What kind of Travel teams are we talking about? Why do we have travel teams? The whole reason we put our girls on a travel team is because somewhere we saw something special in our girls, their natural ability, there desire, their passion for the game. We wanted to help them to that next level, to give them the oportunities to reach those dreams of playing in high school, college, and in my daughters case the Olympics(what 9 year old didnt want to be an Olympic player.... back when we had an Olympic softball team).
Rec ball serves a purpose. It allows girls to play a game they love. It allows a girl who maybe because of financial reasons wouldnt play ball otherwise. I am not knocking on it at all.
Travel ball is a full time summer sport, if your serious about it. Here is what I mean.... Monday , is a rest day to rehydrate from a long weekend of ball playing. Tuesday, is a practice day either with the team or individual hitting, pitching etc. Wed is a team practice, individual hitting, pitching or maybe a scrimmage with another team. Thursday, team hitting , fielding, working on specific plays etc. Friday its most likely an evening game, Saturday, 2 games maybe more depending on the tournament. Sunday, play as late as you can in the day, hopefully you get 2 to 4 games in.
So i guess my answer to the big rec question is ....where in the heck would you find time to play rec ball anyway.
How many of the teams you see getting deep into Sundays games week after week have girls playing rec ball? I would guess not to many.
My opinion(remember its just my opinion) .....is unless your rec teams are filled with talented softball players, why would you put your daughter in an enviornment that is not going to challenge her , make her excell, push her to a higher level of ball playing?
Letting a talented softball player play with the local rec team just so she can play with her friends is like letting an honors student take General math next year instead of an advanced mathmatics class because she will be with more of her friends, forgetting the fact that it might not help her score so well on her college entrance exams for that college she has been wanting to go to for so long. Would you let her do it???????????