turned down every offer for our boys to be on travel teams. It just wasn't an option, especially with the Sunday play requirements.

Our boys ended up playing multiple sports and usually were MVP or made the all star teams. Baseball, football, basketball, rugby, lacrosse, track, cross country...they did it all. But even though one of the best at the community level, you could tell they quickly fell behind many of those that were on the travel teams.

While a number of my sons played high school sports, only one was really successful..ironically the least athletic of them all. He ended up being an all-state cross country and track runner, but never got fast enough to make it on the BYU team. A 4:22 mile is about 15 seconds too slow for BYU.

Sometimes I wonder how things would have been different if they had joined a travel team, but really have no regrets. After all...my wife is 5'3" and I am 5'7". My sons were never going to have the genes needed to go far in basketball or football. Only one of them had the real skills to be a star, but a rare shoulder malady sidelined his baseball career way too early and being on a travel team wouldn't have changed that.