How far are you willing to travel for

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the right organization/team. Taking into account what your needs are for a good fit, tell me how far you are willing to travel for practices, etc.

0-5 miles

5-10 miles

10-20 miles

20-30 miles

<30 miles

 

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the right organization/team. Taking into account what your needs are for a good fit, tell me how far you are willing to travel for practices, etc.

Personally, I think any parent would say "to the moon" if all things are equal in the way of personal commitment (the player and parents), potential (the player), and parental commitment (the $$$).

 

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My current team ranges from 10-70 miles. I guess you can say.... as far as it takes to practice with the team you want to play with.

 

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Sorry, went in a different direction, but we reguarly travel 120-150 miles one way to get to practice!

 

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40-50 miles max for practice! Willing to go way further for a tournament. However, there are enough teams in Cental Ohio and enough talent that I can't see any reason to take my dd much further than that.

 

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We travel 50+ miles to practice. We have one girl who lives in Louisville, KY and we practice in Blue Ash, Ohio. It is 100 miles to Louisville from downtown Cincinnati and another 15-20 to where we practice at. so I feel blessed to only travel an hour

 

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We travel right at 30 miles right now. Depending on how often a team would practice I would think an hour drive would be the max.

 

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We travel about 70 miles, one way, twice a week. Daughter loves the team, great parents and players, great facility, awesome coaching! It makes her happy, and if she is happy, I am happy. And every one knows If momma aint happy, nobody is happy.
So all is good

 

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We travel 200 miles one way. This is the first year we have made that big of a commitment and so far we could not be more pleased.

 

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I don't think distance is much of an issue at all with me. If the team offers good coaching and there is good team unity, I would drive however far I had to. If at the end of the year you can sit down and say,"My daughter really improved and learned alot this year and had a great time." then it was all worth it. You pay alot no matter where you go and you drive alot no matter where you go, so as long as your daughter has improved her game and become a better player, than you have done your job.

 

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We had 60 plus miles one way last year. 30 + miles one way this year. So practice time we got to bond in the car traveling and talk softball. 14Thunder , I think speaks what most parents feel. We drive 300 plus miles round trip for hitting lessons, from the best and it's worth every cent.

 

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Team practice about 40 miles and 220 one way for hitting but as sbfamily some drives are worth it.

 

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dd only was considering three teams, and none of them were closer then 55 miles one way. She knows what she wants and it just wasn't within any distance less then that.
I'm willing as long as she is happy, motivated, dedicated and challenged. She wanted a team of players with the same in mind.

 

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I believe we sat the record for distance this past summer,lol. Traveled from Lake Erie (Sandusky/Norwalk area) to the Ohio River (Cincinnati) which I believe, if I remember right, was 235 miles each way. Of course now gas has now fallen almost $2.00 less a gallon now that the season is over. Was paying over $4.00 a gallon all summer. Talking about breaking the wallet, YIKES!

 

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Well we have now heard from the extremists.............

Are you all kidding????!!!!

Assume 2 times/wk for 8 months @ 200 miles one way (25K miles!!!). That is over $3,000 in gas alone. That is also over 12 hours of driving and 4-6 hours of practice, when your DD should be studying.

Has everyone lost their mind or am I the one who is crazy? Why would anyone do this? Scholarships (very little money there)?? - just put your kids in the library for 12 hours per week, let them play with a local team 5 minutes away for 4 hr/wk and they will be further ahead. They certainly don't need this to play HS ball.

Seriously folks - I don't think we are sending our kids the right message putting so much emphasis on sports. I would also assume that this type of schedule makes them single sport athletes, how sad is that. Heck - when I played sports, I had to ride my bike to practice (luckily I only had to bring a mitt); so anything past 5 miles was not an option. Maybe that's why I didn't get a college scholarship??

 

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3 hour roundtrip for practice.

 

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Well we have now heard from the extremists.............

Are you all kidding????!!!!

Assume 2 times/wk for 8 months @ 200 miles one way (25K miles!!!). That is over $3,000 in gas alone. That is also over 12 hours of driving and 4-6 hours of practice, when your DD should be studying.

Has everyone lost their mind or am I the one who is crazy? Why would anyone do this? Scholarships (very little money there)?? - just put your kids in the library for 12 hours per week, let them play with a local team 5 minutes away for 4 hr/wk and they will be further ahead. They certainly don't need this to play HS ball.

Seriously folks - I don't think we are sending our kids the right message putting so much emphasis on sports. I would also assume that this type of schedule makes them single sport athletes, how sad is that. Heck - when I played sports, I had to ride my bike to practice (luckily I only had to bring a mitt); so anything past 5 miles was not an option. Maybe that's why I didn't get a college scholarship??

It depends on if one is a genuine college prospect. You MUST be on a team that goes to major tournaments that the college coaches go to for scouting which means a lot of out of state tournaments. A lot of local teams don't compete in these tournaments. Unless you can go to college's camps and pitch 69 mph and have one mother of a rise ball they won't have much interest in you unless they can see how well you do in games against strong competition. This is especially true of D1 & D2 schools.

 

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I'm with LAKEFP on this. Driving those distances with the quality teams and tournaments right here is over the top IMHO. I can see 2-3 times a summer for tournaments, but driving 200 miles for practices and hitting instruction? Please. Who has that kind of time?

As for going where the coaches are for tournaments, IMO there's a lot more to it than that. If you have the credentials and contact these coaches ahead of time, you open your own doors and can save thousands in travel expenses. If you're that good, they will come to you, too. And afterall, if it's the scholarship you're after, then it must have something to do with financial needs, so why spend those thousands that may be better spent on her education?

I guess I'm not nearly as hard core as some of the other posters and don't want to offend. But there are things that I read that make me scratch my head and ask, "are they really in it for the kids?"

 

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School always comes first and my dd is still currently playing 3 sports and yes the all overlap at some point during the year. The hitting instruction is about every 4 to 6 weeks depending on schedules.

I only do it because she wants to do it. I enjoy her hitting lessons but they are for her not me and when she asks for a break she gets one.

 

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LAKEFP, my dd is a straight "A" student and a 3 sport athlete. We only practice every two weeks, the location of all the girls make it too difficult to get together more than that, plus the coach is very aware that the girls are doing other things. In our situation we could not find what we we were looking for in "our own back yard". It was our choice to play for a team with the same goals in mind that my dd had. Those choices will become very apparent when tournaments roll around next summer!