now prior tournaments to find out who the good teams are. Ask around with the dads with kids in travel. They will know. If it’s an academy/facilities team check out the facility. Talk to coaches and management.

When my son played 14u we did seven ECTB, one Ripken, one SATB and one road trip. ECTB was less than an hour away. Ripken was 90 minutes. SATB-Rehoboth required a Saturday overnight. In 14u and 16u we also played Berkshire wood bat tournaments in the fall. He played for me in 13u, 14u and 16u. I put together a coaching staff of four former college (two pro) players.

For me, 14U was the transition to HS focus - my son played that summer on the incoming HS freshman team. It was loosely arranged by the HS coach and run by somebody he knew and trusted. All the kids made the HS baseball class, but not all ever saw a varsity game from the field. I liked this, because it created bonds (and some rivalry) that would last 4 years.

It was said above, but if your son is not in 80% percentile or above in some varsity HS level showcasable skill, I don't see the benefit worrying about visibility at this point.  "Showcasable" being a made-up word, the correct word being demonstrable which apparently I've mispronounced my entire 60 years as demonstrat-able with a "T". This is what working instead of finishing HS buys you, but thankfully ignorance is fixable, but I digress...

Back on topic... IMO, getting quality reps and good technical instruction are the important things at 14U, I wouldn't think that would take a high cost showcase team. That, and staying in the moment. Many parents get focused on a goal, and loose present (which is where the good stuff is, it goes by too fast as it is, no need to rush it).

Good luck in the coming seasons to you and your son.

Regarding the term “showcase team.” Some people call any academy/facility program with multiple age teams “showcase teams” regardless of age.

Some people don’t like the term “showcase team.” They think in terms of high end travel teams. But, regardless, unless you’re an early bloomer stud invited to the 14u PG by invite only showcase (can’t remember the actual name) you’re not showcasing anything until 16u and 17u.

By definition tournaments are played by travel teams not showcase teams. Individual events are showcases where the player is placed on a team.

DAD of 3:

Have you considered organizing your '16 and under team associated with Pony, Legion or Cal Ripen for insurance purposes and schedule of games. Your hard work will benefit 30 young men for 3 years.

"Creativity & player development" is your objective. Find a former College player for your coach. Interview for his "philosophy" winning games and teaching.

Do you have a Minor League team in your area?

Bob

Yes, I did this in Northern California and entered a Summer League where in 6 years, 40 players became MLB players.

@Consultant posted:

DAD of 3:

Have you considered organizing your '16 and under team associated with Pony, Legion or Cal Ripen for insurance purposes and schedule of games. Your hard work will benefit 30 young men for 3 years.

"Creativity & player development" is your objective. Find a former College player for your coach. Interview for his "philosophy" winning games and teaching.

Do you have a Minor League team in your area?

Bob

Yes, I did this in Northern California and entered a Summer League where in 6 years, 40 players became MLB players.

If he lives were I think (SE PA) PONY isn’t available. Most of the talent has left Jr Legion/Legion and Ripken/Babe Ruth for travel ball. Legion is great for facing mostly 80 mph pitching in high school. <sarcasm

Can you ask baseball people you know what teams they recommend for your son?  Does he have any instructors?  That's where we got information (plus they recommended him to the organization).  Or friends, or parents of baseball players that you know?

Also, you mentioned that the HS varsity coach said something to you about your son's future.  Was this just polite chit-chat?  It is said on here all the time that a parent should never talk to the HS coach except about health issues, but when my son was a freshman, I hadn't found the HSBBW and didn't know that.  We were pleased that finally there was a coach who was not a dad or a paid instructor, so we went to ask him about travel teams, given our son's desire to play in college.  He told us what he knew, which was helpful.  He's a great guy and all was fine, but I realized later it looked kind of like trying to influence him into playing our son.  But maybe your son could ask one of the HS coaches, once winter practices begin?

@RJM posted:

Are you in SE PA? If so, you want to find teams that play ECTB, Ripken-Aberdeen and Sports at the Beach tournaments. You can probably go through ECTB and whomever they’re associated with now prior tournaments to find out who the good teams are. Ask around with the dads with kids in travel. They will know. If it’s an academy/facilities team check out the facility. Talk to coaches and management.

When my son played 14u we did seven ECTB, one Ripken, one SATB and one road trip. ECTB was less than an hour away. Ripken was 90 minutes. SATB-Rehoboth required a Saturday overnight. In 14u and 16u we also played Berkshire wood bat tournaments in the fall. He played for me in 13u, 14u and 16u. I put together a coaching staff of four former college (two pro) players.

In recent years, the tournaments you have mention have become lighter on talent. Haven't been around ECTB in quite some time but big field Ripken/SATB were not really good competition anymore. 13/14u is probably the last year worth going to get any sort of decent baseball in. Seems like the costly orgs are sending the B teams down there just to say they did it. Sound like what OPs current team would be a fit for.

I think the PG regionals, Diamond Nation, MSI, and USABL have taken over the NY/NJ/PA/DE scene.

How it worked for us - he was having a very good year as a freshman for varsity. He was approached by the owner of a regional team. Played 17u as a freshman. As a junior once he was committed he was approached to play on a national team with other commits. Made the switch there.

How I view the travel scene:

Local - local events, local players, practice often, competition isn't great (very cheap or very expensive)

Regional - mix of local, regional, and national events, players from around state/region, practices scheduled but not multiple times a week, handles local comp, does well in regional events, struggles on national stage. (Neither cheap nor expensive). Invite to tryout - usually a private workout.

National - mix of players from a general area (northeast, west coast, etc) or could be a mix of players from anywhere in the US/PR. No tryouts, invite only. Rarely practice, if they do they get to the tournament a day or so early. Don't even bother with local stuff, beat up on regional teams, and typically don't get challenged until playoffs of a big tournament like WWBA. Usually made up of a mostly committed roster and have tournaments specifically made for them (Jupiter, PG WS, MLB PDP, etc) This would be Canes, Team Elite, Dirtbags, Five Star, FTB, East Cobb, MLB Scout Teams, etc. Usually little to no cost.

Here is one way you can search for teams.

Check out who attended tournaments at MSI ,Diamond Nation and local PG, you can then call and shortlist with follow-ups

Jeff Randazzo runs Ascent https://ascentathlete.com/about/our-staff/

Dave Gallagher is part of centercourt https://centercourtacademy.com/sports/baseball/

All-star Baseball Academy https://allstarsportsacademy.com/

Just be aware many have already had their spring tryouts, thus your son might be on 2nd or 3rd team.

Regards

@PABaseball posted:

In recent years, the tournaments you have mention have become lighter on talent. Haven't been around ECTB in quite some time but big field Ripken/SATB were not really good competition anymore. 13/14u is probably the last year worth going to get any sort of decent baseball in. Seems like the costly orgs are sending the B teams down there just to say they did it. Sound like what OPs current team would be a fit for.

I think the PG regionals, Diamond Nation, MSI, and USABL have taken over the NY/NJ/PA/DE scene.

When my son is twenty-nine now. When he was playing 13u was the first years of  non community team travel ball booming in the area. Arsenal’s A team and everyone else’s were playing ECTB when my son was playing 13u to 16u. Diamond Nation was just starting to become prominent when my son was sixteen playing 17u. His 17u team did a recruiting tournament at Diamond Nation. Up through 16u Diamond Nation teams had been playing a lot of ECTB tournaments. Aside from ECTB/USSSA there was CABA and Triple Crown.

I completely forgot about Diamond Nation. I figured they would ultimately eat ECTB alive as they expanded. ECTB had a lot of bad fields. If you can field there you can field anywhere! What is MSI and USABL?

@RJM posted:

When my son is twenty-nine now. When he was playing 13u was the first years of  non community team travel ball booming in the area. Arsenal’s A team and everyone else’s were playing ECTB when my son was playing 13u to 16u. Diamond Nation was just starting to become prominent when my son was sixteen playing 17u. His 17u team did a recruiting tournament at Diamond Nation. Up through 16u Diamond Nation teams had been playing a lot of ECTB tournaments. Aside from ECTB/USSSA there was CABA and Triple Crown.

I completely forgot about Diamond Nation. I figured they would ultimately eat ECTB alive as they expanded. ECTB had a lot of bad fields. If you can field there you can field anywhere! What is MSI and USABL?

Tri-State Arsenal has changed hands a couple of times.

Mr. Barth is now Arsenal USA.

MSI is Maplezone Sports Institute

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

Tri-State Arsenal has changed hands a couple of times.

Mr. Barth is now Arsenal USA.

MSI is Maplezone Sports Institute

I was aware Barth had sold out. I looked up MapleZone and USABL. They weren’t known names when my son was playing. Barth was sponsoring ECTB tournaments in NJ. Otherwise, Arsenal’s A team was at ECTB in Allentown along with a lot of other NJ teams.

Between MapleZone Ashton PA and Diamond Nation in Flemington NJ (not far from MontCo and Bucks) it must have crushed ECTB’s business. When I coached every ECTB tournament was a sellout. I had to sign up for all seven  tournaments we played as soon as they were announced.

the "better teams" will likely be regionally ranked by PG; 20 teams ranked in the Mid-Atlantic region in each age group.     https://www.perfectgame.org/Ra...m/Default.aspx?R=372

also, PBR PA has a team directory ... 68 travel baseball orgs in PA alone.
https://www.prepbaseballreport...avel-teams-directory

IMO, The better regional teams will play the PG regional tournaments, and one or two national events in the summer; the better regional travel baseball organizations will have "better teams" at multiple age groups and will also have well run team practices twice a week.

Word to the wise, don't chase the travel brand ... find the right people first...

My son (now a 16 yr old HS 2024 junior) switched summer teams a few years ago when it was apparent that he needed a more challenging competition level for his development.  The first switch was within the same local organization, jumping up two age groups.  He was with a well-run local org - and had the chance to play up and across 4-different age groups over a five year span.  Then he switched the next year to a national team that never practiced together, still playing part time with his local team. 

He regularly receives guest-play invites - locally, regionally and nationally.  His play at regional PG events (PG is now in NJ, NY and Eastern PA) and the online PG archives of his stats led to the future opportunities with different teams.

good luck to your son ... and good luck with the logistics :-)

I will add some thoughts on what I have experienced over the last couple of years.   First, everyone's journey is different, and what my family has experienced or the route that we took, maybe completely wrong for someone else and vise versa.   We live in an area where 90% of the kids that finish at our local high school go to a Juco school.  My son didn't want that type of experience.  His desire was to move away to a four year school and continue to play baseball.   This being the case, we knew that we had to take a different route than the typical play high school baseball, get recruited by the local Juco school, play two years of Juco and then transfer (or not) to a mid major program.   

We felt that the only way to break away from that cycle was to join a national travel ball organization and get some exposure beyond our state and local area.   We researched teams that had a presence in our state and tried out for a national team.  These national/region travel ball organizations have two functions.  First, is to make money.  Second, is to showcase their players so that they get D1/D2 college baseball opportunities.  It is a mutually beneficial process.  The more players in their organization that they can brag about moving on to college baseball, the more families will sign up to join their program.   To accomplish these goals, they have to have multiple teams in each age group.   The organization that my son plays with has 6 teams in each grade.    The top 2 teams in each grade are the teams that have the player roster that they want to showcase to college scouts.   The other 4 teams are simply made up of players that they are taking money from with little opportunity to be recruited.  The top two teams get featured in all of the big national tournaments such as WWBA Nationals, Ultimate Baseball Tournament, USA Baseball in Carry North Carolina, WWBA Ft Meyers and Jupiter etc.....   The other 4 teams are basically playing each other or going to small regional PG tournaments.   

I was told this past summer that Perfect Game recommended to all of the national and regional organizations to include the name "Scout Team" to designate which of their multiple teams are considered their "A" team.  So that when these organizations bring three or four teams to Atlanta's WWBA National tournament all of the college assistant coaches can realize which team they need to concentrate their efforts to go watch.   

It is my opinion, that it is a waste of money to join one of these Regional/National travel ball organizations unless you are going to be featured in one of the top two teams in that organization.  My son is a pitcher only, and his experience with a National travel organization has been a positive one.   As a PO he had a lot of freedom to move up their team stratification.  He started as a rising 10th grader on the number 3/4 team, but as his performance was recognized by the Travel Ball Organizers he rapidly moved up to higher teams.   This past summer as a rising 11th grader, he started with the second team and finished the summer pitching for the Scout team.   This led to his being able to pitch in the more prominent tournaments against better teams.   This process has worked well for my son as he has had a very positive experience.  He loves the coaches, has gotten some great instruction each summer with this group, and we know that they have made phone calls on my sons behalf to multiple college coaches.   However, while our experience has been very positive, there are plenty of families within that same organization that probably can't say the same thing.  They are paying thousands of dollars to play with a team that isn't getting featured at the big tournaments, is not getting to play against the top talent and big name teams, and probably hasn't had a single phone call made to a college coach on their behalf.   But, their involvement pays the bills.   I don't believe that this truth is unique to this one organization.  I feel quite certain that all of the big regional and national organizations operate the same way.

I don't know if any of this helps, but I thought I would share with you what our experience has been with travel ball organizations.  Perhaps it will give you some things to think about as you and your family considers national and or regional organizations.   

@RJM posted:

When my son is twenty-nine now. When he was playing 13u was the first years of  non community team travel ball booming in the area. Arsenal’s A team and everyone else’s were playing ECTB when my son was playing 13u to 16u. Diamond Nation was just starting to become prominent when my son was sixteen playing 17u. His 17u team did a recruiting tournament at Diamond Nation. Up through 16u Diamond Nation teams had been playing a lot of ECTB tournaments. Aside from ECTB/USSSA there was CABA and Triple Crown.

I completely forgot about Diamond Nation. I figured they would ultimately eat ECTB alive as they expanded. ECTB had a lot of bad fields. If you can field there you can field anywhere! What is MSI and USABL?

ECTB and Ripken were the places to be about 10-15 years ago. I'm sure ECTB still does some stuff, I just don't know any meaningful baseball being played there after age 11. Playing in that stadium was like playing at Yankee Stadium compared to the field quality of the others.

In the past 5/6 years, the PG regional expansion really took over. All the quality regional teams were playing their tournaments there. I really think having a clean, easy to operate website has dramatically helped them on top of other things like verified metrics. But that is something that really can't be fond anywhere else.

Diamond Nation hosts some decent stuff but the 1:45 time limit, umpiring, and inability to warm up anywhere kind of limit it. They are good for like 1-2 tournaments a year, no rainouts does help which is a big problem with the PG Regionals

USABL has essentially become a mini ECTB. Competition is decent and they aren't very expensive. At least a few years ago you could get a 4 game guarantee for like $700 and you'd have a handful of coaches there for both teams.

@PABaseball posted:

ECTB and Ripken were the places to be about 10-15 years ago. I'm sure ECTB still does some stuff, I just don't know any meaningful baseball being played there after age 11. Playing in that stadium was like playing at Yankee Stadium compared to the field quality of the others.

In the past 5/6 years, the PG regional expansion really took over. All the quality regional teams were playing their tournaments there. I really think having a clean, easy to operate website has dramatically helped them on top of other things like verified metrics. But that is something that really can't be fond anywhere else.

Diamond Nation hosts some decent stuff but the 1:45 time limit, umpiring, and inability to warm up anywhere kind of limit it. They are good for like 1-2 tournaments a year, no rainouts does help which is a big problem with the PG Regionals

USABL has essentially become a mini ECTB. Competition is decent and they aren't very expensive. At least a few years ago you could get a 4 game guarantee for like $700 and you'd have a handful of coaches there for both teams.

My son was thirteen sixteen years ago. It was the beginning of the first wave of the travel boom in the PA/NJ/DE area. ECTB, Ripken and SATB were it. There was Berkshire wood bat in the fall. As NY and CT teams started showing up in Allentown ECTB expanded into the Hudson Valley and CT.

When Diamond Nation ramped up I figure they would kill ECTB. Other than ECTB Park, Bicentennial Park we played on some horrible fields. The only good field at Ripken was the stadium field.

My son’s first and closest PG tournament when he was sixteen playing 17u was Cape Cod. He also did East Cobb and Fort Myers. The 17u team also played in NC, OH and NJ. The only local was Diamond Nation in Flemington.

You mentioned your son has some talent and the high school varsity coach knows a little about him.  One option would be to talk to a few parents playing HS and find out what their kids did, then ask the coach if he has any suggestions.  My son went the route of playing travel ball/park & rec ball up until he entered high school (9th grade).  He wanted (and we had no problem) to play the game for fun with his friends, to enjoy these last few years.  Once he enters hs, baseball will take on a new meaning, doing what must be done to make the team, excelling, dedication, etc.  It is just the beginning of what may be a job type attitude.  In the end he had a blast, and he even said he would do it again since baseball was played for love of the game with his friends.  I admit, we were naive as we knew nothing about what is mentioned on this site.  Son may have been lucky, but baseball aside from the talent and hard work there is some luck and being in the right place at the right time to progress.  If your son has the talent others will notice and he will go as far as he can.  Enjoy playing baseball as a game for fun, this will be his last chance without the pressure to succeed and get noticed.  Best of luck.

Sorry, been out a couple of days for the holidays.  We are in sw PA.  Definitely good advice on the coaching thing.  But I want him to see better competition (and play with better kids) as well.  I would also like to see him play with better players.  I'd like for him to not be the best player on the team.  He will be playing on the freshman team this spring (as an 8th grader) and work out with the JV squad.  The HS coach said he can get my son on the mens league team for the summer (ss/2b).  I dont know how much he would play, but this would be during the week and not conflict with his current summer team.  (again, looking at a potential switch in the summer of 2024 to a better team)  What are the thoughts on playing for a summer team that is a year above?  Or is it better to stick with his age group.

@Dadof3 posted:

Sorry, been out a couple of days for the holidays.  We are in sw PA.  Definitely good advice on the coaching thing.  But I want him to see better competition (and play with better kids) as well.  I would also like to see him play with better players.  I'd like for him to not be the best player on the team.  He will be playing on the freshman team this spring (as an 8th grader) and work out with the JV squad.  The HS coach said he can get my son on the mens league team for the summer (ss/2b).  I dont know how much he would play, but this would be during the week and not conflict with his current summer team.  (again, looking at a potential switch in the summer of 2024 to a better team)  What are the thoughts on playing for a summer team that is a year above?  Or is it better to stick with his age group.

I suggest that you go ahead and move him to a travel team this summer.   One of the problems with waiting too late to join a regional or national travel organization is that they may already have their "Scout" team roster set with players that have already been in this organization since they were rising 9th graders.   As I stated earlier in this thread, it is important to get onto one of those top two rosters.   

I looked up Pennsylvania's Perfect Game Rankings and it appears that the Artillery Baseball and eXposure Prime have a lot of the top 2024 and 2025 top players from the State of Pennsylvania on their roster.   I would suggest you reach out to them and find out about tryouts.   

good info, ty

Dad of 3;

Depends on your son's goals. If he desires to improve his reflex's and his knowledge of the game then "play up".

From age 14 to 18 "Development & Learning" are important. After age 18, College or Professional will be summary of experiences from age 14 to 18.

Bob

@Ster posted:

I suggest that you go ahead and move him to a travel team this summer.   One of the problems with waiting too late to join a regional or national travel organization is that they may already have their "Scout" team roster set with players that have already been in this organization since they were rising 9th graders.   As I stated earlier in this thread, it is important to get onto one of those top two rosters.

We waited too late. First time we put him on a decent travel ball team was summer after sophomore year and when he was trying out...we knew he would automatically be placed on the B-team. We could tell by the incredibly brief tryout where they really weren't paying attention. We ended up going with an organization that only had one team per age group.

There was almost no scouting at these tournaments that were primarily at college fields. Apparently, the transfer portal/covid has changed scouting (from what we were told by others who had attended tournaments for years). So I wouldn't expect a whole lot of exposure. Pick a team based on the coaches contacts.

I don't see an issue playing up. I've always been told that ideally your player should neither be the best or the worst on the field. That way they are properly challenged, but won't get frustrated. Last summer our son was the best hitter on his team, so we put him on an older team this fall that primarily played college teams and he still was the best hitter. I wish we could find him a team where he would fall in the middle, but we don't have enough connections or money. Summer teams seem to be set. So if we had to do it again, we should have started him earlier just for him to build contacts, as he would probably have received an invite to play for a team that would have provided him better college connections, exposure, and the right level of development/challenge.

@Dadof3 posted:

Sorry, been out a couple of days for the holidays.  We are in sw PA.  Definitely good advice on the coaching thing.  But I want him to see better competition (and play with better kids) as well.  I would also like to see him play with better players.  I'd like for him to not be the best player on the team.  He will be playing on the freshman team this spring (as an 8th grader) and work out with the JV squad.  The HS coach said he can get my son on the mens league team for the summer (ss/2b).  I dont know how much he would play, but this would be during the week and not conflict with his current summer team.  (again, looking at a potential switch in the summer of 2024 to a better team)  What are the thoughts on playing for a summer team that is a year above?  Or is it better to stick with his age group.

13u ball is slow motion baseball. The game speeds up rapidly in 14u as a majority of kids have reached puberty. From this point forward a kid should play up to the highest age group he can be a regular starter.

I’m really against kids with late spring/summer playing in their age group rather than grade appropriate. A kid should not be entering high school coming off slow motion 13u ball due to a late birthday.

Play grade or up a grade if you can compete.  Worst thing is playing up and look younger by ability or sit.

@PitchingFan posted:

Play grade or up a grade if you can compete.  Worst thing is playing up and look younger by ability or sit.

This is important, it sounds like your son projects well in the HS coaches assessment. However, putting him in a situation where he's clearly the least developed won't be great for his confidence, if he's the player that contributes the least.

The Summer of my son's freshman year his hitting coach was managing a local 18U tournament team (local weekend tournaments) with some of the better players from 3 or 4 of the area HS (most of these kids played beyond HS, but not an elite team for the Houston area).

I felt he got the opportunity because his hitting coach liked him and thought he projected well. Ultimately it was a good thing, but he looked like a kid among men. He ended up contributing quite a bit with the stick, but if that hadn't happened it would have been a mistake.

As said by others, play at the highest level you can compete.

The one thing I would say is, don't play 18U in your 17U (before senior year) summer if you are not yet committed.  17U summer is the prime time for recruitment by D2, D3, NAIA, juco, etc. - they are looking at 17U players.  18U teams can often be kids who have graduated, having fun for one last summer.

I would suggest that you look at Zoom Baseball Academy.

Mike Zolk is good person, very aggressive baseball. Father and son both coached at Neumann Goretti.  Son went to UNC, a hitting machine.

Philadelphia Bandits is another

@RJM posted:

Even though my 13u to 16u teams never played in an AAU tournament we were registered through them for their team insurance deal.

THIS!  If you are involved with travel ball at all, be sure your team has this! It's very cheap.   In the last few years of travel ball the coaches got it for the coaches insurance.  They didn't even realize it would cover it when.....

.... son's tooth got knocked out at a college showcase on a bad hop.  Of course, our dental insurance didn't cover it (it was a holiday, needed a good dentist quick, etc).  The team insurance picked it up 100%.  And even after about 11 months when a different tooth started showing a crack most likely due to the hit, the travel insurance covered a crown.

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

I would suggest that you look at Zoom Baseball Academy.

Mike Zolk is good person, very aggressive baseball. Father and son both coached at Neumann Goretti.  Son went to UNC, a hitting machine.

Philadelphia Bandits is another

Wrong side of the state. He clarified he's on the SW side.

@keewart posted:

THIS!  If you are involved with travel ball at all, be sure your team has this! It's very cheap.   In the last few years of travel ball the coaches got it for the coaches insurance.  They didn't even realize it would cover it when.....

.... son's tooth got knocked out at a college showcase on a bad hop.  Of course, our dental insurance didn't cover it (it was a holiday, needed a good dentist quick, etc).  The team insurance picked it up 100%.  And even after about 11 months when a different tooth started showing a crack most likely due to the hit, the travel insurance covered a crown.

The insurance I had was a 1M liability policy to cover the team and coaching staff. If something went seriously wrong I didn't want to risk losing my house.