Travel baseball
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Anonymous
| Insights into teams/programs? We live in Bethesda |
Anonymous
| It depends on your age group. BCC (Bethesda Chevy Chase) and Koa are both Bethesda based and run programs from 10 on up. You will hear mixed experiences from both, they both provide non-parent coaches and run similarly. In general, BCC has been more competitive, at least at the lower ages, but like all programs, it varies each year. Dig In is another local program but it is based out of Gaithersburg, similar model, and then different towns have programs, Gaithersburg, Olney, Rockville, and they will take players from different areas. There are basically two leagues in this area, one is called MCBA and is based in Montgomery County. They play during the week and on weekends, and then there is the Northern Virginia Travel Baseball League, and it plays only on the weekends generally doubleheaders. Most people would say the Northern Virginia league is more competitive but they are quite similar. Two local groups play in that league, Win Within, based in DC, and Bradley Academy, based in McLean I think, although I believe they only run older kids. It may be too late to join for the Fall but some programs (Koa, Win Within) sometimes need kids and will take kids later than others. |
Anonymous
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PP summarized landscape well and agree it varies year to year. Some of the olney teams are considered most competitive in area outside Virginia KOA seems to be expanding so that could create openings but they have also been filling rosters from their select league lately. Note Within the NVBL there are different levels of competitive play
Tryouts for most teams are November You can also consider 'select' but that can be very mixed as to what that is and how competitive BCC is considered very competitive in select but DAd coached. Good luck |
Anonymous
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I realize this is a very old thread but giving it a bump as we are moving to area and trying to get a lay of the land and better understanding of 10U travel baseball.
Are these travel teams solely determined by tryout - does it matter where you live? We are looking to move in DC and wondering if we can look at travel teams in Virginia and DC. Very interested in options in Arlington area and have heard there a several but having trouble understanding the scene - if people can help that would be great! Also we are coming from a Babe Ruth team where we live and it looks like there are several in VA but none in DC Bethesda area - is that correct? Does anyone know if Babe Ruth is an option in DC. I understand the Little League boundaries and we can go that route but honestly prefer babe Ruth given the birthday-age change that Little League has done. TIA |
Anonymous
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Well, I can't answer for the Bethesda area as we're in Northern Virginia, but I think most travel teams had their tryouts in June and July for the big Fall travel season. I found a few tryouts posted for November last year, but they tended to be for the older teams or teams needing one or two replacements for Spring. Around here, the travel teams seem to focus on Fall and then have the kids do Little League in the Spring with travel either a few spring tournaments or single game Sunday's with NVTBL. There are some travel teams that are "travel only" and the kids don't do Babe Ruth or Little League, but it's not as large as in other parts of the country where Little League is declining in favor of travel. Little League/Babe Ruth is still big around here.
The biggest problem you'll find is moving here in I assume 4th grade (we moved here in 3rd). A lot of these younger travel teams are set at 8 or 9, so it's really hard to break in even with a talented player. A lot of it is who you know and who you get seen by. We had to play for a year in little league to get noticed before being "invited" to a tryout. A lot of tryouts aren't even posted. There are some teams that will do true open tryouts, and you'll find those listed on NVTBL's website, but some teams limit the area you can be from. There is Babe Ruth in Arlington, but they've been discussing combining wit Little League for the past two years, so I don't know where that stands. I also think that at least one of the two big Arlington teams does tryouts in November, so that might be your best bet. Those tryouts can be huge - 60 plus kids if I remember right. My DS got picked up by another travel team, so we didn't actually go to it. Hopefully some dad(or mom) from the Bethesda area responds. Right now, I would just keep checking out the NVTBL tryout site for postings. It will be slim pickings right now, but you'll see more in November and most in June/July time frame. |
Anonymous
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NWDC travel teams are Win Within and DC Dynasty. Tryouts for the fall for both were in June (Win Within) and July (Dynasty) and are set for the fall. All these kids also play little league (generally through NWLL or Cap City--depending on where they live). I don't know of any boys (under age 13) who just do travel ball.
It's hard to break in to Win Within over u10 as their teams form then and generally stay the same unless someone moves They're very loyal to returning players. Dynasty has added a team at the u11 or u12 level which adds spots. |
Anonymous
| Just. Say. No. |
Anonymous
| As earlier (couple of years maybe?) post noted, Koa is Bethesda based and worth checking. They sometimes will have slots open even after official tryouts, and BCC Travel baseball is also Bethesda based but less likely to have spots open. Win Within and DC Dynasty might, and all of the four programs above are roughly the same in quality, and run under the same model with paid coaches, not parents. Fall is the lighter season, Spring is the main season, and in the Bethesda area, not so common that kids also play Little League because the Bethesda Little League is not very highly regarded, though it can be fun. |
Anonymous
DS plays for Win Within (great program) and does not play little league; same is true for at least a couple of his teammates. PP is right about there being very few slots after U10, though. |
Anonymous
| What about Chevy Chase Baseball (not BCC). Isn't that a newer entry to NVTBL and so they may have open spots on the rosters. I think you can live in Bethesda and still play with them. |
Anonymous
Curious about what this poster is getting at. Too much of a commitment? Not worth it? PP, what is the concern? |
Anonymous
PP here. I had two sons who played travel baseball and it was far too expensive and time intensive, particularly compared with travel basketball and travel soccer. We found that it was actually detrimental to our family life and came to the conclusion that it was an expensive and time consuming road to nowhere. Not to mention that we had fund raising expectations that were difficult to meet (we'd have preferred to just pay for our kid to play no matter the cost than try to hassle people to buy bull roast tickets). |
Anonymous
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I think the cost of travel baseball depends greatly on the program. We have kids in both travel baseball and soccer and baseball is much cheaper.
It does take more time though---about 5 hours each Sunday for a double header vs 1 hour on Sunday for a soccer game. |
Anonymous
| Is it necessary to do travel baseball to get looked at by high school coaches? |
Anonymous
i'm interested in this. I think probably yes just because kids generally don't get to be really good just by playing Little League games (8 fall games, 12 spring games plus play-offs). Playing travel ball in addition to Little League adds in another 16-20 games per season (or 40 games a year). |