Specific to the Gilbert/Mesa league Great Experience - My son has been playing flag football and basketball with i9 since 2018, and I've coached most of his teams. Our experience with the organizers and refs have almost always been great, and the few exceptions were understandable and/or dealt with. The coaches are all volunteer parents - so you get out of it what you put into it. If you don't like how the team is run, you should volunteer and try a season yourself... you just might love it! If your coach is not playing every kid pretty close to equally, let them know, and let the league office know. If they don't set this expectation on day one, ask! You should be able to switch teams. Coaches in this league who don't spread it around need to hear it from parents and/or get the boot. If you think that your kid is the next LeBron or Barry Sanders, go put them in a hyper-competitive league and see how they do. As a coach, I know that the parents have entrusted me with their kids to give them a chance to play and have fun. If I win every game but only played 5 kids, I failed. If I lose every game, but every kid had fun AND still wants to play again, then I succeeded. Any coach who can't say the same needs to go manage a fantasy football team or something and leave the coaching to those of us who will do the job correctly. Sadly, we are aging out this year so we won't get to keep playing after this season. read more

The absolute worst experience with i9. My older son started tball at i9 and it was a great program. His coach built his confidence and he learned teamwork. It was organized. Every week a kid from the team earned a medal for a special characteristic that they brought to the team. That is why I chose i9 for my younger son . Same age , same program My son did NOT even have a COACH this year. Every week, parents would just have the kids take turns batting off the tee until the game started. No communication , no staff reaching out to try to fix the situation. It was like I paid 200$ to i9 so that I could take my son to a park. I have zero clue how i9 would do nothing to support an entire team . I am disappointed and I will be sure to steer any parents looking for a quality program away from I9. read more

If you want to watch your child play secondary character in the coaches quest to turn his 5 year old into a superstar this is the place for you! The program director, Jeremy Dubois will be sure to tell you to deal with it, it's not his problem. I recommend Legacy Sports Complex in Mesa. **update** Keep in mind his comment, "we do not guarantee carries for your kid" so if you're looking for a league to get your child experience this is not the league for you. If he's new, he'll sit. Great investment on your money. I can confirm zero attempts have been made to reach out to me. In fact I'm still waiting on a response from Jeremy from my original email. So they're flat out lying in an attempt to cast me as unresponsive when in fact it's I9 that's blowing me off. Be CAREFUL! read more

My son has been playing soccer with i9 for several years now and we are totally pleased. We used i9 in Texas and now here in Arizona. What brought us to i9 is that they play on Saturday's and didn't require a weekday practice. (My wife and I both work so my son would be unable to attend most times). The price is also reasonable. They do a good job at bridging fairness and instruction while allowing the kids to still be competitive. There are kids of all skill levels there and the refs/coaches do a good job at keeping it fair. As a matter of fact being overly aggressive isn't allowed, but I've never really seen it happen. If you're looking to get your little one in sports or have a tough schedule, give these guys a look. My family has been super happy with them. read more

I do not recommend i9 sports especially if your kid is new to the sport. I enrolled my daughter to learn volleyball. I was concerned because she is a beginner and the website said all skill levels. When I signed up, they assured me that it wouldn't be a problem. So I paid $170. When I got there, there were 2 young staff or "coaches". On the first day, they split the two teams up and just started drills right away. There was no teaching! No coaching! My daughter was completely lost. Also, they had parents volunteers as helper but I can tell that the parent was thrown in to be basically the coach. The parent helpers were overwhelmed as they were expected to run the drills and do almost everything. The two paid staff coaches barely interact with the kids and were actually just joined in the drills instead of coaching the kids. There was no coaching or instructions. They just had the kids start playing games without explaining the rules or the game. I am very disappointed as it is very unstructured and lack of leadership. The volunteer parents should be the ones getting paid and not the staff coaches who are just referees and hired to be there. read more

I had an issue after registration and it took multiple phone calls to receive a response. I had to leave four voicemails and reach out to their corporate group to finally receive a response. I was assured that I could move my son to a friend's team as there was an open spot on the roster. Once she removed my son from the entire program, she realized she had filled the other roster and no there was no room for him and he is not on a team at all. Completely unprofessional experience, would not recommend. read more

We have played with i9 for probably 5 years or so. We tried Allstars, CCV and i9 worked out better for us. Keep in mind that with these learning leagues, the coaches are VOLUNTEERS! Not only are you paying $120-160 each season (8 games), you are also dealing with a coach who is a parent who is volunteering and doing their best. Some have coached before and some havent. We've had great coaches and not so great coaches. It is what it is. The reviews are correct, there are different is sometimes a gap in age and sizes and levels. Some kids are bigger, some are smaller. We had a parent on opposite team complain about the size of one of the kids on my daughter's team and the lady (Tami?) had the audacity to come and point out the kid and ask about his size/age when THEY are the ones to assign the teams. She definitely should have handled it differently and discreetly. She definitely walks around the fields on patrol and it's very uncomfortable. read more

Very good for introduction to different sports. My son played 4 seasons, 2 at (1st-2nd grade) and 2 at (3rd-4th grade) for Flag Football. We had great coaches at both levels which stimulated his interest in the sport. Some of his best friends are from the football teams he played on. From some of the other reviews it seems that the experience may be coach dependent. He also has played 4 seasons of basketball, 3 at (2nd-3rd grade) and 1 at (4th-5th grade). His first basketball coach was excellent and again it appears to be somewhat coach dependent because some other people have said their coaches just have kids scrimmage and dont teach them any fundamentals. The only downside that I will say is that starting in the Midgets (4th-5th grade) Basketball they have a draft instead of letting kids play with their friends. The goal is to avoid having a "stacked" team like one of the other reviewers stated. However, with the draft, my son ended up with several kids who either did not listen to coaching or were not really interested in playing. For kids that are very interested in improving and getting better and possibly being competitive, they should look to a different league. For example, we had kids who never paid attention and then in the game would shoot everytime they touched the ball (sometimes probably at their parents instruction) and then there is no way to stop this because all kids are required to play the same amount and you are not allowed to sit a kid down and "yelling" at them is strongly discouraged. So while at young ages the kids will listen, at older ages 4th-5th grade the kids know the coaches cannot really "discipline" them for any behavior. So overall good for introductory level and interest building for different sports but once you get 4th grade if your kid would like to get serious and develop their game, you probably should look to different leagues where discipline is acceptable and playing time is skill/merit/listening/working hard rather than being a given just for showing up. read more

First time doing i9 started out great loved the original coach, Let me just say if you have a sensitive kid(one that cry's about everything) and you are that parent that can't handle a good coach then don't play and ruin it for other kids 2nd coach sucked. Also seemed like score keepers or the referee's have their favorite teams. Not worth the money. But better then NYS by far. read more

I had good experience in the past however this season they added other teams from different areas and now they don't have a referee for the games asking parents to couch and referee was not part of the deal. Also adding in additional teams makes some teams short handed. Waste of time and $$ OK for peewee nothing else. read more

Easily the best flag football league in the east valley. I've coached my son in three leagues over 9 seasons and i9 doesn't have a close second. My son has done 2 seasons of basketball as well. As a parent, the league doesn't just encourage the coaches to let all kids play, it is built in to a system that the refs and opposing coaches can monitor. This makes the coaches actually coach their whole team rather than just feeding the superstar who has played from birth. Consequently, the teams are all more competitive. You will not see a 60-0 game. The league also stresses sportsmanship and provides a solid, cool looking medal to give out weekly. My kids love them and as a coach it gives me a chance to reward the effort that some of less athletic kids put in to the team. Schedules rarely change. Refs are better than most and there are always two per game. They are pretty consistent with what they choose to call. They also keep the games moving so late games aren't an hour behind. Which was a big problem at Thunder Alley. What parents might not see is their organization and tools for the coaches. We can email our whole team, update stats and even design plays with their website. When weather causes closures of fields they even have automated robo calls. They provide a football, a clipboard, a bag and all the jerseys and flags exactly when they say they will. At my last league, we had no flags for our first game and coaches bought everything themselves. My only complaints would be minor stuff. There is a diagonal field at one school where offsides always seems to be an issue. Their jerseys are large for the younger kids (up to 1-2nd grade)so they look more like gowns. Order smalls even if your kid is big. Also I wouldn't mind a tournament for the top teams rather than bowl games based on seeding. Although, when approached about it they did point out that parents and coaches got nuts during tourneys in the past and I left the last league after watching that happen so they're probably right about that too. read more

i9 Sports - Gilbert - Amateur Sports Teams Near Me

Our experience with i9 has been fantastic. This is the first league that my 7 year old son has been in, and he has had a great time. It's also the first time that I have been a coach, and the support that I have received from the league has been outstanding. I like how we celebrate everything that the kids do. Winning is not the priority, but teaching the kids and helping them have fun is most important. Not many leagues operate this way, and I feel like this is a refreshing change, especially for younger kids. I am looking forward to participating in many more leagues to come! read more

They allow anyone to coach, with absolutely no experience or knowledge of the game, this organization has discriminated against my child because of her size and talent of the game. Parents can complain because their son got outplayed by a girl. My daughter also got told she couldn't play in a championship game going Into overtime when an opposing teams coaches son played two more quarters than she did and they allowed him to play. Do NOT give this league business, you will deal with a bunch of cry baby parents and officials who do not support concerns. They do NOT play kids equally. They should really watch the way this whole thing is managed or law suits will be up their creek. read more

i9, a franchise license to steal.... My experience, flag football is $109, If you pay a couple months in advance, then they add a $50 late fee!!!???? Thats tacking on a 50% surcharge for those normal parents who don't think about whats happening 2 months ahead in time, that makes the banking industry look like saints since thats like a APR of 300%!!!! Holy Cow!!! When I asked who sets those fees, the corporate office said the basically the local office can charge what they want or whatever they can get away with, Fight those fees I say and demand a refund or just stay away from i9 if your smart... I questioned the fees and I9 kicked my son off the team!!!! LOL How crazy is that!!!! Grant the local I9 tough guy called me and threatened me to stop causing trouble, gee all that because of asking about what I believe to be a WAY EXCESSIVE FEE.... I say this is still America and ask away!!!!!!! pass this information on the PTA, Blogs, Yelp, the BBB, Moms & Dads and anybody else that would ever consider using I9 Sports....... read more

Please read! i 9 does not care about safety! This year, I signed my five year old twin girls up for soccer at i 9 Sports. They had not played prior and thought it would be fun for them. What I was not prepared for was for them to being playing against kids that were 8 years of age with prior soccer experience. We played a team in October that had an older boy that could kick the ball almost the length of the field. Every time the kid would get the ball he would kick it as hard as he could regardless of how close he was to the goal or other kids. During this particular game he drilled my girl in the chest from about 10 feet. At first I thought these things happen until we played that same team again. November 5th, same boy was about 5 feet from the goal when he kicked the ball as hard as he could drilling my other daughter in her low belly area. The referee was also upset with how unfair the matchups are with 5 and 8 year olds playing each other. He suggested I call the i 9 Sports office to let them know I am concerned about the kid's safety. We agreed the league should know of the safety concerns because if they don't know they can't fix the problem. I called the league office Friday November 11th and spoke with a woman who said no one was available to talk to me about my safety concerns. She stated someone would call me within the next 36 hours. So no one called me back and I called the league office again on Wednesday November 16th and still no call back. At this point both of my girls are terrified to play because of these kinds of experiences. The league does not care about the safety of the kids. I will never join i 9 ever again. This league is a joke. read more

well organized, focus is more on having fun and teaching kids the values of sportsmanship

We have had amazing coaches in the past until this season that we refused to complete. We attended (the first) practice we were never told was optional and made the mistake of forgetting a mouth guard and pockets in our 6 year olds shorts. I immediately left (did not have my son practice) and returned within 10 minutes with a mouth guard - the coach had tape that he gave me to cover his pockets ONLY AFTER he pulled me aside, yelled at me because he sent an email detailing the rules. I have no problem with the rules, I made a mistake and fixed them right away. We forget that this is a recreational league teaching 1st and 2nd graders how to play on a team and have fun. I was the only parent pulled aside and yelled at although two others made mistakes. I will keep my comments to myself as to why I believe that happened to me and not the other two parents - we contacted the Director and told them we did not want to be on this coach's team. Unfortunately they could not move 4 children to another team, so we had to not play at all - all over a coach who cannot communicate appropriately in person and speak like an adult. I should not be reprimanded because I made a mistake at a practice that by this leagues rules is optional (coach never advised this). This league lost 4 children who will never play for them again and gets to keep the coach that made it happen. It is hit or miss with this league - in the past I would always recommend them, now, I would stay far away. read more