Travel/Club is NOT the same thing as being recruited.

I was just at a travel tournament and I was talking to a parent and honestly I feel bad for the lie a lot of families fall for. That lie is this: you have to play travel to play in college. And that is just not true. Travel can be helpful. It can give your athlete reps, development if it's the right coaches, competition, and sometimes exposure. But travel ball by itself is not a recruiting plan. There are too many teams, there are too many tournaments. There are too many games for college coaches to be everywhere. So here's the question every parent should ask. How many college coaches actually watch my athlete play this weekend or whatever tournament you have? Even more important, were they schools that fit them athletically, academically, geographically, financially, all of those things? Because getting seen by random coaches is not the goal. Getting in front of the right schools is the goal. So don't fall into the trap of thinking more tournaments automatically means more recruiting. Play travel if it helps them develop, but don't confuse playing travel with being recruited.