Caitlin Voss's and Jeana Carrillo's summers mainly come down to two words - travel ball.

Carrillo was the Santa Maria Times' All-Area Softball Team MVP in 2008 as a Lompoc High School pitcher. She'll be back at Lompoc next school year. Voss is a standout catcher at St. Joseph. Both play for the Oxnard-based California Waves 18-Under Gold squad.

The Waves are a premier travel ball team consisting of some of the best high school softball players on the Central Coast from Arroyo Grande south to Lompoc. The team plays a heavy travel ball schedule.

“During the summer season we're gone eight out of nine weekends,” said Tim Voss. He is Caitlin's father and one of the team managers. Jess Hernandez is the Waves' coach.

Tim Voss said that besides the summer season, “During fall ball, most weekends we're gone again and there's some travel thrown in. If we have an occasional off weekend, we have practice,” in Oxnard, which means a long commute for a lot of the team's players.

“There are basically three seasons a year - the summer season, fall ball and then high school ball,” said Tim Voss.

Many prominent area players play for the Waves including Voss's St. Joseph teammates Kailey Snyder and Mariah Cochiolo; Arroyo Grande graduate Krissy MacKiewicz; Crystal Hernandez of Pioneer Valley; Alyssa Abayari of Cabrillo; and Caydi Dommeyer, who just graduated from Santa Ynez. MacKiewicz will attend George Washington University in the fall. Dommeyer will go to Cal State Monterey Bay.

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Carrillo has been playing travel ball since she played for the Lompoc Bombers' 12-and-Under Division team. “The traveling does get tiring,” she acknowledged.

The payoff? Exposure, and lots of it, for players in front of hundreds of college and university coaches.

“I've been playing travel ball for almost two years,” said Caitlin Voss. “I knew that our local teams wouldn't get me seen by college coaches.”

The senior-to-be has already spoken with two schools, although “nothing serious yet,” she said. “There are a couple of coaches who have been watching me for a couple series. I've talked to Humboldt State, and Dickinson State in North Dakota.”

Hernandez will be in his fourth season with the Waves when the squad's 2008 fall ball campaign starts. The first showcase on the Waves' fall schedule is the R&R Gold Showcase in September.

Hernandez said, “I started coaching this team after my daughter Jacquelyn graduated.” He chuckled. “I actually prefer it that way.” Jess said Jacquelyn Hernandez is attending Bethany College in Kansas.

“I was coaching a younger team in the area when Jacquelyn was playing for this one,” said Jess Hernandez. “Robert Ives, who was a manager for this team, asked me to coach here,” and the Waves' 18-Under current manager accepted.

“We focus on getting girls exposed at showcases,” said Hernandez. “We write to schools with the possible lead of getting letters (to players) with academic or athletic offers.”

In fact, part of an e-mail the team sent announcing fall ball tryouts read “Team (sic) main focus is getting the girls to the right softball exposure events and to assist them to receive Academic and Athletic Scholarships (caps the team's).”

Hernandez said, “In high school, players don't get seen at all unless you're down the street from UCLA and a coach happens to watch - and you're playing the same time they're playing.”

Hernandez said the Waves have already played in the biggest showcase event of the year. That was in Colorado earlier this summer.

“Colorado is the main event,” the coach said. “Between the Independence and Fireworks Showcases - we played in the Fireworks in Aurora, the Independence is in Boulder - the Colorado one is the biggest showcase one. Hundreds of coaches from colleges from all over were there.

“You basically get invited a year in advance. In October of this year, we'll be notified of the acceptance for us for next year.”

Carrillo said that although the travel can get draining, “That's what you have to do to play the better teams, down south, out of state, so it's worth it.”

Arm fatigue? “Practicing, yeah, the arm does get sore,” said Carrillo. “Games, not so much.”

At times, “We have five-hour practices every other Sunday,” Carrillo said.

She pitches from three feet farther back from home plate once she starts travel ball.

“First time out - everything in the dirt,” said Carrillo. “After that I was able to adjust.”

With so much travel to do and so much cost to lay out, “We try to make our softball kind of like our family vacations, only without my brothers,” said Caitlin Voss. “Me, my mom and dad all go. It kind of takes up a lot of money, so we make the best of it.”

Carrillo said it takes “an $800 fee,” to play for the Waves. A big cost remedy, she said “is the money calendar.”

The pitcher said, “They cost $25. Every day they raffle off a number,” for winnings. “You can also win money for the team. If you win, you can come back and try to win again.”

Carrillo said Tim Voss prints the money calendars out. “It's no problem at all to do it,” he said.

Both said the money calendar was a cost savior for the team. “Money calendars help pay for a lot of the travel stuff,” said Carrillo. “I sell the money calendar mostly to my family, my parents' co-workers.”

Besides the money calendars, “We host a friendly for our younger bracket (Waves) players, the 12-and-under, 14-and-under teams as a fundraiser in the fall,” said Caitlin Voss. “We work the snack bar, things like that. The friendly is in Oxnard.”

Carrillo and Caitlin Voss both said all the playing and practice travel ball entails has not meant injury trouble for them.

In fact, “We've actually been very fortunate, knock on wood,” said Tim Voss. “We've had bumps and bruises. We've never had any major injuries since I've been with the Waves.

“Part of it is good training methods. The kids keep themselves in shape. Part of it is knowing how to play the game. They've all been playing since they were eight years old. It's a matter of not running the bases wrong, etc.”

He continued, “Caitlin got me started in this. Fall ball will start my third season with the team. It does get draining, very tiring. I know the girls are ready to call it a day after the most recent practice. It's lots of ball, lots of tournaments.”

But, “I think the payoff is well worth it.”

Caitlin Voss said she will play from August to early November. “Then I'll take a month off for Christmas. We might do a friendly in January. In February, practice (for the high school season) starts. We're always practicing with the team.”

For all that expense, travel and work, “I think the trade off is worth it,” Caitlin Voss said. “My parents think it's worth it.

“Even though my parents are paying a lot of money now, hopefully they won't be paying a lot in the future,” when Caitlin starts college with, she hopes, a scholarship.

Sports writer Kenny Cress can be reached at 739-2237 or by e-mail to kcress@santamariatimes.com

August 08, 2008