My dd ended up in New England.

All these kids that play in the Midwest will play college in the Midwest.

Simply not true. My daughter from the Midwest went on to play softball in the South, ya'll.

It is called travel softball. It's not recreation softball anymore. There are still Little League softball teams that you can play on and stay local.

If you don't want to travel with your daughter, then don't. Just don't expect those who chose to and want to travel to embrace your thought process.

I am so sick of these posts, telling us what we should and shouldn't do with our daughters. For Pete's sake, do ten minutes worth of due diligence, and put your daughter on a local team.

Every offer my daughter received came from coaches watching her at the tournaments mentioned. The real issue is the slightly lower level teams traveling to CO and CA to play in the lesser divisions just to say they were in Colorado. There is no reason to travel to CO to play in the Sparkler.

Then don't do it and don't worry about what others do. Easy fix

Your welcome to leave. Unless your daughter is the pitcher

You're exactly right that it's gotten out of control. But, like NIL and the transfer portal in college, there are very few options to put the genie back in the bottle. The issue is DEMAND. Until there is less demand for the craziness we're living, the SUPPLY will continue to appear.

I don't blame the travel orgs or coaches - unless they are misrepresenting things to their players and families. WE are the ones who are cutting the checks, chasing the dreams, and making this all unsustainable for the masses.

There are roughly 400 spots open per year for P4 teams - before accounting for the transfer portal, which I would presume is going to become the more popular route for filling those spots over time. But let's say conservatively it might be 300 P4 spots open for HS kids each year.

That's an incredibly small number compared to all the kids playing travel ball, and even a small number compared to those who are playing "national schedules".

You've gotta be real about your kid. Most kids don't have the talent for D1. Play for the love of the game and don't leave the Midwest. Even for those kids who are on the bubble to play D1, a Midwest schedule - plus working your butt off with social media, emails, camps, etc. - is going to give you enough of a shot. And, you always have the option of mid-major or D2 and the portal, if you're willing to go that route.

But we have thousands of kids and families chasing P4 dreams going all over the country. And that's the DEMAND that drives SUPPLY.

People are going to keep taking our money as long as we fork it over. And we're gonna fork it over as long as we have an unrealistic view of our kids potential.

Scream at the mirror.