This is my daughters first year doing volleyball and so far it has been such a great experience... the coaches are truly passionate about teaching the kids to play the game with true skill, which makes me very happy because when they learn the skill correctly the first time it sets them up for true success.. coach Keith has been super helpful in all aspects of the game to and giving us the tools to increase her skills. Thankful for this league! read more

Bamboozled: we were desperate for our daughter to be part of a travel team since her high school is very competitive and she needed constant play time. I "believed" I was so lucky that Keith was willing to place our daughter as full time libero on his 16s team. Season cost around $3800. Practices were always cancelled. He would arrive late to tournaments. The girls didn't even have balls to warm up with. The other teams would let us borrow them. He even left mid game one tournament because he was frustrated with the way they were playing. How about you actually coach them and have practice available?! For a while practice was with locals because there was no coaching. This is supposed to be a 16s 1s travel team. This last weekend they were supposed to have a 2 day tournament in Anaheim, SCVA championships. We get a message saying he has made an executive decision to end the season early and has canceled the last two tournaments, including the big tournament which is the summer soirée. Come to find out, after someone investigated, he NEVER signed the team up. Which means he just pocketed that money! We asked for a refund since he decided the team was no longer going to have practices or games. He offered to move our daughter up to the 18s team. My husband wrote back declining. He proceeded to blame the girls. BEWARE!!! Keith only cares about filling his pocket. He will not take responsibility for his lack of professionalism and wants to call himself a coach. There was a lot of potential on this team, but he did not put any effort into them. His priority was the 18s team since his daughter is a part of it. I was warned but I never thought someone would be that greedy and lack integrity. Do yourself a favor and just pay for privates from other clubs, it's not worth the risk and you are just wasting your money. read more

Empire sports - Sports Clubs Near Me - Riverside, California

Terrible coaching and poor management. Practices were frequently canceled or location moved with short notice. Coach Keith often arrived late to tournament games, left early from practice, or didn't show up to practice at all. Practices were poorly structured and lacked organization, leading to limited player development. Keith punished players by threatening to reduce their tournament playtime if they missed practices that were rescheduled due to cancellations he initiated. Playtime was based on favoritism, not skill rather than skill. Communication was awful -- Keith ignored parent questions and passed them off to staff who were just as unresponsive. Less than 24 hours before a major tournament, he abruptly ended the season with no prior notice, refused to respond to refund inquiries, and blamed the cancellation on the girls. Avoid this program at all costs. This man only cares about filling his pockets! read more

My daughter was a part of this non-travel program & one club season. When I say do yourself a favor & stay far away I say it based off experience. The owner Keith likes to push that he has been the longest volleyball program in the Inland Empire, however no one stays. Ask him what his return rate is. My child started in clinics, moved into non-travel then participated in one club season. I also was a part of his staff. Myself, along with four other moms helped run the entire program. When I volunteered to help, it was because I too was becoming frustrated, along with all the other parents on the bleachers. Communication was horrendous, Practices were constantly being cancelled last minute, "tournaments" for his non travel program were a joke, & there was no organization. I thought I could help make the program better, because my child would benefit from it as well. I helped with making all the literature for the program (flyers, calendars, sign in sheets, ) & also helped with signing players in and speaking with families . I tried to arrange team bondings for the players (skating rink, beach bonfire) also helped organize fundraisers (serve-a-thon, Super Bowl squares) & holiday get togethers. I genuinely had high hopes for what the program could be, but learned from the very the beginning things would not change. Anytime we addressed issues from parents he didn't care, he got annoyed. He would complain about parents complaining. He constantly kept saying how he was the cheapest program in the Inland Empire & they could go somewhere else. He didn't value parent input even though without them, he wouldn't have a club. We pushed the issue about practice cancellations, and constant rescheduling, & how we needed to be considerate of people's time, but he didn't care. Parents would come to us staff , pissed off, looking for Keith, because they wanted to speak with him directly and he would not show up . He constantly was sick, or had something to do . He avoided parents at all costs. There were times when we would show up and we were not given access to the gym. Hunt staff would require a conversation with Keith before we were let in. We knew why, it was because he was behind on payment , he would lie and say it was because they needed his updated insurance as if we weren't told why . There's a lot of reasons i could give on why he doesn't deserve your business, the main one is he doesn't appreciate it & takes full advantage of families. He will pretend he cares about you & your situation but he doesn't. He also cries about how he feeds his family with this program but couldn't care less about the families he takes advantage of. I'd also love to save you the headache . I'm not here to bash Keith, although i have MANY reasons why i could after the things he said about me once i decided I wanted nothing to do with him or his program. I didn't care enough to come and update my review until i had friends come to me upset after they tried his program. A program they once saw me supporting. Enough is enough. There were five moms, who were all apart of his staff last year and how many stayed you ask? NOT ONE. Keith will try to defend himself and say he helped me because i didn't have to pay for the club season as if payment was ever an issue . He'll say he did sooo much for me during my time with the program, however fails to remember all of MY OWN MONEY i spent on his program, and on his players. He offered the free season because of the time I invested into his program . Countless days & hours while I also worked full time. I poured so much into this program, For what ? It was a waste of time if you ask me. Do yourself the favor please & avoid at all costs , do not let him take advantage of you & your hard earned money! read more

Worst coaching i've ever seen . He's rude shows up late to every tournament, bails on them mid game ,and tried telling the girls it was there fault and there all un coachable . Worst experience i've ever seen read more

I was new and was trying to find a team and found this off instagram located in Riverside area. I was suggested to try other volleyball clubs but I was originally appealed by the price, offering two practices and tournament per month. Starting off, I was a bit disappointment with the arrangement because there were some kind of cancellations in the beginning week and then practice started off regularly. The practices were ok, not strenuous as I thought, pushing to developing skills. Out of nowhere, then ended up they increased the price and forcing us to make a commitment, and their organization is a mess--and they did in fact, cancelled and moved the games around--practices at further location than originally stated. They do not have schedules in advance. Expect them to give it to you mid-month and say "oh, you can't come. Means other players get the priority". That's a little unfair if we weren't able to plan for last minute change of location for practices and games are thrown in your faces, and sometimes we had to cancel going to the game because of last minute scheduling which is totally on them. This is not the right approach. Not just me but other parents are complaining about paying so much money and they don't provide the schedule/ and we as parents want to plan ahead, ensuring that the players show up, putting us in a frustrated spot to parents to make decisions in the middle when kids into the program. We tried for several months, after more than a thousand dollar spent, no improvement were made--just increased frustration. We addressed this to coaches and they brushed us off, gave us a "too-bad-and-go-somewhere-else" and raked in our money. Even we haven't started practice for this new month--we decided to talk to the coach about it. It lead to their nasty tone and they refused to refund. Umm. I just paid a couple days ago and practice/games haven't started for this month. Beware. If you're going to spend money on this organization, I can (in my opinion) promise you that you will be frustrated and wonder if this is worth your money. Thanks for reading. read more

I really really should have checked Yelp before signing my daughter up for this program. What other said was exactly what happened. I spent $1200 before realizing that they're horrible and when I talked to Keith about it, he was rude and horrible. Stressed only that he KNEW VOLLEYBALL and that I DIDNT. In caps, really. WALK (no RUN) away. read more

First off, I wish I could leave 0 stars, as that is how I feel about this league. I have a daughter who wanted to play, and from the beginning, it went well, I felt hopeful, my daughter was excited and I know she has great potential and talent to be on a team. I will say, the first time I spoke with Keith (league manager) he wasn't very welcoming, he was more straight forward and gave me dates as to when try outs would be for girls in my daughters age. The one thing about this league that was absolutely off putting and unprofessional, the coaches and staff were NEVER early or on time for the most part. There would be "clinic" which is practice, on Sundays and when we'd get there, there at 11:00am, some of the coaches would show up 5-10 minutes late, court or net was not set up. I am a firm believer that time is money. Second time we came to clinic, we were informed my daughter was not supposed to come on Sunday's, when Keith informed me that was part of practice for her age. There was no communication what so ever, that was strike 2 for me. Strike 3 came for me when we , again, showed up for clinic again on Sunday , mind you, Keith informed me and my daughter that she would soon be on a team and that she made the cut, but it was never communicated when , so we kept showing up to clinic on Wednesday and Sundays. We had already been with this league for about 3 weeks, and we had paid $299 already , which I was informed would cover practices and uniform. The last day I brought my daughter to clinic, I reached out to Keith via text because I was hearing there was going to be a tournament the end of the month, considering we were about 2 weeks away. I grew impatient, here I am thinking, she needs to build chemistry with her team and no one in this league, team managers, nor coaches has informed me which team she will be on. So of course , I respectfully expressed my frustration and concerns to the coach and this is what I got.... (attached pictures) I was very taken back and couldn't have been more disgusted. NOT A GOOD PLACE TO GO TO read more

Empire sports - Sports Clubs Near Me - Riverside, California

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This league is a non profit joke. Beginner level is not an actual beginner level. Telling a shy player that if you are quiet volleyball isn't a sport you should play. Then telling g the parent of shy child, well then maybe go find a quiet volleyball team to help. It is rudeness to another level. My child was there 20 mins and refuses to give a refund. read more

If I could give it less than 1 star I would. Keith is a total joke and what a total flake. I found his club by looking up clubs that play at The Draft in Riverside, Ca. I was looking to get some private lessons for my daughter who wanted to try out for her High School team. After leaving a message he called me back sometime later that same night and told me he could definitely help her. On the phone he said he did private lessons from his home in Grand Terrace Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday but would send me a more official schedule with his availability as soon as he got home. He said he had a whole volleyball set up at his home from when we were in COVID lockdown. He did. His text said, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with times attached to each day. I selected Saturday May 20th, Sunday May 21st, Monday May 22nd and the following Monday May 29th. He then said no Saturday I'm not available. I modified to Friday May 19th instead and he confirmed those dates worked just fine. He asked me to send him the money for the fist private lesson as private lessons were paid upfront. !STUPID! I sent him $60. The following day I realized that the Friday night was schedule at the same as my daughters school dance. I sent him a text and apologized for my mistake and told him that I would pay for that lesson as I was the one that made the error and confirmed the remaining days/times to which he confirmed via text. My daughter, husband and I showed up to our first private lesson at his home 15 minutes early and waited in the car. Given you can see his backyard from the field in the back, you can see that his backyard had only a tattered volleyball net and a bunch of backyard junk. Not what I expected. At our scheduled time, we went to the door and a woman answered asking who we were. When I said I had a private with Keith, she said he is not here, he is at a training somewhere. She said she and I could both try and call him however he was not scheduled to be home until much later that evening. I text Keith right away, nothing. I called, nothing. I text when I got back home, nothing. I text the next day, nothing. I text him the following day asking him why a club coach would be so unprofessional and just ghost me when we had done nothing wrong? I then said that given the course of events I felt it was the right thing to do to give me my original money back since we had both screwed this up. He finally text me back and said sorry I had a family emergency and was out of town. I just returned. I will give you one free private and provided two days he was available. My response was no thank you, I have already found a much better coach and club (Pro Play Volleyball Club - Amazing) and would just like a refund. He finally agreed and said I will have my manager send you a refund on Wednesday May 24th at specifically 6:30pm. I thanked him and said I would await the credit. Today is Tuesday May 30th and after five additional texts to inquire on my refund, he has yet to respond at all. What kind of shady operation is he running here? Honestly I almost just text his to say obviously you need my $60 more than I do so keep it but it's the principle that won't let me. He is playing games and stealing peoples money and I won't stand for it. I will be making some phone calls to report his business practices and whatever else is necessary until he makes it right. Moral of the story, DON'T to business with Keith Gustafson or Inland Empire Volleyball Club. read more

Coach Keith is awesome! My daughter has learned a lot from him. She was at another clinic in Chino for 7 months. She's learned a lot more with him than there. He's very passionate, supportive, encouraging and has a lot of patience. He had to correct a lot of things she learned while at the other clinic. Thanks to him, she has made her high school volleyball team! Just tell him your child's goal and he will help get them there. read more

Received an unsolicited text advertising this club. As i thought it was a "bot" I typed stop to unsubscribe to whatever list they had me on. They person sent 5 additional texts telling me to just block the number and that I needed to "stop". Im hoping this was just a teen who has too much time on their hands, because if this was an adult thinking they are marketing their buisness this club is in for a wake up call. Not professional, hoping whomever texted me doesn't work with kids. read more

Organizer is a crook, you will regret it. This guy Keith does not have enough resources at his disposal to run a club...be warned what is promised is NOT delivered and your children will pay the price in their development as volleyball players read more

Bought some private volleyball lessons for my daughter with coach Keith. I was so impressed how much she improved from the first couple of hours. Especially her serving, hitting, and passing techniques. I definitely recommend coach Keith and plan to book more sessions with him soon. read more