Around the country many students compete in one of their school’s sports. A lot of them succeed and do very well, and want to take their game to the next level. One of the most popular and easiest way to step up a game is playing travel sports.

If a kid truly loves a sport they are willing to play all year around and give up some of their life to the sport. It takes a commitment to go multiple days a week to their sports practices and games. Sometimes traveling hours just to get to the practices, and especially being prepared to travel hours for the games and tournaments that their team would compete in. It takes away a lot of the free time that one would have. That time can even be taken away from school. Kids have to find certain times that they can do their homework and get all of their assignments in. Especially if you are a multi-sport athlete. Your travel and school sport can sometimes overlap, where you have to decide what you can and cannot go to, or depending on the time of the practices, going to both.

Alex Dubbs, sophomore, “It is relatively difficult to deal with all the work to say the least, but the main reason I am able to handle it is because of maintaining a proper schedule and knowing what I have and when, whether it’s travel soccer or school extracurriculars.”

Being organized and responsible are some of the most important things that any travel athlete needs. For a lot of the kids taking the commitment to play a travel sport, grades matter. It takes a lot of responsibility and organization for these athletes to get all of their work in. Finding the time to do homework on top of all the other random things that one has to do at home is truly challenging.

There is a lot of upside to playing travel sports as well. Mostly all of the athletes that are playing outside of school are very talented. To play for a travel team you need to try out for the team. That means you are competing for a spot against all of these other really committed athletes. If you want to make the team you need to be good at the sport you play and need to be committed to trying your hardest all the time. Travel sports honestly also make you better than you already were. Surrounding yourself with committed talented players helps a lot. You are also getting an advantage because you are playing the sport the whole year. Most people only play in season, and will get rusty in the off season. For the travel athletes they cannot get rusty or they will fall behind all of the other kids that they are playing with. Experience is also a key part of being a successful athlete. Travel gives all of these kids ten times more experience than the average highschool athlete.

Hannah Leininger, sophomore, “I would say travel sports make me a better player because it allows me to work on my skills and make myself better on what I need to work on. As well as playing more allows me to know more of the game and learn different things to make me be a better player and to compete at any level. Travel helps a lot to make you better because you’re facing all different types of players and you can get a feel for what any level feels like.”