Welcome to Horner Park Highlanders Baseball Travel & All-star program! For those of you new to travel baseball or new to our all-star baseball program, please find below, information to help you learn about our competitive summer baseball program.
Eligibility:
Travel: Any player willing to travel within the community and surrounding suburbs to play baseball with a possible out of state tournament.
All-star: Any player playing in the Horner Park house league and willing to travel out of Horner Park.
Coaches:
The travel & all-star coaches are recommended by the travel director. At the end of each year, Managers will sit down with the travel director and evaluate the past season, including reviewing comments from parents’ surveys.
Tryouts:
Players should plan to participate on all scheduled tryout days for their age group. If a player cannot make all days, you must contact the coach for your age group in advance to let them know why. In travel & all-star baseball, not all players will make the team, some players will be cut. Players will be evaluated in hitting, pitching, fielding, throwing and base running. Rosters will be selected by the head coach based on the players’ skill assessment ratings along with specific needs of the team.
Commitment:
The travel program is competitive-level baseball, which requires a commitment from both the player and the player’s family. The All-star program is made of players from the Horner Park house league. Tryouts are usually held at the Managers discretion. Practices start in late fall/early winter for most teams. (Depending on the coach & teams) Most teams will begin their summer season in late February/early March. Tournaments usually begin the first week of May, and generally conclude Labor Day weekend. (Again, this is based on individual teams and age groups) From mid-May through early August, players and families should expect to practice and or play games multiple times during the week and multiple games on the weekend. We try to be flexible and work with other spring activities, but Spring/Summer baseball should be the primary emphasis.
Rosters are kept to a minimum, to maximize playing time during every game. If a player and their family are not willing to make a full-time commitment to the program, they should probably consider just playing in the Horner Park house league.
If you do plan on playing travel or all-star baseball and not making a full-time commitment, your child could be taking a roster spot away from a player who is willing to make a 100% commitment to the program. Missing games could result in less playing time. The intensity of the program depends on the Manager and the collective intentions of the team’s parents.
Expenses of Travel or All-star Baseball:
Expect to spend $300-$1500 per player depending on the age group and the season that each team will have.
Tournaments:
Horner Park Highlanders Baseball teams will participate in our own Horner Park tournaments along with several other tournaments throughout the summer within the community and surrounding suburbs. It is not uncommon to travel out of town for a tournament during the summer, planned at the coach’s discretion. Most ”tournaments” play a minimum of 3 games before the playoff/championship rounds, and it is very possible that multiple games will be scheduled in a single day.
