Horsham Hounds Travel Baseball "Hounds" is a non-profit community organization based in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, PA dedicated to providing the young people in our community the opportunity to learn, play, and enjoy America's Pastime, the great game of baseball.

Hounds provide a travel baseball program that is available to all registered players. Players are selected based on tryouts and teams are selected to play baseball at the highest competitive level for youth baseball. Participating in travel baseball requires a significant time commitment and an earnest dedication to learning and playing baseball, at both the individual and team level. Travel baseball often involves year-round participation in training and game play. Travel baseball also requires a financial commitment whereby typical player costs start around $225 and can increase significantly depending on the number of tournaments and additional training that a team may participate in.

Travel baseball is a program run by Horsham Hounds and not governed by Horsham Little League Baseball. The program is wholly funded and directed by Hounds and is governed by a Horsham Hounds Travel Board of Directors. All age groups, teams play in the spring Suburban Travel Baseball League (STBL), which fields teams mostly from Bucks County, Montgomery County, and New Jersey. Typical travel times for regular league play are no more than 45 minutes from our home field (Deep Meadow Park).

Hounds will typically field as many travel teams in an age group as there are enough qualified players and coaches interested in the given age group. In some cases, teams may be split into "A" and "B" rosters depending on experience and current skill levels. Skill levels and growth in youth baseball can vary significantly from year to year, so it is not uncommon for selected players to move from one roster to another within their age group for a given year as their skill levels are assessed.

2017 TRAVEL AGE CUTOFFS

SUBURBAN TRAVEL LEAGUE

To find out more information about the Suburban Travel league, visit their website.

TRAVEL BASEBALL GOALS AND GUIDELINES

The following are general goals and guidelines that Hounds strives to meet. For specific details, please contact the Director of Travel:

• The travel baseball program is intended to provide a challenging competitive baseball environment where players can significantly increase their development of individual and team skills while also attempting to achieve a winning record in game play.

• Positional Play – In the younger age groups ( 8 & 9 year olds), players often are rotated through different positions to allow players to develop and learn the game. In the older age groups (10, 11, & 12), more emphasis is usually given for players to concentrate on two or three positions for which the player is more suited to.

• Pitching – Hounds considers the development of pitching critical to team success. An emphasis is made to develop as many pitchers on a team as possible. To protect against injury, Hounds will adhere to the In-House League pitch count guidelines.

• Age Group Play-up – In general, Hounds discourages age group play-up, as playing up to the next older age group can be disruptive to both the age group where the player’s age falls and the group which the player is requesting play-up to. A potential travel player that is interested in playing up an age group must request this from the President of Travel prior to tryouts and will be evaluated in a tryout format to determine if the player is suitable for play-up. It is only possible to play-up to an "A" roster - no play-up requests will be granted to play-up to a "B" team. After tryouts are completed, if the "A" coach selects a player who has requested to play-up, the final approval must be granted by the Horsham Hounds Travel Board. The board’s decision will rest entirely on what is best for the player involved and if playing up will help or impede their development as a complete player.

• In-House Play – Travel players are required to play in the spring In-House league (Horsham Little League) as required by Hounds (and our affiliation with STBL). Play in the In-House league is intended to provide additional experience and game play where travel players can practice new skills and techniques without the pressure of travel league game play. Travel players are expected to be good role models to non-travel players and should help non-travel players learn and enjoy the game wherever possible.