Rhino Baseball Travel Program

“I’ve had 3 kids play or currently play for Rhino starting at the age of 7. The facilities are second to none in the Chicagoland area. Yes- tough to get the field during the season peak hours, but mornings, late evenings, and weekends are accessible. It’s a great to have the facility in the offseason as there’s always field and cage availability. Additonally- it’s only for Rhino teams and players. Cages are usually always available as they have plenty of tunnels. Overall facilities are well maintained and a huge advantage for Rhino. The offseason fall and winter workouts are great for getting offseason instruction and reps and have improved immensely over the past 4 years (I believe they’ve done a great job of taking parent feedback). No other baseball program offers this at no additional cost… Of course you pay more for the facility and instruction, nearly $4k for 9u- 14u (before unis and tourneys). However I believe other private orgs are similar with way less in terms of offseason instruction and facilities. The instructors have also gotten much better over the years with legit instructors with bonafides. The in season experience will ALWAYS depend on your coach. All the typical travel ball antics can happen as each of our coaches have had their strengths and weaknesses, but overall we’ve had positive experiences. I’ve heard some stories on other teams that make me question some of the decision making at the leadership level, but nothing egregious- and overall they care about development. Ultimately, it’s also a business and Rhino seems to be bringing in more teams at each level. Hope it’s doesn’t start to reflect what I see at other nearby orgs with half a dozen teams at each level and renting the field out to flag football and other teams. Pricing continues to increase each year, but so do groceries. The cost of travel anything is a shame anyhow so not just a Rhino issue. My honest opinion is there’s a lot of love about Rhino with a few flaws that I believe they continuously work to improve. ”

“As a parent of two boys who played in the program, I wanted to share my honest experience. We ultimately left, but the biggest reason was simply the distance from our home—not because of the quality of the program. Rhino is an elite organization that will absolutely challenge talented players. My boys were 7 and 8 when they played there, and they grew tremendously during their time in the program. We moved to a team much closer to home, and the difference in the level of instruction, expectations, and overall development was noticeable. The facilities are outstanding—easily some of the best you’ll find. One thing I really appreciated was that, during the offseason, they regularly brought in professional trainers who were engaged and actually coached the kids. They weren’t just standing around running drills—they taught, corrected, and helped the players improve, and it showed. If I had one critique, it’s at the younger ages with some of the dad-coached teams. It felt like the lineup and player roles were already decided, even at 8 years old. If your child was viewed as more of a developmental player, the expectation seemed to be that they should move to a lower-level team. Personally, I think that’s a little early to have that mindset with 8- and 9-year-olds, when kids are still developing so quickly. That said, I genuinely believe the owners care about the kids and about building a top-level program. It’s competitive, well-run, and committed to player development. If the location had been more convenient for our family, I would have loved for my boys to continue playing there.”

“We just finished our 3rd year at rhino and will be returning for a 4th. Our son started there during his 10u season and he has loved it. The cost is definitely high but you get a lot in return. Their off season program is run by paid coaches from September through February. It is structured very well and the coaches actually coach rather than just standing around watching kids go through drills like other programs in the area. You receive full access to the facility from, I believe 6am-11pm with your personal access code and the facility is absolutely top notch. I don’t think you will find many, if any, other programs that will give your child the opportunity for as many reps as Rhino does. Definitely none in the Shorewood/joliet/minooka area. ”

“Never any open field time for teams to run practice. They rather put the college and high school kids over everyone else. No professional coaching. Extremely expensive for lack of availability on all ends.”

“Wouldn't recommend this organization to anyone. The soon to be 9U coach is a complete narcissist. Goes into game changer and changes all the stats on his kid to make him look better and delegates all of his child's errors to other kids on the team. So if you get picked and join watch your stats because he will change them. Also 4k for an 8 year old to play baseball?!? When we get absolutely NOTHING. We were told multiple times by our current coach who BTW is fantastic that we would be getting coached by instructors and we received that maybe 2 times and always had to combine our practice times with 7U. Maybe had an hour to practice total because we had to share. They always gave the field times to the older kids as in high school and college. So our kids hardly got to actually use this facility that we pay for. Even though we have 24 hour access what 8 year old is going to be able to go practice at 11pm?! The list goes on and on so do yourself a favor and find someplace else to go. ZERO STARS”