National Underclassman Combine NUC Pittsburgh NUC Combine a Complete Disaster Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Nationwide

• We were never notified of the venue change and only found out because we “bumped into” another participant who let us know the day before the event was to start.  Why wasn’t an e-mail sent weeks ago?  Mr. Schuman told me that his company sent "several e-mails advising of the change."  Actually, he sent marketing e-mails selling other events.  Even the coaches running the event were not aware of the change until a few days before.  The original site was over an hour from the original location
• The event was changed from two days to one without notification.  The coached seemed confused why this would be problem.  Our son was scheduled to be at a large 14 school track meet on Saturday and had to get added back into the roster after we learned of the change. Incidentally he set a new school record at the meet – despite a horrible 40 time at the event.
• NUC had no record of his registration, despite our having a confirmation and payment receipt.
• Bench press was omitted.  The local coach, Dale Sturgill - the local coach, commented “do you think bench pressing 185 lbs 60 times is going to get him a D1 scholarship” and “colleges don’t even look at bench press” were not helpful.  Why advertise the bench press and not do it?  Why even DO the bench press if it is not part of the evaluation process?  This was a strong event for our son and omitting it is un acceptable.  The reasons given were even more unacceptable.
• The 40 yard dash times were laughable.  Mr Sturgill advised that “these coaches have been doing this for 20 years without error.”  Really?  I could offer 20 reasons why this does not make sense, but suffice it to say, the times in one of the groups were inaccurate and consistently slower than another group.  A quick analysis could prove that.  Your comment that “times will always be slower on a soccer field” makes me feel no better.  So the Pittsburgh group is punished because NUC botched the planning and had to go to an indoor soccer field at the last minute?
• The 7 on 7 was worse that back yard pick-up football.  There was little or no supervision or leadership on the field.  In addition, the NUC kids stood around at least 50% of the time because a team “that paid to play as a team” never left the field.  Mr. Sturgill committed to address this, but failed to do so.  This organized team was also upset because they thought they were playing organized teams from other schools.
• I asked the person at the broad jump to tape down the mat because the ends were curled back.  They did nothing.  Then I asked Mr. Sturgill to tape down the mat.  You answered “is your kid going to jump 10 feet?”  Why is it relevant if he jumps 10 feet?  It is poor quality, is visually distracting for the jumpers and the fix was so very easy.  By the way, a kid at another combine DID jump 10 feet so it HAS been done.
• Mr. Sturgill kept asking what he could do “that day” to fix issues and if he personally could have done anything better.  There were numerous opportunities to make the combine better.  Instead, he chose to distance himself from the NUC Corporate office and their incompetence.  In addition, he offered a "free combine" if we were willing to have my son drive 5 hours to Harrisburg or 5 hours to Cincinnati where he would be re-timed (in Cincinnati, you offered to personally time him).  This is the heart of track season and it simply is not possible.  Why couldn’t this re-timing have been done on the day of the event?  If he was willing to hand time him, why not do it yesterday after the 7 on 7?
• I spoke to Mr. Schuman on the phone following the event at (201) 912-2212.  He took ownership for none of the problems.  He consistently blamed me and the other customers for all of the problems.  He made no offer to resolve the problems, no offer of a refund, and did not offer to follow up with me as a customer.  I cannot believe any business deals with customers in this manner. 

Please understand that this was my third, and likely final, NUC Combine.  We participated in the Pittsburgh NUC and Delaware NUC100 last year. Both were well run and enjoyable for our athlete. I see the NUC franchise as declining quickly and the lower participation at this event reflected that.  I am shocked that such poor quality events are tolerated.  The NUC has one primary purpose: to gather data on kids wanting to play at the next level and offer a small amount of training.  What we got was nothing of any real value:  a 40 time that was worse than his time in 7 grade.  No bench press stats.  A shuttle time that was .2 seconds slower than his NUC time last year (explained by Mr. Sturgill:  this is to be expected since it was run on soccer turf vs football turf) and nothing that could be published.

I am really hope that NUC steps up and does the “right thing” to fix our situation and that someone “man up” and accept some personal responsibility for the mess that occurred on Sunday April 27th, 2014.