Value of Spring Trips

Enjoy those trips. Years from now when your sons get together and rehash the "old days", they will remember more the trips,bus rides, motel escapades,locker room stuff, etc., than game details. At every level of sports, when players leave the game, what they miss the most is the camaraderie with their teammates.

Good point, when my boys are of age I'll be sure to. I was more considering the value to the program. For example, could the cash be better used in improving facilities, etc...

Don't be surprised if your school district decides to cut all significant travel until budget issues get fully resolved...ours did!

Our school takes the JV & Varsity from St. Louis to Port St. Lucie, FL for five days of practice. Costs parents $500.00 plus travel and incidentals and players & coaches stay in condos. Parents/siblings all want to go too and are on their own. Also, it costs an additional $275.00 to be on the team and $100.00 for uniforms...This is a public school too...I need to win the lottery!

We're going to New Orleans for the second year in a row. They gouge us for another $100 every other week to pay for it. If we would skip the trip (or at least stay in Florida where there is plenty of good spring break baseball!) we could have already built that new dugout they keep talking about.

MadDog, our school gives absolutely nothing to the baseball program except for a very small salary for the head coach. We share the field with football. Extra stuff like this is entirely parent-funded.

Son's private HS goes as a team (JV and Varsity) to the Dominican Republic. It's more of a mission trip with a little baseball thrown in to keep them sharp. They run a few baseball camps for the locals, practice a couple times, and play a game against a local team. But, more importantly, they visit orphanages, spend time with kids, give clothes/food/equipment, feed villages and give lots of hugs to kids that need it. Years from now when baseball is long gone, I don't expect my son will remember much about the baseball. But, I think he'll remember every minute of his Dominican Trips.

Tx - that definitely has some value. What a great experience.

all322, you really should be careful about jumping to conclusions.

I have been one of those few unpaid parent volunteers since my son was in the 7th grade. He is now a junior. Program editor 2 years, sponsorship coordinator 3 years, concessions/gate every year, and now I am the varsity announcer. Either me or my husband has been at every single field maintenance day. We support the team with our money, our time, and our sweat.

Even so, my opinion is that the money generated by player fees, the money that we generate through sponsorships, and the fund raising events being held every other weekend for which 2B is supposed to get additional sponsors, to pay for an out-of-state trip, is not a good use of time or resources. Especially when we live in Florida, and there are so many options for great baseball right here.

Sorry, I was reacting to the gouging part. Guess it means something else in FL. I never doubted you were very involved.

Yeah, I guess that wording was a little strong. No worries.

2b: A Florida team that goes to Louisiana for baseball in the spring??? That would be like me taking my boys to Nebraska to find farm ground.

Bad illustration, trojan. Everyone knows the farming is far better in Nebraska than Kansas. Now, if you said you took your HS basketball team in Lawrence to Lincoln to find quality college basketball, fair point!

2Bmom that is kinda silly for you guys to leave and go somewhere since 90% of the people in the north want to come down and play you guys. You could put on a spring break tournament and make tons of money off of it by inviting teams from out of state. Or even rent out your field / facilities for a team to use while your kids are in school. My last year as head coach in KY we went to Myrtle Beach to the Cal Ripken experience and a team from Michigan was down there just practicing because their state rules didn't allow them to play anyone. The school I'm at now in NC is going to let a team use our field during school (also from MI). So you guys could be making money, find team building / bonding activities elsewhere and make some money. Trojan Skipper and Tx-Husker I just saw what you guys posted and literally laughed out loud.

Good one Tx-Husker!

The spring trips are great for the cold climate schools as they get to be outside on the field in warm weather instead of being in the gym

I believe that baseball trips outside of the state are great for the overall team chemistry. I don't think it matters if you're already in Florida or California? Anytime teammates have the opportunity to spend 3-4 days together 24-7 does nothing but enhances that chemistry. We've heard plenty of times when professional athletes say they look forward to a "road trip" so that the team can spend more time together and gel.

My son's coach pencils in an out of state tournament every other year for the team either at the Spring Training facilities in Arizona or Las Vegas. It's fun for the kids & parents!

quote:

I believe that baseball trips outside of the state are great for the overall team chemistry.

I'd suggest that a trip out of area is fine...doesn't have to be out of state, but I agree with the theory of getting them away together for a few days. It just has to be far enough to justify the hotel

In most cases the Coaches and Players alike agree that the out of State trips are designed to accomplish a number of objectives;

- Teach Team Building & Leadership skills.
- Enhance Team Chemistry.
- Teach the "Team First" concept (Varisty players give up Spring Break for these 5-day/3-game trips).
- Schedule quality opponents & ready the Team for coming competitive Region games (the ones that count) upon their return.

The Parents pay about $300-$350 for the Trip. Parents can go and watch but the players Travel on the Team Charter and live together. Parents are encourage to stay at another hotel if they do go down. We could easily stay at home and schedule quality opponents but so much more is gained by the trip and stay! We do it annually. Our recored was 3-6 last year prior to that trip ending. We returned, started Region play and went 23-2 through the season and playoff journey to a State Title. This methodology has paid dividends over the past 5yr.s we've done it and don't believe anyone would vote for field repairs from that kitty in lieu of the Trip.

every other year in april, our high school team goes to cooperstown. we play another high school team from our state. it tends to be a bit chilly,even snowed once. but ya can't beat doubleday field and the homeplate cafe.

2B,
Not sure but if your school plays in an instate tourney, it counts against the 25 games allowed?

Oh man...spring break trips. Around here here have been several well-publicized spring break baseball trips that have resulted in a disintegration of discipline ending in coaches and at least one AD losing their lositions.

On one trip a local team hired strippers to perform in the hotel room before (drunken) team members. The coach lost his job.

On another trip, the starting catcher (son of local HS coaching legend) who later started on an SEC and a Big 12 team (after transfer), was caught in bed with the (female 24 year old) team trainer. There was a cover-up resulting in the dismissal of the coaches and (his dad) AD.

Lots of downside on spring break trips. Stay home and enjoy the home cooking, imo.

Dad04 you are correct that there are some things that could go very very wrong on these trips but in the cases you mentioned it wasn't the trip that went bad - it was the people. They were the ones wrong from the get go. For every team that goes somewhere and drinks the problem already existed at home. They just found a different area to do it in.

I've taken my teams to several places and the two things I've found that helps with discipline is 1) keep them busy and 2) make them so tired that they want to go to bed when they get back to the room. Let them bring the XBoxes and Wii's and whatever else they want to bring to help keep them busy. Have the coaches (and parents) help police them by walking in the hallways of the hotel. Another rule I had is that the players could not go off with their parents and do their own thing. The kids were on a baseball trip and they would do things with us as a team. But I always said the parents were more than welcome to come join in with us and what we did. Never had any trouble out of any parent or player over this. Make the parents feel included in what the team does - heck they paid for the trip or did the work to raise the money. Problems arise from too much free time and letting groups of players go with parents. Let's face it not all parents are good - some are horrible and will let their children do things that most parents wouldn't.

I think the biggest factor in determining value is ultimately the monetary aspect. Unfortunately many are in a tight squeeze currently, myself included. My son had to quit his travel team this year due to cost - in our area a quality program is 6K plus. And there isn't much in the way of alternatives. The annual spring trip is another 1500 for the kids, and parents can't get down south for much less than another 1500 when all is factored in.

I was disapointed last year at the cocoa beach expo in March - very little in the way of scouts or exposure. Team building was very important, but I have to think the 1500 would have been an investment that could have been put to better use.

I'm sorry but I just can't see how some of you are paying so much to go on a spring break trip. Last trip I took about 2 years ago to Myrtle Beach SC at the Cal Ripken Experience cost about $8000. We played on a state of the art field, got all the practice time we wanted, played 5 games and stayed in some sweet condos. I took 18 guys and the break down per player was $445.

That being said I'm philosophically opposed to making parents just pay that money out of their pocket because when you do that you open the door to that poor kid who is on the team being left. That is so wrong I can't explain it but that poor kid and that rich kid can work together to help raise that money.

We worked our rearends off for that trip and our supplies we needed for the season (got no money from the school other than they paid umpires). Had some great fundraisers where both varsity and JV parents contributed. I knew there was a possibility some of the JV parents would complain working so hard when only varsity kids were going on the trip so I tried to head that off at the pass. I met with every parent at the start of the school year to explain what was going on. I gave them a breakdown of what we needed and the costs and basically asked them if they could do it because just me and the players would never be able to do it ourselves. It had to be a total team effort. Some did ask why JV parents had to work on this and I told them that it's not a V / JV thing but it was a TEAM thing. We were raising money for balls, bats, hats, socks all the other stuff we needed for the season. They weren't raising money for their kid alone but for every kid that would wear our uniform regardless of JV or V. Then I left them with one day their son will probably be on varsity and will want to take a trip like this. When they do they are going to need the help of JV parents just like this bunch now need. If you work now that sets the tone that the new group coming in will work for your kid. Never had a problem after that and I can't begin to explain how great it was working with my guys and the parents. It was a phenomenal trip and best part was looking at the guys faces who have never seen the ocean until we walked onto that beach.

If you're being charged $1000 some odd dollars per player to go on this trip you might want to find out everything this money is being spent on.

Flying from NY to FL + Disney = a fair amount of cash. A little north of 20K I believe. At least for now, asking the parents to pay their childs share is not possible since it is deemed a school activity.

TPM, yes it does count against the 25 games - you're right. But I just counted it up, and we only have 20 games scheduled, not including the 3 we'll play in LA. There would be plenty of room for an in-state tourney.

And just a point of clarification - in our case all the money that is raised goes into one big baseball pot, so no player is left out due to income.

Oh, well. Coach does what he thinks is best. I can bellyache all I want about it and it doesn't mean anything. That is the nature of the beast!