2025-26 Sports Travel Schedule
This coming sports season’s travel schedule is coming into focus, and we are going to need a wide angle lens to capture it all.
This coming sports season’s travel schedule is coming into focus, and we are going to need a wide angle lens to capture it all.
On our marks….
It’s always right around this time of year when our family is not only trying to enjoy the few final precious days of summer before talking about the dreaded “back to school” schedule change, but we are looking ahead to the 2025-26 sports season calendar. This year is a doozie (read: borderline insane).
Our daughters Clara (age 14) and Liana (age 13) have been practicing with their competitive cheer teams all summer and our son Van (age 8) has had on and off hockey practices and camps as well. So, true to youth sports in the modern era, there really is no off season. Thankfully, their respective sports and teams do provide weekends completely off during the summers, and the practice schedules are lighter than during the year. Of course, some of that free time is offset by the fact that Clara and Liana are also doing sideline cheer for their schools this year, and Clara (heading into high school) made the school’s competitive cheer team as well. So our summer relaxation and “time off” has really gone in fits and starts.
get set (or ReadySet, if you like puns)….
But if our summer schedule is us just handing out in the surf ⛱️, a tidal wave is forming on the horizon 🌊. We’ve gotten Van’s hockey tournament schedule for the year, and Clara and Liana’s cheer teams have released their competition schedules. This year, in total, at least some portion of our family will be taking no less than 13 sports trips from September through April. The chronological list of destinations is as follows 🗺️
September - Van in Rochester, NY for the Just Get Good Earlybird Tournament 🚙
October - Van in Erie, PA 🚙
November - Van in Jamestown, NY 🚙
December - Clara and Liana in Louisville, KY for World Spirit Federation 🚙
December - Van in Detroit, MI for the International Stars Tournament 🚙
January - Clara and Liana in Charlotte, NC for Spirit of Hope Competition 🚙
January - Van in Buffalo, NY 🚙
January - Clara in Orlando, FL for High School Nationals ✈️
February - Van in Cleveland, OH for the Cleveland Showcase 🚙
February - Clara in Houston, TX for NCA (National Cheerleaders Association) ✈️
March - Clara and Liana in Columbus, OH for COA Grand Nationals 🚙
March - Liana in Ocean City, MD for Reach the Beach All-Star Nationals 🚙
April - Clara and Liana in Orlando, FL for Summit ✈️
And this is just the “away” stuff. Fill in the other weekends with home games and cheer competitions as well, and we’ve got what you might say is a full plate. In years past, we have tried as much as we could to go on these trips as a family. I even missed one of Van’s first hockey games a few years ago (and his first goal!) because he stayed behind with my parents when me, Lauren and all the girls went to Louisville for cheer. We try as much as we can to bring everyone if possible, especially if the calendar has on it places we or the kids have never been before.
But this year hits different ⚠️. Logistically, I don’t know that we can all make the trip to each of these places. Financially, I KNOW that we cannot all make the trip to each of these places. Somehow not one of these trips overlaps with any other. So we may be in a true “divide and conquer” year.
Go?
We’ve got about 11,760 total miles to cover across 9 states and 13 sports trips this coming year 🚙 ✈️ We aren’t looking for sympathy; we choose this. We encourage our kids to find what they love, and when they find that, to do it to the best of their ability and to take advantage of opportunities where presented.
That’s gotten them, so far, on some pretty great teams and taken us to some pretty great places. It’s also formed some pretty great memories and taught some important lessons along the way. Yes, it is time consuming and yes, it is too expensive. But it can be those things and also be worth it. And it is.
