Summer Leagues And Travel Teams

Recreational leagues started out as just a way for young people to get more training privately with coaches and evolved to become a place where people who want to play organized sports outside of school play. Players who want to get better or just play for fun will find a league and pay money and be placed on a random team or a chosen depending preference. It’s based more on young people having fun now rather than competitiveness, but they still get a chance to improve their skills as they still learn more about their sport and playing with a team.

Travel teams are similar in that you pay to be on one, but that’s where the similarities end. On travel teams, you have to try out like a regular school sport. They are just as competitive, if not more than school athletics. Travel teams are much more expensive and sometimes difficult to join.

Many school athletes play sports all year round, whether that be more than one sport or playing the same sport outside of school. Athletes who aren’t good enough to make the cut at school usually go join a rec league most of the time, but the ones who really want to work hard to try out for travel teams. Playing on a travel team is usually difficult for athletes who didn’t make the cut at their school because they still have to outshine the same athletes who beat them for their spot at school on that same team. Coaches are always looking for the underdogs on travel teams because they want to find that someone who they know will give them 100 percent if given the chance so they take less skilled players and aspiring players. This is where athletes can prove themselves because nothing is set in stone. Even if the star players are running the show, they have a whole season to show why they should be given the same opportunity as their peers.

Rec leagues and travel teams have turned into a 15 billion dollar industry. Athletes and their parents are very eager to get as much exposure for themselves as possible because only 2% of high school athletes move on to play at the next level in the NCAA. Because of this, organizations profit from this because there is no other option for the players but to pay the cost, even if it a large amount of money.

Coach Larry Roberts of the Confidence Cougars said, “This is where winners are made. We come in at the start of the season winners, losers, and strangers and we bond and fight through the trials and hopefully win some games in the process.” 

In my personal experiences, travel teams have helped me improve as a player, and I’ve gained more confidence.  It is a great way to get ahead “in the game.”