SPORTING Blue Valley Soccer Club

★★Dadoftwokids

Sporting Blue Valley has great facilities, strong processes, and clear communication. For the first three years, our experience was very positive. Unfortunately, this past year was very different. Our experience with Coach Izzy was disappointing. She showed up late to practices and games, and communication was very poor. Emails and texts often went unanswered unless they seemed to come from the parent of one of her favorite players. My daughter also felt she was treated differently, which hurt her confidence and overall experience. What was most frustrating was the placement decision. My daughter has played well and even received interest from two other clubs at the Division 3 level, yet she was moved to Level 6 without a clear explanation. When we asked for clarity, we did not get a reason that made sense. I want to be fair and say that Tom has always been someone we appreciated, and I believe he tried to help. Still, the situation was never properly resolved, and this year felt like a step backward for my daughter’s growth and confidence. I still highly recommend Sporting Blue Valley overall, and I think many of their coaches are excellent. But based on our experience, I would strongly caution parents to think carefully before accepting placement with Coach Izzy.

★★★★DeAnna Brown

While our family is no longer intertwined within the SBV programs, we have appreciated the inclusivity of this recreational soccer program over time. Coach Donald was top-notch, grateful for sure! Thank you for being a fierce athletic program within the Kansas City Metropolitan.

★★★★Kim Hinkle

Starting our 8th year with SBV and overall it has been a positive experience. They experienced some try out issues during COVID which is completely understandable but things feel back on track. I'm very surprised by the inaccuracy of some of the negative reviews, it's obvious folks don't have their information straight. There is absolutely no way the club could have the entire practice schedule figured out well in advance, however there are general practice TIMES that the various age groups generally fall within, which is information that could have been obtained from the SBV office. Once the teams are set, the back office works diligently on field/facility rentals and puts the practice schedule together. If the practice schedule conflicts with the parent's schedule, there are always other parents willing to carpool. If the practice schedule conflicts with another sport/activity, have a conversation with your coach to find out if accommodations can be made. I've seen players practice with other teams one day a week, and with the regular team the other day of the week. Also, the comment about having to spend thousands of dollars before knowing which team your kid will be on is completely untrue. Tryouts occur, your child is offered a spot on a team, and it's up to you to accept or decline. No money is due until the position has been accepted. Their website doesn't even have a way to collect money until your child has been assigned to a team. Once that occurs, you can pay all up front, or they accept installments too. I do agree with some of the reviews saying that your experience depends on the coach. In our 7 previous seasons, there was only 1 challenging year due to the coach. Overall this is a great program with very hard working people in the back office, and coaches who genuinely care about the growth and development of their young athletes.

★★Evan Benbow

Your experience is very much driven by your coach. Unfortunately, you don’t know anything about your coach until you commit. While one can’t expect all star coaching at every tier, they can and should do better for the less experienced kids. My youngest has Coach Tom Mura and he is amazing. Very vocal in practice and constantly engaging the kids and asking them use skills during practice and games. They need more coaches like him. Our experience with our son has been less than ideal. Our original coach could not speak above a whisper, so much in the kick off conference, if you weren’t in first three rows you couldn’t hear him. He was very much a statue with very little engagement. Our current coach during Futsal said “ I don’t understand Futsal or know how to coach it”. So, the winter program was a waste of money. Other annoyances include charging for goal keeper training outside of the ~$1500 contract. Is goal keeping something new to soccer? No, so why not just include it in your contract. Same with TeamSnap. Just include it in the contract and charge appropriately.

★★★★★Matt Tuite

Players looking to develope, play competitive, be challenged, and work to be their best should be in this program. Coach Alan has been a instrumental mentor for our son's early development in competitive soccer.