Questions to Ask - New Travel Baseball League

First, how old is the player, where is he in the recruiting process (if yet in it) and what are your/his objectives?  

Need more information to answer that because the age group affects what to ask.  If it is younger or older, connections and experience of coaches and head of organization are vital at certain ages.

It is an 11U team (hopefully this isn't the wrong place to ask for younger kids).  He played on a local travel team for the past two years and we are looking for a higher level team with better instruction.

Thanks.  That helps.  I would ask about money (what does money get you and will there be more money requests coming), playing time (for various reasons), level of tournaments playing,  their organizational structure (who makes decisions so you know whether coaches have power to make decisions or does everything come from owner), coach and owner experience playing and coaching (want to know if they know what they are talking about and if they can teach it/coach), how many players will they carry, how many teams in organization, and future plans.  I'm sure there are a lot more but those were main ones for me.

I'd ask about credentials of "brand new organization". Who are the coaches?  Why are they starting up? Is it a modified "daddy ball" situation? What is their objective? How many games, tournaments, etc? 

To add to others...  where, when, how often is instruction.  With costs, what exactly is included/not included.  What is the commitment (duration, attendance, etc.) and what are the steps to opt out if not satisfied.  How they will manage care for pitchers.  Also, often at that age, new organizations will map out tournaments but later, find out that either they can't get in those tournaments or on the other end, those tournaments end up cancelled due to lack of teams in the age group.  Try to get a feel for how solid the schedule is.

Just remember for many of us the team becomes an extended family.  Travel ball has been some of the best days of our lives and some of the worst nightmares.  i have families that I know I can send my kid with anywhere anytime and I have other families I hope I never see again from travel ball.  It is amazing the bonds that are built with the players also so make sure what types of families and players are getting invited to join.  Character of coaches is important at that age also.

Why are you looking at a new organization versus an established one? Do you understand being on the ground floor buys you nothing for the older ages? Only four players from the 13u Arsenal A team made the 17u A team in my son’s age group.

Practice/training is listed as follows on their site:

Off-Season - 10 weeks - 1 hour of hitting per week, 1 hour of fielding per week and 1 hour of speed and agility per week - 1 professional with 10-12 players
Pre-Season - 13 weeks - 2 hour of hitting per week, 1.5 hour of fielding per week and 1 hour of speed and agility per week , 1.5 hours of team practice guided by head coach per week- 1 professional with team
In-Season - Indoor (3 facilities) and outdoor practices; 8-10 tournaments; League Games; Total of 40-50 games; 1 hour of speed and agility per week

We are looking to change to get better coaching.  The current teams coaches have very little playing experience and are not teaching fundamentals.

Sounds like a good base.  You may want to ask how many in-season practices... not listed.  And how many he will be required to make if that may be a concern.  Of course, it is always recommended to never spend outside of your reasonable means.

I contacted the founder of the league and he answered a bunch of my questions. Here is what I found out:

• There will be 12 players on the team. All will have played travel previously. There will only be guest players in the case of injuries.
• Currently the coach is a paid staff member.
• Everyone will be exposed to multiple positions.
• PitchSmart will be followed.
• Playing time will be fairly equal. Practice attendance and they ability to play a position effectively will factor into this.
• Most tournaments will be in state with the possibility of one out-of-state. The level of play and which league they will be in will be determined once the team has been assembled and after Oct-Dec practices have been held.

I would want to know about the coach, his background with kids, his knowledge of the game and his ability to pass that along. My son's travel coach was a dad from the team (a red flag), but he also played college ball at NAIA and D3 and was a teacher and elementary school principal. He had solid knowledge that he was effective in passing on to kids. Son now pitches for a P5 and he still texts this guy for input when he has questions for his college coaches, and we know son wouldn't be where he is without him.

On the family note — that too is key. Our boys stopped playing travel at age 14. They're now 19 and 20. Parents got together last weekend because we still love to connect and talk about our boys. Make sure the other folks are people you want around your kid at a very formative time in his life, and his baseball.