Mike Allen Sports, LLC

I signed my son up for the 2013 July volleyball summer camp offered online. Bought new court shoes and knee pads. Excitement — priceless. Got a call at 8:15pm Sunday (the night before camp was to start) from Mike Allen himself that class was cancelled due to lack of people that signed up. What?! The night before… he gave me an excuse that the webmaster was supposed to take off the offering of the volleyball camp. Then he gave me another excuse that he had just gotten back from vacation. WHAT? I signed up a month prior? He should have known then that the webmaster messed up a month ago. Thank goodness a refund given after I inquired about it…

I wish I could give less than 1 star. Here’s why:
This was my son’s second league. Our first was a wonderful introduction to basketball (Campbell Rec through the community center), fantastically coached by my son’s friend’s dad. Since that dad wasn’t going to coach this season and my son had made some progress in the Campbell league, we were looking for a slightly more competitive league with coaches. Mike Allen’s league promised «professional coaching». The bonus was the league required all participants to attend a pre-​season scrimmage to help balance teams, whereas at Campbell the teams were just groups of friends playing together.
Turns out I was mislead on both those points. First the teams were not balanced. I think my kid ended up on the left-​over team – you could tell there were teams that had played together before. Not only that, but there were teams that were so obviously mismatched. Our team lost every game, by dozens of points. I spoke to Mike Allen early on, and he said the stronger team should give a player to the weaker team at half time, and the score should reset. Some games they would reset the score, but only once did we get the other team’s player, and that coach was visibly upset to do so. (Really? Is winning that important that you’re willing to run up the score and demoralize a whole team?) By the last few games they stopped keeping score after resetting the board multiple times.
Secondly, we were the only team that had 1 coach. All the other teams had 2. And our team was obviously the worst team, you’d think they would see we needed extra help. Furthermore, our coach did not coach at all. The other teams had their 2 coaches standing, shooting orders and encouragement throughout practice and games. Nope, not ours. I’m not sure my son even knew his name. And the coach didn’t show up for a playoff game. We did, and so did 2 other players.
We were down 3 players, so the other team gave us one (yep, their smallest and weakest player – thanks! And I actually remember them smiling). So, they had a sub, and we had small, inexperienced players with no subs. We were demolished, and the morale was so low it was frustrating. It was so bad that a dad tried to convince his son to play for our team. Do you think an 8 year old would want to be on a losing team? That didn’t happen, and the coach didn’t make it happen, either. Not until one of our players got hurt did they ask him to come to our side. I can say he got the ball most of the time. That’s the bonus of having a mediocre team with no standout player – my son got a lot of touches that other mediocre players never got on better teams. Unfortunately, he did not progress at all because of the terrible coaching. And he lost his desire to practice at home – it just wasn’t fun for him anymore. There’s no worse combination, is there?
What do you say to that Mike Allen? You’ve alienated a whole group of kids that could have continued with your program. I hope those of you reading this will think twice and check out other programs in the area first. Only come here if your kid will undoubtedly be a star player; and he/​she may do really well! But this is no place for those less than that.

Mike Allen was my son’s second basketball activity. The first one was a good start for a beginner but my son needed something a bit more structured and competitive. Mike Allen offered a league my son could join that would allow him to grow.
My son has had a great time. Mike is a calm supportive coach who wants to see the kids progress. As he says, it isn’t about winning or losing, it’s about growth and doing your best. I appreciate how he makes the kids turn in a signed paper from their teacher. The kids on the traveling team are expected to keep their grades up.
My son has found a sport he loves, and he is physically changing as he is getting into shape. My son is happy and has shown progress. Mike has given him pointers and tips and encouragement.
Older boys, younger boys are all running around the gym, dribbling the ball, shooting basketballs. It’s all positive male energy.
I’m very happy we have found the Mike Allen Basketball League. It’s been great.