Dave Schuman's National Underclassmen Combine/2008 National Passing Academy Did not honor the "Your skills will improve or you'll get your money back!" Wyckoff New Jersey

I have several responses to the above post.



First: Regarding the location of the camp, there had been an issue with lighting storms in Boca Raton on the day of the event. The coaches who were running the camp decided that, in order to ensure the athletes' safety, the location of the camp had to be changed. We attempted to contact all parents to let them know about the location change but, unfortunately, we were unable to reach all parents in time, resulting in some inconvenience to both parents and athletes. In these instances, we provided refunds to the inconvenienced parties.



Second, the instruction provided at the camp was precisely the instruction that was advertised. The coaches running the camp were, and are, all highly qualified professionals. For example, the coach running the camp is a former division one coach who is currently the head coach at Spanich River HS which has won several Florida State Championships (and has seen a large number of his athletes go on to play football in division one programs). Another coach was a starting receiver at Eastern Illinois, where he caught passes thrown by Tony Romo. In short, all of the coaches at the camp are qualified to provide, and did in fact provide, the instruction advertised in the brochure.



Third, the fact that the poster admitted to asking for credit towards a future event is telling. If the poster in question truly felt the athlete traveled 150 miles for nothing, then the poster would have simply asked for a refund. Instead the poster asked to attend another event (and, presumably, undertake the 150 mile travel) for free. Clearly the poster valued our program and thought that by making unfounded/false complaints, he could somehow wrangle a free camp for his athlete. I recognized the poster's ploy for what it was, and refused to provide a refund where no refund was warranted.



I stand behind my camps 100%. Time and again, I have received praise from camp participants, all of whom value the instruction and experience they receive. For anyone interested in attending, or sending an athlete to attend, one of my camps, I ask that you ignore the poster's unfounded complaint. Instead, I ask that you contact me, and I can put you in touch with any number of people (athletes, coaches, and parents) who can attest to the effectiveness of my camps.



***in order to make it clear exactly what I'm rebutting, and to prevent the poster from adding additional false complaints or changing his previous false charges, I have pasted the poster's complaint (i.e., the complaint I have rebutted) below.





My son attended Dave Schuman's National Passing Academy held at the Gulf Shores High School, Gulf Shores, AL on July 23rd, 2008. The brochure states 'Your skills will improve or you'll get your money back!' This camp is part of many training camps that Dave Schuman provides in various areas around the country and states that it is for 'serious and intense players only, not casual football players'.

My son is very dedicated to football in high school and has attended other camps. We were led to believe that this camp would be taught by high quality individuals and that my son would learn some great new skills or improve upon his current ones.

Long story short, all of the parents were given the wrong location to the camp that day, my son's coach turned out to be a local high school linemen coach, even though he was teaching Wide Receivers and Tight Ends. They only did training as one group and did not teach any one position (i.e. WR's and TE's were lumped together, not taught separate).
They also didn't follow the posted schedule, meaning they didn't do half of the training they said they would.

My son did not learn any new skills and the little they did teach are skills he already had. It was obvious as well that they had too many kids for each coach to teach.
When I wrote with my disappointment and asked for either a refund or a credit towards a future event, I was not only denied (because my son stayed the duration of training), but berated and threatened.
He would make sure we were known as complaining parents and that Mr. Schuman would use his influence with all of the Division 1 college coaches and recruiting directors against my son.

After several emails with Mr. Schuman, the last one stated 'We do not need problem parents that are going to threaten our organization in any
way.' We have never intruded into our son's desire to play football in such a way that we would labeled 'problem parents'. Our only effort to get a refund or credit was due to the fact that our son did not get taught by a professional (as claimed in one email), he did not learn or improve skills, and was very disappointed to have traveled 150 miles for nothing.
In the end, they did not honor the guarantee stated in their brochure.

Vince
Navarre, Florida
U.S.A.'

First of all the only event I can think of that the person may have attended was the National Passing Academy. So first of he is linking the National Underclassmen Combine and the National Passing Academy together which is ridiculous, since they are two different programs.

Second, there unfortunately was an issue with lighting storms in Boca Raton on the day of the event which was shortly after lunch around 2:00pm. The coaches who were running the event had to make a decision in the safety of the athletes at the camp to end it short due to the storms. In this particular case unfortunately the camp was cut short, due to the storms and the priority is the safety of the kids. In addition, the coach running the camp, stayed at his office till 6pm that night for one athlete whose parent did not pick him up till late.

As many parents as possible were contacted to let them know to pick up there athletes and parents who were looking for a refund in this case were granted it, even though it is against policy for an already run camp where training was provided.

Finally, with respect to the coaches who were running the camp, one was an ex starting receiver at Eastern Illinois and was the receiver of Tony Romo in college, and the coach running the camp is the Head Coach at Spanish River HS and is has won several State Championships in Florida, as well as coached at the D-1 and D-III collegiate level. More than adequate coaches to run a training camp.