Travel Registration and Tryout info for the coming season to be posted in early September. Tryouts likely to be held in late Sept and/or early Oct.
As in prior years, all players selected to Travel teams will also be required to play in the Chatham Recreation League (typically Saturday mornings and early afternoons). When players accept a spot on a Travel team, they will be required to register for both Travel and the Chatham Recreation League concurrently. The Travel Team and Chatham Recreation League costs are expected to be similar to the costs in prior years. The Travel Team costs will vary from team to team (based on specific team costs incurred, and wll include costs such as referees fees and tournaments), but are generally expected to be ($200 - $350), plus any uniform costs (if your player requires a new uniform for the season).
There will be up to two Travel teams for each grade for both boys/girls, based on the number of signups.
All players trying out are expected to attend both tryout sessions. The evaluators will primarily be prior year coaches from our program, as well as other volunteers with strong basketball knowledge. The coaches for this year's travel teams will not be chosen until the tryouts are complete and will be announced at the time of team selection.
Due to gym space limitations, our 4th grade Travel Teams will be required to practice mainly in the smaller gyms on off-peak days, often with less notice, and will play most of their games away. Travel Basketball was expanded to include the 4th grade boys/girls in the 2013-14 season. This has been a great success, but we will need to continue to have gym limitations in our 4th grade program (until new facilities are available).
Our Chatham Travel team players will typically have 4 games/practices per week, plus required participation in the Saturday Chatham Recreation League, totalling 4-5 basketball events per week. It is expected Chatham Travel will be your top priority if you try out for a team. We strongly encourage parents/players to look closely at your combined commitment, with school activities and any other athletic activities. Overbooking (then missing games/practices) is unfair to your teammates, coaches, and the players who did not make a travel team. There are many other great programs in the area, as well as other out-of-season sports, but please only tryout if Chatham Travel will be your top priority.
THE CHATHAM TRAVEL TRYOUT PROCESS IS VERY DIFFICULT. Each of our teams will generally have no more than 10-12 players and many players will not make a travel team. There is a high skill level required to make one of the travel teams, particularly in our largest boys groups. We intentionally have tryouts early in the season, so children not making a travel team have time to sign up for other teams/leagues. There are many other teams, both tryout and non-tryout that kids can play on if they don't make one of our travel teams, including our own Chatham Recreation League (which is a non-tryout league open to all Chatham residents; signups will begin for Chatham Recreation League in October).
