Number of tournaments and how far do you travel?

My twins are on a 10 year old team here in Missouri. We routinely travel to area states (Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas) and usually one big trip a year. This year we hope to travel to Las Vegas, NV and Steamboat Springs, CO.
Yes, it is expensive. We are in a constant fundraising mode. All the fundraising does get very old but is worth it to see how much fun the kids have on the tournament trips. Plus it is a good measuring stick to see how we stack up vs kids in other parts of the country.

My son is 14U this year. We will be in Liberty, Mo. trying to qualify for Steamboat. Since he was 9 we would go to 3 or 4 out of state tournaments and play 2 or 3 local tournaments every year. Some were a lot of fun, others wern't depending upon a combination of accomodations, weather and, tounament organization. We would try to go someplace new each year for the experience and variety of playing new teams. I felt that it was a good choice for the kids to do this. It broadened their horizons and increased their self-confidence to know how they stacked up as a team in a place where they had never been before. They always seemed to find another team that they became close with and would have fun together off the field.

My son's 13 year old team will play 12 tournaments this year. Most are within 2 hours drive time. We are going for a week to the CWS to play 2 tournaments but other than that we should only need 2 or 3 nights in hotels. We play about 20 week day games between April and June. The tournemnts are the most fun for the kids and I think they raise their level of play. Last year they were in 12 tournaments and placed in 11 of them.

jjinmo- By any chance does your son play for a Mac and Seitz team?

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Originally posted by Wheelhouse:
My son is 14U this year. We will be in Liberty, Mo. trying to qualify for Steamboat. Since he was 9 we would go to 3 or 4 out of state tournaments and play 2 or 3 local tournaments every year. Some were a lot of fun, others wern't depending upon a combination of accomodations, weather and, tounament organization. We would try to go someplace new each year for the experience and variety of playing new teams. I felt that it was a good choice for the kids to do this. It broadened their horizons and increased their self-confidence to know how they stacked up as a team in a place where they had never been before. They always seemed to find another team that they became close with and would have fun together off the field.

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Just don't expect too much in Steamboat. Pretty decent competition for us last year as 14's, but we played on TERRIBLE fields 45 miles out of town. Even the fields in town were low rent Rec Ball fields.

The city is nice, but it was HOT during the day, and the condo's don't have AC!!!!

Plus, for the money, I would rather go to USSSA or CABA and actually play some games.

We played in 14 tournaments last year, two Nationals, 4 state and the rest qualifiers.

KellerDad --

I've heard that about the fields and the distance. Steamboat is an awsome place though. Mountain air and all. Talk about hot, try Orlando, Tulsa or, anywhere else in the midwest at the end of July early August (not to mention the humidity). Did 4 years of CABA and two years of USSSA. Thought that we would do something new, play some teams we haven't seen before and travel to a place that is actually beautiful to be at. Can't beat the mountains.

We play about 12 tournaments every year. Most are local or within 2 hours. We usually only do a couple of big trips per year. We have a lot of good local teams that have proven to be competitive on the national level, so plenty of good baseball right here.

4 or 5 a year and we travel less than an hour. Plenty of tournaments to choose from in SoCal.

We will travel to a few out of state tournaments and games, but will primarly play tournaments at home. We played in the Triple Crown tourney in Steamboat Springs at 10 and won it. Nice town, but as someone else said the fields are not good. Played out in Hayden, Colo (about 45 miles west of Steamboat) and the field we played on had no outfield fence? The fields in town are marginal if best. We alway's liked Snowden Grove Park outside of Memphis, Tenn. Orlando is extremely hot and humid. We will be trying to earn a birth to go to Washington, Pa for the Pony World Series.

We are 10u and have already palyed 5 tournaments this year and will play about 10 more before USSSA nationals in Henderson,NV
None of our kids play league ball.

P.S. Anyone who has been to Henderson,NV how are the fields?

I play for a team in Austin,Tx. All we do is play tournaments.
About 14-20 this year. About every weekend.
Its very fun.

(14u btw)

I was thinking it would be neat to go somewhere south early in the season but the problem with that is that we wouldn't have much on-field practice in compared to the southern teams we'd be facing. The other problem is the cost in getting there.

For instance, if we drove down to HHI to play against Callaway's son's team (as an example), that's a 12 hr drive, but chances are the weather would be pretty good. Right now, our first tourney is April 16 and we'd be darn lucky if it's above 45 and sunny.

BANDITODAD...THE 12U FIELDS ARE AWESOME...4 FIELDS BACK TO BACK IN ONE COMPLEX...WATCH YOUR HEADS. i HAVE NEVER HEARD A TEAM DO ANYTHING BUT PRAISE THE TOURNAMENT!

hAVE FUN!!

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Originally posted by il2008:
jjinmo- By any chance does your son play for a Mac and Seitz team?

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No, my twins play for the 10U KC Wildcats.