One of the most common questions we get it, ‘Is this legit?’ I get it, an opportunity to wear a USA jersey and compete in International events can seem, ‘too good to be true’. If you feel that way, great. That’s means this opportunity is something that excites you. The next step for you is to look into it to determine the specifics and learn more.
Inquiring about the legitimacy of a business before you interact with them is a great thing. You should be doing this. At the very least do a Google search, pop on their website, get a feel for what it is, and look out for red flags.
[That all being said, it is possible and quite easy to ask questions to determine the legitimacy of a business without being rude :). More on that later in this post.]
I get it, some people don’t want go on the internet and read things. That’s totally fine. You can call us at the number posted right at the top of our website and you are going to get our staff directly. It’s not a 1-800 number. There is no AI or phone bank from a foreign country. Our staff lives in North Carolina and Connecticut.
SAWUSA incorporated as a business in 2009. We’ve taken thousands of travelers overseas since then. We’ve worked with hundreds of colleges. We’ve worked with foreign governments, large organizations, and corporations. While we are a small company, we’ve been around a long time and there is A LOT out there about us.
More importantly, it’s easy to find out the legitimacy of SAWUSA. You could probably spend 10+ hours on our website and not read and watch everything. Our website hosts 16+ years of sports travel evidence. Here are a few places to start….
- Our BLOG has blog post since our new website was launched in 2016. For many trips we have guest bloggers, staff bloggers, video blogs, etc. You can watch one hour long videos of past International trips.
- Check out our IN THE NEWS page where we feature some stories from TV stations and newspapers over the year.
- While some websites list 3-5 testimonials, our TESTIMONIALS page has, at the time this blog post was written, almost five hundred testimonials from past travelers!
- To take the Testimonials even further we even have a REFERRAL LIST posted on our Testimonials page. This is a list of former travelers who loved their trip so much they volunteered to make their personal email and phone numbers public so skeptical future travelers could call them up and ask about us. If you are skeptical, call them.
- We have a PICTURES page with probably 20,000 pictures of past tours. These are compiled over the years from different trips. I had an kid once tell me those can be faked. I get it, AI is a thing now – but it’s 15 years and 20,000 individual pictures! Yes, the picture from 2015 with the ten kids in front of the Eiffel tower wearing SAWUSA shirts is actually real.
- Our SOCIAL MEDIA pages are listed right on our homepage as well. Pick your favorite social media and follow us and dig in. Most of those go back a decade or more and catalogue the history of SAWUSA. Again, tens of thousands of pictures and videos.
- The rest of the pages on our website are extremely DETAILED. We outline every tour we offer, the exact itinerary, links to tournaments we play in, links for more info. There is so much on our website. There is not a question you could think of that isn’t on our website.
- After viewing our website and social media, you can google search for SAWUSA or STUDENTATHLETEWORLD. You will find hundreds of articles of past travelers with articles in their local newspaper or TV station about their trip with us.
- Speaking of Google, we have lots and lots of Google Reviews. They are awesome, please read them!
- There are many ‘scam advisor’ websites out there like this one. As you can see SAWUSA has a 100 out of 100 score for many things like having owning the domain for many years, having a valid SSL certificate, listing the owners name on the site, not having malware, etc.
- We have an A+ rating on the BBB. We’ve have 0 complaints in 16 years.
BEING RUDE VS PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY
I get it. The world is full of bad actors and your job is to protect your kids or yourself. By all means, do that. In youth sports it’s a cesspool out there. There are some shady characters for sure. But, there are also legitimate businesses. Just because you haven’t heard of the business doesn’t mean it’s not ‘real’. You are one person out of 350 million Americans. We likely have not heard of you or where you work, does that mean you are not real? Of course not. So, please don’t apply that same logic :).
Additionally, please understand, SAWUSA has processes in place for you to explore us in every way humanely possible before any commitment is requested or any money is exchanged. If you received a nomination letter in the mail, or an email or text – all of those say, ‘hey, check out out website and explore the opportunity’. Nobody has asked you for anything. You are free to check it out or not check it out. There isn’t going to be much value in contacting us yelling and screaming about the letter you got.
Our application process is 100% free in every way. After you apply we send you so much information and eventually you will do a 45-minute video interview with our staff. You are going to have every opportunity to ask every question you could think of before joining a tour. Again, we aren’t asking for anything from you up front. There is no application fee. You can call us every day for a month if you want before deciding if this is right for you. And some people do. Some people even go so far as to say they want to meet us in person first. We’ve had a handful of people arrange to do that as well. Whatever you need to do to be comfortable with us, is great with us.
I love it when we get phone calls from skeptical parents and they ask probing questions like; ‘How long have you been in business?’, ‘Where are you located?’, ‘Tell me more about SAWUSA I’m interested.” These are great questions, and by all means, please ask them, and more. I love talking about the business I’ve spent my life creating. I love talking about the passion I have for making an awesome experience for our travelers. Answering questions and concerns is awesome.
However, we do sometimes get calls from people who are downright angry and rude. My question is… why? If you want to find out the legitimacy of SAWUSA, great. Ask questions. Do your own research. Why call us up all angry that you don’t think it’s a real business? Especially when you’ve done not even a minute of research to find out more about it. Why make the world a less happy place? I can assure you no one here at SAWUSA wants your day to be worse. So please try to not ruin our day. In short, please don’t be rude and instead just use your words and ask questions.
WHY IT MATTERS
We try not to take it personal. However, it is personal because we are actually real people. I used my own personal money, when I had none to spare, to start this business back in 2009. So, I am always going to be a little offended when someone who just stumbled upon my business years later tells me it’s ‘fake’ or ‘a scam’. This is because I’ve worked countless long days and nights over the years to create a business I am proud of. In the early years I drove around North Carolina putting in 4,000 mile months to grow the business. During each tour I have my personal cell phone on through the night and usually don’t sleep as I’m fielding calls and texts at 3 am, when it’s 9 am in Europe. So… yeah I guess I am a little sensitive about the words you might use about my business. In addition to the 16+ years of running SAWUSA I spent 10 years before that as college and high school coach. So, this business is the culmination of my entire adult life’s work. Just because you came across something fake once before on TikTok doesn’t mean all businesses are ‘fake’ – this business has 30+ years effort and passion put into it :).
Lastly, I know large corporations (and governments) have been treating customers increasingly worse over the past few years. That sucks for us all. However, SAWUSA is not a large corporation. We are people. I know you are emotional about your son or daughter. Youth sports tends to bring out a lot of confusion, emotion, and hostility in many parents. Take a step back and breathe. Then do some research and if you are interested, start a free application to learn more about SAWUSA. If you do that, I’m positive you will love what you find out about us.
Respectfully,
Tim Ryerson
SAWUSA Founder and President