This is just my opinion and you can throw it out with the dirty dishwater if you wish, but I think most traveling teams are simply the parents trying to relive their own youth vicariously through their kids. "My kid has got to get good enough to get a college scholarship." A very small percentage (probably less than 5%) ever do. Many parents are pushing their kids in that direction because they think the kid will someday go pro and make lots of money to support mom and dad in their dotage. Even fewer are good enough to go pro. Your "travel team money" would be better spent to put in some kind of interest bearing account to build a college fund for your kid.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against sports. I started going out for basketball in the 4th grade and played all the way through high school. After high school I played on a couple of independent teams for fun but I never had any illusions about it paying for college or anything else. No one enjoyed basketball more than me but the only starting lineup I ever made was JV. Of course, it didn't help that my dad was not on the local school board and he thought church, feeding cows and hogs, and getting a crop in the ground were more important than basketball. :-)