The 2026–27 Redbirds: Nine Teams, Every Age Group

Nine Redbirds teams take the field this season, covering every age group from 7U through 13U.

Where an age group carries two teams, that is not a first team and a second team. It is two rosters, two coaching staffs and two schedules, and both wear the same bird.

The teams

7U Baby Birds — Ashley Freeman
Where it starts. First travel ball, and the first place a Redbird learns that practice has a purpose.

8U Redbirds — Ryan Simoneaux
The year the game speeds up. Real pitching, real defense, and the habits that carry into every season after it.

9U Black — Lorne Ballard
9U Red — Matthew Stigler

10U Black — Ryan Calub
10U Reds — Eric Franklin

12U Black — Eric Franklin
12U Red — Chris Willis

13U Redbirds — Eric Franklin
The oldest group in the program, and the one the younger Redbirds watch.

Full rosters, coaches and team pages

What every one of them is working from

The same four things, whatever the age group.

Development first

Wins follow players who get better. We coach the swing, the footwork and the read — and we would rather lose a game teaching something than win one hiding it.

Compete with everyone

We do not duck anybody. The way to find out where a team stands is to play the teams that are better than it, and then go again.

Character matters

How a Redbird carries themselves after a strikeout says more about this program than the scoreboard does. Hats off, hands shaken, dugout cleaned.

Family

A travel ball season is long and it is expensive and it eats weekends. It is worth it when the family in the next chair becomes somebody you would call. That is the part we are most protective of.

Development. Competition. Character. Family.

Getting in

Pre-season tryouts have closed and these rosters are set, but tryouts come round again each summer and every age group takes players. If you have a kid who wants this, put your name on the list and a coach will be in touch when the next round opens — the fields are at Woodlake Park in Kenner and practices are open, so bring a chair and watch one first if you would rather.

BIRDGANG.