After years of loyalty to KidSports--countless seasons, coaching sports, summer camps, and sacrificing our personal time--we've had enough. We officially pulled our kids out. We stood up to the negativity towards KidSports for years. We spent hours prepping practices, sacrificed weekends, and even paid out of pocket for supplies like cones and pinnies. But what finally broke us was KidSports' blatant disregard for the safety and respect of women and children. A female coach was relentlessly harassed by a handful of men--verbally abusive, degrading, and completely inappropriate. KidSports' response? "Thanks for the feedback." Thanks, Alan. A father left threatening voicemails and emails for the same coach. KidSports' response? "Hopefully they got it out of their system." Seriously? Reports of a male coach behaving inappropriately with 5- and 6-year-old girls? KidSports' response? Silence. What happened to KidSports? It used to be a place where kids thrived and families felt safe. Now? They're allowing men--coaches and parents alike--to harass, threaten, and intimidate women and ignore inappropriate behavior around young girls. It's wild. I never used to read reviews, but after our experience, I did--and the amount of families reporting the same issues with misogyny and neglect is staggering. How do we get KidSports to listen? How can they be so indifferent? It's beyond unsettling. We're out. But what about the families still putting their trust in KidSports? They deserve better. Side Note - Ty in the equipment room is always friendly and helpful. read more

DON'T SIGN YOUR KIDS UP FOR SOCCER with KIDSports. You've been warned. We've been burnt twice. Hand over your money, they will tell you a schedule days before you're supposed to show up if you're lucky-- that's not even the bad part that's just standard. If you're not lucky, your kid's team won't have a volunteer coach and they won't get to play at all, but they'll tell you at the last minute. We were told we could take our kid to his brother's team who is a year ahead, only to have him practice with them and get to know people and be told the next day that he can't because the roster was full and they didn't catch that when they told him he could play. Even though only half the roster of kids showed up anyway. I'm sorry but how do you mess with little kids like this who just wanted to play a fun game with their friends after a year of being kept at home? Maybe kidsports shouldn't have spent all that money in a new facility if they can't even hire a high school kid to coach a team of seven year olds. Now I'm out $80 for a kid who just wanted a soccer team to play on this spring and have to deal with his tears of disappointment too- how can this organization even exist? What a headache it has been, so unnecessarily. Not the first time it's happened to us either-- paid for two kids to be part of a 4-5 year old team and no coach ever showed up at all for it, even though they never told families and we were all gathered at the field and had to coach the kids ourselves after we figured no one was coming. What a shame kidsports is. read more

So disappointing. Be prepared to coach every single sport your kid wants to play. KidSports only utilizes volunteers to coach, even though every participant pays to play. If you happen to work outside of the home and can't be available to coach one season, be prepared for a super disappointed kid as the practices will be in the middle of your work day! However, the staff at KidSports is super helpful with suggestions like - maybe your 7 year old can get themselves to practice 6 miles away. If you have to drop the season becasue you can't make practices in the middle of the day, KidSport will refund you - of course they keep a large amount of the original fee. I guess to make double sure you feel punished. Are club sport more expensive - YES - BUT WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY. DO NOT UTILIZE KIDSPORT. Their motto of "Every kid plays" couldnt be more untrue. Shame of you KidSports. read more

Eugene Kidsports has always been providing the one team for ALL kids! Not every youngster can or will "make the team" at their school and then they learn the disappointment of not seeing their name on the list of the fellow students who were selected to play. Kidsports does use volunteers of course and even if the volunteers were not great athletes they work hard at teaching kids what being on a team is like and what good sportsmanship is! Parents should ask the coaches what, if anything they can do to help the coach and the team. Many years later, I look back to my time coaching kids and every once in a while I get a former kid (now an adult) who will remember the team I coached and they played on and they say hello and how much they enjoyed and learned on our teams read more

My son has a great coach, but it is obvious that Kidsports seeds the teams with the better students, through the classic "good old boy" system. (Of course Kidsports will deny this, as an organization...However former coaches and parents tell the truth on this.) So, if you want to have your child's team demoralized watching the opposing team run up the score up with a 40 point separation and have your child want to give up on the sport they are playing, sign them up. If you want to see your child lose interest in a game they used to love, sign them up today. read more

I moved to Eugene, OR 10 years ago from the San Francisco Bay Area. I grew up playing sports through my school with the PAL (Peninsula Athletic League) and in the summer through "rec" sports...teams based on the town's Rec Center. So, I assumed when my daughter was old enough to play sports, it'd be directly through her school or our local Rec Center. I soon realized that was not how the Eugene/Springfield area did their sports. Most of the sports are played through Kidsports. And, unless I wanted to shell out a lot more money and have my daughter try out for the more exclusive teams like Eugene Metro Football Club or Eugene Thunder Fastpitch Softball, than my only choice was to sign her up through Kidsports in Eugene, aka Emerald Kidsports. While I understand the discontented and aggrieved review by Jason S., I also wanted to give my review of Emerald Kidsports in Eugene, OR. First off, the parent coaches are there as volunteers. These parents volunteer their precious down time to coach their child's team. Most are hurrying to practices from their 9-5 jobs in order to give their spin on coaching a children's sport. Some teams are fortunate and get parents that know the sport they are coaching, and decide to throw themselves into it and do a great job, while sadly, others "phone it in" and are not the best at coaching a team sport, especially at a child's level. Unfortunately, this is the luck of the draw. If I felt my child was getting the raw end, rather than be upset about it, I'd make it a priority and resolve to coach the following season. Emerald Kidsports is a local non-profit sports program and does not choose teams based on socio-economic boundries. Teams are chosen for the child based on the school the child attends. I agree that there are many underfunded teams in the Eugene/Springfield area. However, if you have a financial burden, Kidsports offers "scholarships" of up to 2/3 off of fees, they also have a "Free" equipment exchange at their Polk St. location that includes cleats! And, on their website, there is a spot where people may "Donate" to Kidsports so that the money can be used to help the "underfunded teams." If a parent would rather not have their child play for a KIDSPORTS team, then we as parents are free to find a "club team." I found several when I Googled, because I wanted to know I had other options. They may not have the exposure Emerald Kidsports has, but they are well known to people that take their children's sports seriously and have the financial means to pay for these teams, and the extremely time consuming effort required of them. It's true that sport schedules are tight, and quite frankly I feel they go by rather quickly. It seems as if one sport season starts and within 8 weeks it's over and another season/sport begins. This again is not the fault of Emerald Kidsports, they follow the pubic school system's calendar. While Emerald Kidsports may not be perfect, I found that many of these other team options are far more expensive, are on a more "year-round" schedule, and require a lot more time and energy from a parent than what Emerald Kidsports requires of me. I, too, like to sit back and cheer on my child's team, however the last couple of years I found myself helping to coach (I did not attend the meetings at Kidsports, I was just a mom that had played the sport, and the head coach needed help). It was extremely fun, but also time consuming, especially for a parent that works full time. I tip my hat to those that volunteer each year and truly do bring the Kidsports Sportsmanship Statement to the pitch/field. When I was younger my parents coached my teams, and I always thought how fun and easy it would be. It's not always as simple as we like to think. While Emerald Kidsports may not be perfect, it does provide sporting teams for children that want to play, and not necessarily throw themselves into the sport thinking they might someday be in the Olympics or on a professional team. Kidsports is for the family that wants their child to enjoy themselves and get some physical activity and maybe grow up to have the same fond memories their parents had of playing organized sports. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. After all, isn't Yelp just that, someone's opinion. I think a person's best bet is to try things out for themselves. No one has the same ideals or expectations as someone else. So, while using Yelp may aid you in your choices, it shouldn't be the definitive reason you DO or DO NOT like something. :) read more

Both my children have had rich experiences and positive, dedicated coaches over the course of 7 years playing with the organization. Kidsports encourages multiple sport participation through designated seasons for each sport, meaning kids get fewer injuries and have less opportunity to burn out. Kidsports is everything that youth sports should be about... sportsmanship, team spirit, and fun! read more

I have daughters that have gone through KIDSPORTS. Both children were quite tall and coordinated at a young age. After dealing with the nightmare that is Beth and Bev, We left and have gone to the YMCA for Basketball. Kidsports will let kids play up if there is an opening. They won't let kids play down if they aren't physically able to play at age level. The result is kids that shouldn't be with kids their age are in a position that is way over their head or in my daughters case she has to listen to parents that are awful say how unfair it is that she is playing with the kids her age when she would rather be playing in an older age group. My daughter is truly frustrated because she likes to compete. I am frustrated because every soccer team we play just plays her 5 on 1 because they don't need to worry about anybody scoring other than her. As a result, we have now left and gone to LYSO for soccer. Do yourselves a favor and look into your other options. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised with how much better these other organizations are run VS Kidssports. The basketabll program and willingness to work with team with Robbie at the YMCA is amazing. Robbie's program has better refs, more refs and they are actually trained vs 1 high school kid that has no clue what they are doing with Kidsports. In closing I wanted to say that what Jeff and Jason have experienced is 100% spot on with issues I have seen and been a part of. If you are in with them and a female, it is a good old boys club. If you are a male, in my experience you are screwed. The best thing they could do is get rid of Bev, move to a draft so that certain schools weren't stacked and so that schools with low interest weren't penalized. read more

Do yourself (and more importantly, your child) a favor and AVOID Kidsports. After 2 children, being in several sports each (over the last 2 years), one thing has become very apparent. The only children that get qualified coaches are those that fall in the school boundaries of the financial/social elite. The rest of the schools are left to the mercy of whatever parent has enough free time to jump through the hoops it takes to coach our children. Often these parents have little to no knowledge of the sport at hand and simply hope that they will receive backing/help from the Kidsports organization. Sadly all these parents get is a packet of generic drills/games that in the end do nothing to help develop, refine or reinforce skills. Schedules are so condensed that there is no feasible time for practice and games are so disorganized that it's frustrating for parents who want nothing more then to sit back and cheer on the kids. There are MUCH better programs, available through other agencies, that simply don't have the backing/exposure of the school district that Kidsports has. read more

This organization is awful...they took my $150.00 plus late fees to sign up my two foster kids, and then proceeded to not have schedules posted at all for one child, and mistakenly assigned a coach to the other child's team, whom I never heard from. Then I got a frantic e-mail from someone named Rolland, asking for any parent to come forward and coach the teams. Meanwhile 2 weeks passed since sign-up and being told practices would start the week of the 26th of October. Yesterday the 4th of November I finally got a team invite to the Bonzi site from a newly assigned coach/parent volunteer. I still have no contact about teh first grade team, and no schedule for him to practice, yet I think he may be expected to participate in the Jamboree, which is happening in two days....though this is not clear either, and how can kids play basketball without any coaching. I assumed this organization HAD coaches, you know paid staff... because other wise what is the $75.00 fee i paid per kid for???? A tee-shirt? BTW I live in south Hills, so I guess the theory above about it being just for kids from, "elite" neighborhoods is completely false...they apparently treat everyone badly, and in an unprofessional manner. Don't waste you precious time and stress and money on this organization...most importantly don't let them disappoint your children. read more