PO question

In the HS summer ball world, POs aren’t expected to be at every game.  If the games are local, our POs show up for every game usually.  If out of town, they do whatever the family prefers.  Ask the coach though.  If you know that the coach plans on burning your son’s innings in a single game, then it only makes sense to head home rather than pay for a hotel.  However, if the tournament is a 5-6 day affair, he might limit your son’s pitch count so he can rest and go again if they get to the championship brackets.  

My son became a PO his 16u summer.  I know this is rare, but he went to all the tournaments, staying for all of them, and we traveled all over the country.  He was a starter so he usually only threw one game to his pitch count.  There were only a couple long tourneys where he threw twice.

He told me he learned SO MUCH sitting on the bench during the games about pitch selection, watching batters, talking to his coaches etc.  It helped that both his 16 and 17u coaches were pitchers.  Both played pro ball and one had a cup of coffee in the majors.

Not to mention the relationships he built with his travel teammates.  They used to make fun of the "Fly-in POs."

My son's experience was very similiar to @Master P's.   He wanted to stick around and be in the dugout at 15-16 years old.  He learned a lot listening to his coaches, and watching other teams.   He loved stealing the other teams signals and he was very good at it.   Also, because he was a very good left handed hitter (right hand pitcher) and could bunt very well the travel coach liked to have him occasionally pinch hit in certain situations as his national travel team was very right hand dominant.

When he was 17 years old (high school junior) the time management calculus was different.  He had a heavy course load, SATs, recruiting visits, and a girlfriend.  Time prioritization in high school prepared him well for college.