Next spring break

jmo, but I would look further south as in Arizona or fla. I think Graylake and QWhitney young both went to fla this year and they might be able to help you if you go that direction. It looked like grayslake had games every day.

Lake Zurich used to go to the St. Louis area until 2 years ago. I believe most years we just scheduled games with area teams rather than tournaments. We did have weather issues some years, as that area can be wet in spring. The past 2 years LZ has traveled to Springfield, MO area and just scheduled teams from the area, no tournaments. Weather was better but competition lacked, just doesn't seem to produce strong teams.

I bring this up, because if you do some homework, you won't need a tournament, just pick an area and schedule some games. JMHO

Here's a question for those of you who do travel "south", whether it be to southern IL or FL/AZ... do players foot the whole bill for the trip? What happens if a family just can't afford to send a boy? Or do you fundraise to cover the cost, and if so, do you feel all your other team needs are funded to the point that the money isn't needed in some other area?

I ask because we've heard through the grapevine (aka the rumor mill!) that one local team spends $30,000 traveling to AZ. If our team had an extra 30 grand, we would have about 30,000 ways to spend that money before we would ever get to "travel south for spring break" on the list... like decent pitching machines, field improvements, more batting cages, MORE COACHES!

I read that one team went to Florida and played 3 or 4 games - is that a baseball trip or a vacation with a few games thrown in for variety? And if you do travel, how can you be sure what kind of competition you're going to face? Is it worth the expense and effort if the teams you play are not competitive?

I'm really more curious than anything. We've been involved in high school baseball for about ten years, and when we first started no one in our area was traveling for spring break, then it seemed like everyone was doing it (except our team!), now it seems like some are giving it up. It's kind of an interesting phenomenon I guess.

Right now, the wind is blowing about 35 miles an hour, it's 20 degrees outside and we're supposed to have a game tomorrow when it isn't supposed to be much better... I'd take that trip if it were offered!

In our case, it comes out of the baseball budget. We do fundraise for the team, but those funds are not designated to any particular event.

I can tell you that we don't spend anywhere near that amount of money. Double rooms are about $55 per night, and there is a meal budget of $250 per day for the team, where they are on their own for lunch. The only additional cost is a weeks rental of a charter bus.

Oh yeah, and a starting right fielder...ours, who hit .410 last year and was the fastest kid on the team, broke his leg rounding second...freak accident.

I figured I was just going to pick an area and try to schedule games, but if there was a tourney it would be nice to have that tournament feel early in the season.

I figured out our expected expenses for a trip and it was nowhere near $30,000. Our Sophomore coach will be driving our bus, so there's one major expense we don't have.

Thank you for your suggestions.