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Bballman, it sounds like your son got in quite a bit of travel baseball before high school! Did he play U14 last school year, or fall 2008?
Yes, really 4 years. 12 twice, 13 and 14. Just played rec ball before that. We played a pretty competitive schedule as well so he got plenty of competition prior to HS.
He did play 14u this past spring (2008), then played on a 15u team in the fall. He is currently a freshman in HS.
Around here, there are a TON of travel teams. We live near East Cobb. They probably have about 7-8 teams for each age group. The top team is usually extremely good, next 2-3 are very good, below that you see teams vary from mid level AAA to average AA teams. Other than that, there are teams from all over. Every town has at least one team and many have multiple. The talent really gets watered down. Rec programs are really not that good, but personally I think 8-9 years old are too young. Puts a lot of pitches on the younger arms.
If I had to do it again, I would still start no earlier than 11 at travel. i will say that the experience my son has had playing travel since 12 has been a huge help as a pitcher. He has pitched against the best competition the region has to offer. I have had the parents of a number of seniors as well as the Varsity coach come to tell me that he is obviously a pitcher and seems to be very baseball smart. If he had been playing rec only all these years, he would have been able to just throw fastballs down the middle and blow people away. By playing the best competition around, he has really had to learn to pitch, not just throw.
I think travel ball helps players step their game up, just don't think you need to start that early.