To the critics who wonder how it could be worth spending more than the average American’s annual mortgage payment on a year’s worth of travel baseball, Nate Brandt has the answer.
Brandt has two sons who play club baseball, a 15-year-old for USA Prime Colorado and an 11-year-old for Gameday. For both his boys to play from the spring through the fall, Brandt is spending around $50,000 this year. And Brandt, who has worked with a wide variety of club programs across the nation, won’t think twice about doing it again next year.
“For us, and for everybody, it comes down to the coach and it comes down to the organization and who’s running it,” Brandt said. “It’s that simple. Every organization is expensive. Every organization sells the dream.
“So when you have a good coach that truly wants the boys to develop, you still have the fun in the game, and then you’ve got an organization that wants these kids to get to the next level and invest in them, it’s worth every dime. You just have to make sure to personalize your experience.”
As outlined in the first two parts of this series, the youth sports landscape is rife with exorbitant costs and a bevy of issues. But for the families who can afford it — and for those who find the right organizational fit that Brandt describes — Brandt and others explain that the payoffs can be substantial.
“With an organization like (the Arapahoe Youth League), you pay $400 or $500, you get your practices, you play a couple games a week and whatever the coach decides to do is what you’re getting,” Brandt said. “Whereas with travel, with many organizations, there’s expanded schedules and additional practices and spring training and foundational work. So you’re getting more structured training, and you’re seeing better talent too, because all the decent players at the 13-, 14-, 15-year-old levels are playing with these club teams.”
While a common critique of the youth sports industry is that overzealous parents are driving the bus on decisions — with some living vicariously through their children’s sports — Brandt says that a key to his sons’ success in travel ball is that they made the decision to join. His oldest son started travel ball at 12, and his youngest started at 9.
Dr. Travis Dorsch, an expert on youth sports, says kid-led buy-in is all the more important, given his studies showing that “as the annual expenditures increase, children feel more pressure to perform.”
“I think that’s what needs to be differentiated here is parents need to start asking their kids what they want to do and where they want to go and what this year looks like for them — not 10 years from now when you’re a 12-year-old,” Brandt said. “Do you want to go have fun and play baseball with your buddies, or do you want to grind and play at a high level and make this your job?
“Let the kids answer that question. Yes, parents are making way too many decisions for their kids, and they’re putting kids in programs that they probably shouldn’t be in or don’t even want to be in just because they want to keep up with the Joneses. I’ve always let my kids make the decision. They’ve never made a wrong one.”
While parents are villainized about as much as travel programs for the multi-billion-dollar industry that the American youth sports landscape has become, USA Prime Colorado director Scott Hormann doesn’t understand why parents get a bad rap for putting big money into their kids’ sports.
“I can think of a lot more worse things you could invest your money in than on your kid,” said Hormann, who is also the head baseball coach at Lutheran High School. “That’s up to the parents. No one is forcing them to do this. People invest a lot of money in other spheres of development for their kids (like private education and music), and it doesn’t get a bad reputation like travel ball does.
“Every parent is searching for something for their kid to excel in. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
Higher talent, more opportunity
Judging by the metric of author Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000-rule — “achievement is talent plus preparation,” Gladwell wrote in his 2008 book “Outliers” — travel youth sports should theoretically increase the overall skill level of athletes across the board by the time they reach high school and college.
Travel athletes usually put in more time in their sport than non-travel athletes. They are usually playing far more games (though there is a counterpoint to be had about whether they are playing too many games, and not practicing enough). And, while the talent of the club sphere across all sports has been diluted because of the excessive amount of “elite” teams traveling, the travel athletes generally have more opportunities to face the highest-level competition for their age group.
So whether it be America’s pastime, baseball, or the world’s most popular sport, soccer, the rise of the youth sports industrial complex and its corresponding early-age specialization has had ripple effects on the talent at the highest levels of sport. Athletes today are generally faster, stronger and more skilled than past generations; this complex formula involves many factors such as sport science, nutrition and technology, but the increased professionalization of youth sports has also surely played a part.
“There’s certainly still improvement that we all want to do and we all want to make, but I think there’s no question that the quality of players that have come out of youth soccer has continued to increase year over year over year because of the professionalization of the club soccer structure (in the U.S.),” said Elite Clubs National League president Christian Lavers.
Beyond that raised bar, there is now a door of opportunity more open than in the past, provided you have the money to walk through it.
There are camps with pro athletes and pro coaches. There are clubs run by former pros. There are private lessons taught by former pros and accomplished ex-college players. There are year-round academies that cater to specialization. There is a wealth of experience and knowledge ready to be tapped into at every turn.
Mark LaRusso, a hockey dad who also serves as the commissioner of the Colorado Recreational Hockey League, has witnessed the dilution of talent among Colorado AAA travel teams, the parent egos that drive the industry, and the NHL pipe dreams that run rampant among parents.
But he admits there’s also another side to it, “because there’s a lot of good kids that want to just be better at their sport” by embracing the opportunities afforded to them.
LaRusso’s son works at the Ignite Hockey summer camps run by Colorado Avalanche skills coach Mark Popovic. At those camps, which are invite-only and billed as “the premier summer training program for elite hockey development,” players get to learn from the same coach who works with some of the best players in the world, such as Avs center Nathan MacKinnon.
“That was not around a handful of years ago,” LaRusso said. “And there’s a lot of programs like that run by ex-NHL guys who are here in Colorado. So if you’ve got the cash and you want to get better and your kid has a desire to get better, there’s a lot of things you can do now that are open and available to people that were definitely not (a couple decades ago). The professional coaching experience has come to the youth ranks.”
Drew Miller, whose son Oliver Miller was a star lineman at Cherry Creek and now plays for Kansas State, estimates he spent about $80,000 over the last three-and-a-half years for camps, recruiting trips and other private training for Oliver.
Drew said he would “absolutely” do it again and saw favorable results from Oliver’s teammates as well — players who didn’t all go Division I but found college opportunities because of the investment their parents made.
“Even those who were on the edge (of not getting recruited), those who treated it right and made a commitment to the whole process — for those kids, it paid off for them,” Drew Miller said.
Logan Cary is another one of those athletes for whom the club experience paid off.
Cary, a Rock Canyon volleyball star who was the 2026 Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year, earned a full-ride scholarship to San Diego State. The setter played club volleyball from 10 years old all the way through high school, traveling out-of-state for tournaments about four times a year starting at age 12.
“Club really helped bring a lot of competition to my play,” Cary said. “I was able to face teams and players from other states that had higher levels than Colorado. That experience and the constant work, it really helped me become the player that I am and get out (to SDSU).”
Cary noticed that competing for the top-tier Front Range Volleyball Club was starting to separate her from her peers around the start of high school. She believes she wouldn’t have become the caliber of player she is without her club, nor have gotten a college scholarship.
As is the case in many sports, all of her recruiting – both being seen by college coaches and direct contact with those recruiters – came from the club sphere. The end result gave her family a payoff for the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on travel volleyball over the years.
“I’ve always been super grateful for my parents for their support in me doing what I love,” Cary said. “As long as I love it and I’m willing to put in the work for it, they were happy to help me out. And in the end, because it got me a college scholarship, we just really felt that it was all worth it.”
Investment in character, experiences
Beyond the field of play, parents see the high cost of travel sports as a long-term investment in their child’s life outside of athletics.
Dustin Baldwin, whose son Bret plays travel baseball and is committed to the University of Washington, is a senior at Ralston Valley. But Dustin didn’t view paying tens of thousands of dollars over the years for travel ball as a way for Bret to obtain a college scholarship.
“I didn’t look at it from the standpoint of trying to invest money now to decrease money later,” Baldwin explained. “It was more of, coming from my military background, that I just really want to bring up a good man with a strong work ethic. And if baseball could be the conduit to get him there, then I’m happy to pay it.”
Joe Amorosa — the wrestling dad whose cognitive dissonance with travel sports was profiled in Part I of this series — added that even though he has since changed his outlook on how to approach the sport for his son, he doesn’t have any second thoughts about traveling the country for tournaments.
“I’m not going to say it’s wrong or that we regret having fun and getting him really good at the sport,” Amorosa said. “And (in retrospect) I feel like the hamster wheel of a grind was less of a grind because it was so fun and we were enjoying it.”
In that vein, there is the argument to be made that, regardless of the development or recruiting value of traveling for club sports, many enjoy doing so because it serves the purpose of valuable family time.
Whether it’s spending all day at a tournament, packing the SUV for a road trip to another part of the state or getting on an airplane together, Lavers sees value in travel sports outside of what occurs within the field of play.
In this way, think of the club sports organizations as niche travel agencies.
“I do not think we should be telling people, ‘You do not get to travel’ or, ‘You are not allowed to travel because your kid is not good enough,’” Lavers said. “When people come to their club and say, ‘I want to play soccer,’ or they want to play any sport for that matter, the club tries to provide that service.
“Travel should ideally be done when people want to do it, and when it has high value. You do not need to travel just to travel. But I think if you’re being honest about the level of the player and the service that is being provided, it’s like anything else — people make a decision to say that’s worthwhile for my kid to do because of the overall experience.”
Examples of that experience-driven model can be seen in Colorado, which hosts two of the country’s biggest and best softball tournaments: the Colorado 4th of July Sparkler and the Independence Day Tournament. The Sparkler draws over 1,100 teams from ages 10U to 18U, while the invite-only IDT is 14U to 18U and fields 216 teams. The draw for teams and families is high-level softball, and recruiting opportunities for the older players, but it’s also Colorado for out-of-towners.
On the baseball side, the Cooperstown Dreams Park baseball tournament is a nationally marquee event at the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It has become a rite of passage for 12U travel teams. At a minimum, that tournament is about $1,500 per player, not including airfare and the hotel for the player’s family.
“I go back and forth (on travel sports for young kids) — just because you’re not a professional baseball player, do you not deserve to go experience some cool tournaments and locations with your family?” posed Mike Vavra, a softball parent and baseball coach who runs Locker Room Sports in Parker. “There’s a lot of aspects of those trips outside (of the games) that is a big appeal for families to spend that money.”
On top of that, Hormann argues that “people mistake club baseball with elite baseball.” He says that just because a kid is on a team that plays in local tournaments or travels out of state doesn’t necessarily mean he’s among the best in his age group or will even be a future varsity player in high school.
But the possibility of those two things becoming true should motivate players and clubs alike, albeit at a high price.
“Just because you’re on a club baseball team does not mean you’re an elite baseball player,” Hormann said. “It means you want to become an elite baseball player or your parents want you to become an elite baseball player.
“… You have to have a mindset like an elite player. You have to love the sport like an elite player. There are tons of kids out there that want to be great at baseball. Our job as club coaches and club organizations is to teach them how to become great. I know there’s negative connotations about club, but I think the thought processes of most club baseball organization owners are, ‘How can I help this young man achieve his goal?’”
Whatever side of the fence you fall on — what whatever you make of the often conflicting ideals in American youth travel sports that will be analyzed in Part IV of this series — everyone interviewed for this series agreed with longtime youth hockey director Tyson Davis’ sentiment that “youth sports can still be a great thing.”
“My hockey tagline I learned many years ago is, ‘A kid on ice is not in hot water,” Davis said. “So I still believe truly in that and keeping kids active and busy and doing constructive things. All the values of team sports can still be there once the game begins, regardless of whether you’re playing rec or travel.”
READ PART IV NEXT: Coach: Youth sports have been irreversibly changed by money and expectations, but they’re still great
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