My son, Tyler, is now 20 years old. He plays college baseball at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. Like a lot of little boys in America, he started playing baseball about the time he learned to ride a bike. He was actually three years old when I started him in the "Diaper League" at the Chickamauga Recreation Department in historic Chickamauga, Georgia. He stayed in the rec leagues there until he was seven. He always played up an age group there because the kids who were a year older than he were pretty talented and I wanted him to have to push himself to keep up. I never wanted him to be the best 7-year-old player in town. I was focused more on him being the best 17-year-old player in town.

Anyway, once that group of kids moved on from "coach pitch" to "player pitch", I decided to let him move up too. That's right...I voluntarily by-passed my child's last year of "coach pitch", a year in which he was certain to hit many home runs and be the talk of the league...to move him into the always challenging first year of player pitch. So, many of the kids who made up the Chickamauga All-Star team for the last three years stayed together to take our first stab at "select baseball". I helped coach some, but I was a high school head baseball coach at the time, so my time was limited. The boys had a fun season and even won one tournament. We went out of town once (all the way to Kennesaw, Georgia...a whole hour and 15 minutes down the road), but played the rest of our tournaments right here in the Chattanooga area. The boys learned baseball and got better. We kept the boys together (mostly) for another year and it was enjoyable. Once that next year old year came, I decided that it was time for Tyler to play with kids his own age. So, I kept him back in the 10-year-olds and found a new team which I would not coach. This was one of the two "big time" teams in the area. It was a lot of fun and Tyler continued to get better. Ultimately, it didn't work out with that team and we moved on to another local team for a year. That year was okay and Tyler continued to improve his skills.

It was his 12-year-old year that convinced me that I had a special player on my hands. We went to East Cobb a few times, competed well and Tyler started making a name for himself. I also started learning a lot about travel baseball. Gone were the days of making your community all-star team and competing against the best players from other communities in the Dixie Youth or Dizzy Dean state tournaments. No, this travel baseball was growing fast and I learned quickly where the biggest stage of all was located. It was most certainly in East Cobb. But, it wasn't going to be good enough to just play for East Cobb. No, East Cobb had many teams, but its signature team was the Astros. The Astros had the best players. I needed to see if Tyler was good enough for that team. If his performance as a 12-year-old was any indication, he was certainly good enough. The highlight of that year, and still one of the highlights of his entire baseball career if you ask him, was the tournament in Cooperstown, New York. If you can get your son on a team that goes to Cooperstown, DO IT! We didn't win the tournament. We finished second to the Houston Sox. But, man, what an experience.

When we got home, I checked out East Cobb's website and found out when they were having tryouts. Now, let me say this: I don't know if it's still this way, but the Astros were pretty much picked before that tryout ever happened. I still had to pay for the tryout and Tyler had to go through it, but I had talked to the coach for the 13-year-old Astros team before the tryout and knew that he was taking Tyler. To me, that was when travel baseball really started. The Astros played against the best players in the country in tournaments all over the southeastern United States. At one point when Tyler was 14, there were two eventual first round draft choices (one was first overall) and three future second round picks on his team. He played against guys who could choose from practically any college in the country. It was an unbelievable collection of talent. When they were 14, they played in tournaments that were made up of 15 year old teams. Sometimes, they even played against 16 year olds...and won. I'm still blown away by the talent I got to see that year. College coaches came to watch this 14 year old team play (in the 16 year old tournaments). I counted 11 D1 head coaches at one game alone. That team cost me $2500 for Tyler to play on, but the experience and exposure he got was totally worth it.

After his 14 year-old-season, things changed. He didn't make the 15-year-old Astros team. High school football and fall travel baseball weren't possible to be played concurrently and Tyler chose to play football. He doesn't regret that decision for a minute. He went with a local travel team whose coach was connected with several college coaches in Tennessee. Tyler wound up with four D1 offers and one D2 offer. He chose the D2 offer for a myriad of reasons. But, the bottom line is that his travel coach helped him tremendously. He made calls on his behalf. He was Tyler's biggest supporter. Folks, I can't underestimate how important that is for your son's chances to play college ball. You've got to have a summer coach putting his name out there. You've got to have a guy who is connected. You have to start in-state because, obviously, in-state tuition is cheaper and college coaches are limited in the amount of money they can give out.

I didn't know any of this beforehand. I learned it all by experiencing it. I see so much wrong with travel baseball today. I've written a blog or two about it and have had college coaches tell me that I'm 100% right about what I see. It's a tremendous money maker and a lot of parents are throwing money at people and teams who will never ever help their child get to the next level.

Now, I wouldn't change a single thing that I did for Tyler's youth and travel baseball career. I believe that he was on the very best stage and got to be the player he is because of that competition, coaching and the expectations. But I don't think most parents come away from the travel experience with no regrets. It's a very difficult path to navigate. Be careful. Be informed.