The youth sport culture in our country has changed in the 24 years since I became a college baseball coach. My kids, at the ages of 26 and 24, participated in sports throughout most of their lives, and every year the youth sports landscape continues to evolve.
One of the changes that has had an effect on youth baseball and softball is the evolution of the travel teams. I'm sure there have been similar changes in many other sports due to the same phenomenon. Twenty years ago most of the young baseball players (especially pre-teens and pre-high school) played in local youth leagues in their home towns. Throughout the season they competed with and against many of the kids the see in their neighborhoods and school, only competing with athletes from other towns when they advanced to post-season tournaments. Today, it is not uncommon for these young athletes to play on the same team with peers from cities and towns several miles away.
This evolution led to some problems for local leagues, as the participation numbers and the level of competitive play tended to drop considerably. Ultimately, so many kids became members of travel teams that the level of talent that was once seen on travel teams began to get somewhat watered down. Now we have an abundance of traveling teams, with an occasional 'elite' team that may have to travel to more national tournaments in order to have competitive games.
There was a time that I tried to figure out if the development of youth travel baseball and softball would last very long, and if so, considering the negative effects it has on local youth leagues, what positive results would come of this evolution. Of course, with progress there ought to be something that is good.
Eventually, I tried to compare the phenomenon of travel baseball to what was happening at the college level. From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, I made the most challenging schedule I could possibly make as the head coach at Siena Heights University. I always had some outstanding players, several of whom went on to play professional baseball, some even getting drafted in the Major League Baseball annual Amateur Draft in June. I would usually schedule a 16-18 game southern trip, with almost every game being played against nationally ranked NAIA and NCAA DII teams and some DI teams from around the state of Alabama. We played those games in an 8-9 day period. Then our team also usually ended up playing 7-10 games against DI teams once we traveled back to Michigan.
What eventually happened is that my players had an opportunity to compare themselves with other quality athletes from other parts of the country. Even though I often had one or two pro prospects on my teams, most of the guys were not considered pro prospects. Playing against top shelf teams allowed our guys to see how much harder they really needed to work, how much they needed to improve, and that since they left their high schools they were now just small fish in a real big ocean of players.
I suppose travel baseball, fall baseball, and elite travel baseball have now allowed our kids, and maybe their parents, to see that there is a big world of great young athletes out there, and that achieving dreams in the field of athletics is not something that is easy. Every town has its best athletes, every travel team and elite program has top athletes, and when they have opportunities to compete against similar programs, it becomes easier to see that one's success is not only determined by God-given ability, desire, or the amount of trophies earned before entering high school.
The purpose of participating in youth sports, whether at the local, state or national level, is still the same as it always was. That purpose is to learn skills that are beneficial on and off the field, develop the ability to effectively communicate with peers as well as superiors, to learn how to be a part of a team, understand how to handle success and disappointment, and to have fun.
No matter how the youth sports culture changes and evolves, these purposes have not, and should not ever change.
One of the changes that has had an effect on youth baseball and softball is the evolution of the travel teams. I'm sure there have been similar changes in many other sports due to the same phenomenon. Twenty years ago most of the young baseball players (especially pre-teens and pre-high school) played in local youth leagues in their home towns. Throughout the season they competed with and against many of the kids the see in their neighborhoods and school, only competing with athletes from other towns when they advanced to post-season tournaments. Today, it is not uncommon for these young athletes to play on the same team with peers from cities and towns several miles away.
This evolution led to some problems for local leagues, as the participation numbers and the level of competitive play tended to drop considerably. Ultimately, so many kids became members of travel teams that the level of talent that was once seen on travel teams began to get somewhat watered down. Now we have an abundance of traveling teams, with an occasional 'elite' team that may have to travel to more national tournaments in order to have competitive games.
There was a time that I tried to figure out if the development of youth travel baseball and softball would last very long, and if so, considering the negative effects it has on local youth leagues, what positive results would come of this evolution. Of course, with progress there ought to be something that is good.
Eventually, I tried to compare the phenomenon of travel baseball to what was happening at the college level. From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, I made the most challenging schedule I could possibly make as the head coach at Siena Heights University. I always had some outstanding players, several of whom went on to play professional baseball, some even getting drafted in the Major League Baseball annual Amateur Draft in June. I would usually schedule a 16-18 game southern trip, with almost every game being played against nationally ranked NAIA and NCAA DII teams and some DI teams from around the state of Alabama. We played those games in an 8-9 day period. Then our team also usually ended up playing 7-10 games against DI teams once we traveled back to Michigan.
What eventually happened is that my players had an opportunity to compare themselves with other quality athletes from other parts of the country. Even though I often had one or two pro prospects on my teams, most of the guys were not considered pro prospects. Playing against top shelf teams allowed our guys to see how much harder they really needed to work, how much they needed to improve, and that since they left their high schools they were now just small fish in a real big ocean of players.
I suppose travel baseball, fall baseball, and elite travel baseball have now allowed our kids, and maybe their parents, to see that there is a big world of great young athletes out there, and that achieving dreams in the field of athletics is not something that is easy. Every town has its best athletes, every travel team and elite program has top athletes, and when they have opportunities to compete against similar programs, it becomes easier to see that one's success is not only determined by God-given ability, desire, or the amount of trophies earned before entering high school.
The purpose of participating in youth sports, whether at the local, state or national level, is still the same as it always was. That purpose is to learn skills that are beneficial on and off the field, develop the ability to effectively communicate with peers as well as superiors, to learn how to be a part of a team, understand how to handle success and disappointment, and to have fun.
No matter how the youth sports culture changes and evolves, these purposes have not, and should not ever change.
