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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Because my kid has been really intense about sports from a young age (DH and I are reasonably athletic/played competitive sports when we were younger).

He was getting frustrated with rec baseball because some kids are still digging in the dirt even at age 9/10. And unfortunately where we live there isn’t an intermediate league in between rec and travel (I think there is a huge untapped market of families who want more competition than rec without travel commitment, but I digress).

DS really wanted to try out for travel and made it his first year. [b]From talking with others it seems like there is an advantage getting in at an early age because there does seem to be an edge for returning players vs new kids trying out. [/b]Maybe we’ve lucked out, but practices are 15 min from home max (sometimes right down the street) and even scrimmages/non-tournament games haven’t been too far. Even travel tournaments are often driveable from home or we make a family trip of it. Financially we can afford this without it making a huge dent in our budget so I recognize we are lucky in that regard.

If all my kid ever gets out of this is experiencing camaraderie, a love of physical fitness, and practice toward setting and reaching goals I think that is worth it. He has a 529 and we plan to pay for college, so not banking on any scholarship. Don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses either, we live a pretty low key life (modest house, non-fancy cars, etc.)

I’m curious why anyone whose kid isn’t into travel sports remotely cares about this?[/quote]

Just FYI...if your kid plays on a program that gets a lot of kids recruited by college, this probably won't apply at 17u.  My kid joined a team at 17u that cut the majority of the team at the 17u year and replaced them with better players...these were kids that had been playing for years, some since 10u.

This team prides itself on getting kids recruited for college and the summer of 16u, and then Fall/Summer of 17u are the most critical time.  If they don't think your kid is college recruitable, then they don't keep them.

My only advice is pay attention to the 16u (again, they make changes between Fall and Summer) and 17u teams, and what the program does at those ages. 
[/quote]

Our kids play for a club like that, but at least they form the new teams above the current teams rather than cutting long time players. Typically about a quarter of the new 15U team is current players. [/quote]

So you are saying traditionally they had one team, and now they create a new A team with the superstar players (perhaps with lots of players new to the program), and they have a B team.  25% of the current team is promoted to the A team and the remainder of the team is on the B team.

That's a solution, but I can't say that's necessarily a better solution.  Have to imagine there is a ton of resentment by a large %age of people who remain on the B team.

Maybe not...it's hard to please everyone.[/quote]

Traditionally 2 to 3 teams and then another team forms at 15u. That team plays nationally and every one including bench players will at least get college offers. Most families aren't delusional about their kid's ability and don't that they think they belong on a circuit team when they don't. The kids on that team come from the whole region. I think this year's has one living in Richmond and one in WVA [/quote]

So, you are saying you part of like a Dirtbags or Canes program.  I get what you are saying now.[/quote]

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