It’s rare we get a negative review. We have 300 some amazing reviews on our testimonials page (here). While we take reviews about our business very seriously, and of course everyone is entitled to an opinion, this one is so far off base that it warrants a retort.
First off, the review really isn’t about SAWUSA at all. The reviewer left his name as Robert Jones. We can’t find any record of Robert Jones on our end. So, I don’t think he’s someone who we’ve ever spoken with and he definitely has never travelled with us. Likely, he recently saw one of our travelers posting on social media about their upcoming trip. Last week we mailed out uniforms, so many of our athletes are posting their pictures and showing pride about ‘Representing the USA’ on their upcoming tour. So, it looks like Robert didn’t like to see others have feelings of pride, so he punched those keys and tried to crap on on the parents calling them rich and foolish.
What Robert did show though, is the disconnect between what he thinks we do and what we actually do. Let’s take a deep dive word by word…
“Total money grab”
Yes, we do try to make a profit through our tours. It’s really a unique, fun, and awesome business to run. I went on a similar tour with another company as a college coach in 2005 and it changed my life. I started this company when I left college coaching and was completely broke. I spent many years growing it to what it is now. I support my family with this business as does our other full-time employee. Making a profit while providing an awesome experience that I am passionate about is the American dream. I’m grateful to be living it… and proud of it!
“this isn’t about selecting elite athletes as much about finding parents who are well off and can spoil their child to try to make them feel special”
Correct on the first part. This is definitely not just about finding ‘elite’ athletes. Elite is a silly word. If every AAU team is elite, are any elite? Nonetheless, our selection process is only partly about athletic ability. We try to find well-rounded athletes who are of high character, are strong leaders, good students, and have a passion for expanding their horizons. We develop athletes through our tours. Much of this happens organically through the vehicle of International travel. Getting kids out of their comfort zone and away from their hometown is magic.
The second part about our clientele being ‘well off’ is just really ‘far off’. Sure, some of our clients are uber wealthy, but that is pretty rare actually. The vast majority of our clients are middle class and first time International travelers. Some have been to the Caribbean or one a cruise, but very few have traveled as far as we go. Many of our travelers fundraise to go on a trip with us. We see checks coming in for $5 at a time on some accounts. Many of our parents take on extra shifts or a side-hustle to pay for a tour for their kids. Robert sees that as spoiling their kids. I interact daily with lots of parents who make a ton of sacrifices for their kids. They want to give them an opportunity to do something they never did, something their peers aren’t doing, banking on the hope that the experience overseas has a positive impact on their lives. That is some pretty awesome parenting if you ask me. I’ll give Robert one thing here… through our application process we do come across some tornado parents who just want to spoil their kids and steamroll everything in their path. Guess what? We don’t like those parents either! We try to weed those out through our application process – they make for awful travelers on tour.
“Don’t fall for the line that your child was recommended or selected. If your child played club ball they do mass mailing”
We take immense pride in our selection process. All our athletes have to submit letters of recommendation from teachers or coaches, upload highlight videos, and complete a one hour video interview with our staff. You absolutely have to be recommended and selected to travel with us – no exceptions! Yes, we do marketing via USPS, e-mail, and SMS when we receive lists of potential athletes from coaches or partners. Those mailings encourage athletes to start an application and tell the athlete who nominated them. To date we have received 91,612 applications. It is an honor to be selected from such large a pool of candidates. Additionally, we do turn down kids who are really talented. We’d much rather have a high character athlete than a knucklehead any day of week!
“It will still be a fun experience”
Yes, Robert. That’s literally the entire point of our business. Our clients are paying for the EXPERIENCE of doing a tour with us. The 10 days. That IS what we do! If the 10 days are fun, life-changing, and developmental then it’s a overwhelming success. Stop and smell the roses, Robert! Not everything you do has to be about using it to leverage something else.
“there are several other companies that do the same ordeal and call themselves USA something or other”
This is a very niche business. There are a very few number of companies that operate in this space, hardly any dealing in multiple sports like we do. We’ve been around since 2009 and are one of the oldest. We collaborate with some of our ‘competitors’ at times. I think every kid should do a tour like this whether it’s with us or a different organization.
As far as calling ourselves ‘USA something or other’. We are super proud to wear red, white, and blue and be the official representative of the USA at the tournaments we enter. We take that pride even further than just athletically. Our athletes are AMBASSADORS of the USA and we focus on making a great impression while overseas. At some of our events we have exclusivity, meaning we are the only USA program allowed to compete in that event. At other events there might be another USA team, and that only adds to the experience. The bottom line here, we ARE the USA and we love it!
“This will not get your child noticed it’s just an expensive experience, it’s not an honor, don’t be foolish”
Serious question, Robert – why does every single thing a kid does have to be about ‘getting noticed’? Can a young athlete ever do anything for any reason other than the pursuit of obtaining a full-ride scholarship to a division 1 school? As someone who coached at the college level for eight years and previously owned a recruiting college recruiting company, this has always bothered me. Competing at the college level in athletics is a huge commitment and for many athletes, not all that fun.
There are many reasons an athlete would be interested in a SAWUSA tour. Some use it to improve and develop for high school sports. Some use it as a last hurrah in competitive sports before going off to college. Some use it while in college to prepare for a professional playing opportunity after college. Some look at it as strictly as fun travel experience. Others do look at it as, at least partly, a ‘resume builder’ for college recruiting.
Will this help you ‘get noticed’ if that is your goal? I did a deep dive on that not long ago and you can read that here. To summarize that… yeah, it won’t hurt. Our athletes play for college coaches and test themselves against players from across the USA and against players from across the World. One thing I hear all the time from parents after their tour is how their child’s confidence sky-rocketed post trip, leading to athletic improvement. That certainly would help your college recruiting if that is your goal. Our coaches are often instrumental in the recruiting process of our athletes. Shoot, we have former coaches that have 5-6 kids on their current college teams that they coached on our tours!
Regardless, the vast majority of our athletes either are, or will be college athletes someday. But, the mission and purpose of what we do (found here) is not about college recruiting. It’s about athletic development, leadership development, personal growth, cultural appreciation, world perspective, patriotism, family bonding, and fun.
As far as our experience being ‘expensive’. Well, it’s sure not cheap. International travel is not cheap, that’s why so few people do it. We focus on making our tours affordable and a great value. Our testimonials (here) document so many families amazed at the value of our tours, especially compared to what they are used to spending on weekend club tournaments across the USA each summer. And those are often rather boring!
Are our clients foolish? Most of them did a ton of research on SAWUSA before traveling with us (here is a great place to start). Robert saw a picture of a kid on social media in a USA jersey feeling proud in anticipation of a life-changing upcoming summer experience and he decided to crap on them and their parents without even looking into what it actually is. Then he wrote the review below. I think that is pretty foolish.
If you’ve read this far – thank you. Unfortunately, reviews like this can harm our business, even when they are completely baseless. It’s just another hard aspect of running a small business. It’s difficult to not get upset when someone who knows nothing about how much work goes into every aspect of the business takes 30 seconds to crap on it all. So, I’d love your help. I’d love it if you would write an awesome review for us and help overshadow the pointless negativity of our friend Robert. You can do that here.
More importantly, I hope to see you on a tour soon! You can start an application here.
Sincerely,
Tim Ryerson
SAWUSA Founder
