How to Organize a Travel Baseball Team

Travel baseball teams seek out competition in a variety of areas outside their immediate location. Travel teams typically play in tournaments where top-notch competition is available, primarily as a means of exposing players to the best possible opponents so they can develop and improve at a faster rate. Most travel baseball teams play during the summer, after the traditional spring baseball season. Some teams travel throughout their state or region, others travel across the nation and some even take international trips. Organizing your travel baseball team starts with a decision about what type of traveling you intend to do.

Instructions

1

Decide on a few specific target locations before you begin assembling your team. Having a goal in mind for specific tournaments can help when it comes to recruiting players, since you'll be able to give prospective team members an idea up front of what exactly they're getting into and where they might be going during the season.

2

Crunch the numbers to determine approximate costs for your traveling squad, taking into account areas such as transportation, lodging, food, equipment, uniforms and rental fees for any practice facilities you might use. The goal is to get an idea of how much money you'll need to fund your team for the entire season.

3

Figure out how much of the total funds needed for your travel baseball team throughout the season will come from fund-raising, how much can be attained through sponsorships and how much will need to be provided by the players themselves. Having approximate amounts will also help you when it comes to signing up players, since you'll be able to give them an idea of how much money they might need to contribute.

4

Seek out coaches from area baseball clubs, including school teams and any practice facilities --- such as batting cages ---that might offer ongoing lessons. These coaches can help give you an idea of players who might be interested in joining your team, and might be willing to help you spread the word that you're looking for players.

5

Schedule formal tryout sessions to attract potential players and give you a chance to assess talent. You can do this at an area baseball field or park where you've got enough room to run the players through various drills and show what they can do.

6

Run advertisements in local newspapers and on any websites, such as Craigslist.com, that might help you get the word out about your new team and any scheduled tryout sessions. Include information in your advertisements about likely tournament locations, to help attract and inform potential players.