The Upper Deck Elite Baseball & Softball Academy

★Ed Minall

My son tried out for this club team and made it. He pitched an inning and 1/3 prior to a showcase game. My son was the only player not to be put in the showcase game by coach Brian. Now mind you the only reason I had my arm twisted to join this club team was for showcase games. We were aggravated and I called Corey Smith to complain and get my money back. No returned phone calls and no money back. A money grab organization for if my kid was good enough to make the team and grab our money, but apparently not good enough to play during a showcase game.

★★★★★Myra Vega

My husband and I, a few years ago went looking for find the right place with the right trainers and coaches to enhance my oldest son’s baseball skills. We were highly recommended Upper Deck Elite by a few parents from our local town. After meeting with senior instructors Corey Smith and Bryan Malko, we were impressed with their experience, knowledge and genuine love for the game. My son’s game has greatly improved under their tutelage, so much in fact that we bought our youngest son to the Upper Deck team. From top to bottom this is great place to enhance your child’s baseball skills.

★★★★★teresa matthews

My son plays for Upper Deck last year and had an amazing season. The coaches care and really train the kids. My son is attending Immaculata High School and he will be more than ready to join the team thanks to Upper Deck. This was by far the best travel team we have experienced and its clearly the last stop.

★★★★★Jennifer Mendrzycki

We decided to train at Upper Deck Elite because we were familiar with Corey Smith, the owner, whom my son took hitting lessons with when Corey was a baseball instructor at another well-known training facility in the area. Of course, we weren’t the only ones to follow Corey when he decided to open his own baseball training facility a little over a year ago, as his reputation as an elite hitting coach is widely known in this part of New Jersey. This past fall besides taking lessons with Corey, my son started playing on his 11U travel team. While as mentioned in one of the reviews, we had a slight issue with the two young coaches who had played college baseball who were given the chance to coach the U11 team. Corey stepped in and rectified the situation by taking over the coaching responsibilities. While I am sorry to see that the reviewer’s son had a negative experience, in my opinion these issues were addressed appropriately and my son has had a positive experience. In regard to some players receiving favoritism because they take lessons at Upper Deck, I can say that my son who has taken lessons with Corey for hitting and Brian for pitching, has not been given any preferential treatment as he has been asked to play various fielding positions, hits in the back of the line-up and sat on the bench like all of the other players. Of course, it is hard for any coach to manage the line-up when you are trying to give each player a chance to develop on a team with various levels of skills and you are not always sure who is going to show. Yes, that is right because there are always parents on these travel teams who will pay their 1,500 and their child won’t show up for practice or the game. We started with 13 players at the beginning of the season and sometimes we only have 9 players show up at the game. My son has played on two other travel teams at two of other facilities, as well as his town travel teams since he was 8 years old. The best endorsement that I can give Upper Deck Elite is that my son only wants to play for Upper Deck Elite this spring and summer.

★Andrew S

We found Upper Deck (Berkeley Heights) to be highly unprofessional. Our son was on one of their club teams. We never knew which coaches were going to show up, for games or practices. And when they showed up to games (sometimes late) they were unprepared. They had no lineup ready. I’m pretty sure they didn’t keep a scorebook either, although they found time to talk about how “bombed” they got one night. What was most concerning however was that in order to get us to sign up our son, they made certain promises that they blatantly broke. We were very concerned that there were too many kids on the team but we were assured that the coaches knew how to handle it and that everyone would play. We didn’t ask for special treatment. We just expected that for $1,500 every player would be treated fairly. But they were clearly favoring some players over others, including a player who they admitted they were “grooming” for a certain position. (Grooming as in also paying Upper Deck for lessons on the side). Just a really bad experience.