High school athletics offer an extracurricular activity for students to spend their free time during the school year. Sports also offer athletes who excel a chance at continuing their playing careers in college.
A good way for students to get more exposure is to play as much as possible.
That means joining a traveling team.
These teams have many benefits, but also have their drawbacks.
One of the biggest factors is money. Most high school sports are sponsored, so students don’t have to worry about travel costs or entry fees, for example.
Brad Piley coaches Humboldt High softball, and Sonic Blast, a traveling team. Although he doesn’t think there is a difference between the teams as far as coaching is concerned, he agrees traveling teams have their benefits.
“What I use travel for, the core of my travel team is my high school team, and I use it to get our girls better for high school,” Piley said. “It’s been working for us, and we kind of keep on doing that.”
Kayle Riebel recently finished her final year of high school. She played for both of Piley’s teams and thinks the only difference between the two is the traveling team travels farther to games, and includes players who aren’t HHS students.
“I like both teams,” Riebel said. “I feel like high school is more like you know where you will play position-wise and travel team you don’t know where you will play.”
PILEY says the players relax more when they play travel, since he uses it as an extended season for his players to learn and get their skills better. Also, playing on the traveling team allows the players to play better competition.
“Some of the girls are going on to college and it gets them prepared,” Piley said.
Playing for a travel team allows more opportunities for college coaches to recruit players, especially in Kansas. Piley noted Kansas high school and college seasons run simultaneously, giving college coaches few opportunities to recruit.
Playing on a travel team increases the chances of being seen, especially during large tournaments where coaches can watch as many recruits as possible.
“In Missouri and Oklahoma, they play (high school softball) in the fall. They get a lot more of those coaches to see them,” Piley said. “I’ve had a lot of college coaches recruit our girls off our travel team.”
Playing for a traveling team can lead to great opportunities, but there is a downside.
