Luther wrote:If my DD was in 12u I would struggle a bit with this decision.
It is nice to have PGF locally but travelling to Nationals in some awful place has been part of the travel ball exerience that my DD enjoyed.
I think that 10u and 12u should still be about the experience and 14u should start focusing more on the exposure and competition.
Ultimately, it will be the coaches decision on where to go, Illinois or HB, personally I'm conflicted.
I moan and groan about traveling to Hot Hellhole's like Tennessee or Alabama, but the DD enjoys
it. Sure would be nice to hop on the 405.
IMO, ultimately, even at 10u and 12U it IS about the competition, who are the best teams? From what I
have seen in only a few years of travel is that even at Nationals, the majority (in 10U 90%, at 12U ,what 70%?)
of teams in the final 8 or final 16 are from SoCal. It seemed somewhat anticlimactic to be playing teams
you play every weekend. If thats the case, shoot, I'd much rather play those teams locally as opposed to
Moline. Still, my question remains, will teams from out of state want to come to SoCal at that age level and
face the competition if awarded the opportunity?