We used KPS for our kids at age 2 1/2. The kids ran around with the soccer ball and Marcel encouraged them to kick the ball, sit on the ball, etc, but of course many wandered off as expected. Marcel was fine and while my daughter didn't really like it, my son loved "Coach" and loved soccer practice.

Are you serious???!! You encourage sports instructors to put three year-old kids in time out for not listening???? For goodness sake, that would translet into a permanent time out. If an instructor of almost toddlers cannot engage them sufficiently, w/o threatening time outs, that is HUGE problem. This is a soccer class for 3-4 year-olds we're talking about. Not a minor league soccer team. It's supposed to be fun, not scary.

Let me add that my husband co-coaches an MSI soccer team made up of 6-8 year-olds, and there are no time-outs for not listening. Kids get spoken to or redirected when they get distracted or act up, but no punishment. And this should apply 100-fold to 3-4 year-olds!!!

ooohhhh Time Out for not listening...how abusive of the coach!!

3 year olds can and should be expected to listen and follow simple directions. (Not without exception, but the posts imply that all 3 year olds dont listen)

What should the coach do?

We had a horrible experience with Marcel and KidsPro. He would put 3-year olds in time-out when they didn't do what he wanted (which is going to happen alot with 3-year olds!). Others had enrollment problems and he would cancel class and not reschedule.

For those of you non-believers that Kids Pro Soccer is managed by a person who is unfit to work with children (he is also the main coach), see the except below from another person (in the link above posted on July 29th, 16:20pm). I will be reporting him to the Better Business Bureau too, but it seems like it has little effect on him...



Anonymous



OP again, thanks for above feedback-is there a different process when you're trying to register with other kids from school? We were invited to do a school thing but the parent organizer directed us to register on the web. I never got a confirmation and just wanted to make sure the class wasn't cancelled since it starts this week. So I called the contact number posted on their website. The guy who answered (who I think may be the company owner) told me he had no record of our registration and that I'd have to register again. When I pointed out that I'd already paid by credit card and could see the charge on my statement, he said well he couldn't find my kid's name and we weren't registered. So then I said I need to get a refund if you are not able to register my son. Then he started screaming at me in a foreign language. When I said I didn't understand him he said I was too stupid to understand his native tongue. Then he said I was too stupid to come to the US and start my own business the way he did. Then he hung up on me. What am I missing here? Isn't there supposed to be somebody available to deal with the business side of things? At this point I think I need to just contact my credit card company and dispute the charge. I already filed a complaint with BBB. There was one other complaint already out there about KPS.

I am surprised that so many folks have had good experiences with Kids Pro. We had a very bad experience with Coach Marcel a few years back when he literally lost it with my husband in the middle of a discussion about the possibility of an additional child joining the group (my husband had organized the group for this particular class). He started screaming at him in front of the kids, scaring all of them and reducing my son to tears.

Several years later, I stupidly enrolled my second son in a KPS class, and experienced our share of no-shows on the part of the coach - and this was not due to rain. Additionally, some of the coaches threatened the kids with time-outs when they got rambunctious, as any normal 3 year-old is apt to do.

Needless to say, I will not be signing up with KPS again. I agree that some of the coaches are really good, but the organization is run by a mad man.

I have no experience with Kids Pro Soccer but canceled sessions due to wet fields is part of the drill. That should be clear up front.

It seems that the many people I have met who have had bad experiences are unfortunately not taking the time to post their views. And this is why the organization gets away with doing what it wants to its customers. There may be a few good coaches, but the head of the organization and his management is unbelievably bad!

And some bad experiences don't rule out others' good.

New poster here, and we also had a great experience with Kids Pro. We didn't deal with the office at all, but the coach was fabulous!

One person's good experience with Kids Pro does not rule out others' bad experience.

Anonymous wrote:We've repeatedly had great experiences with Kids Pro Soccer and Marcel was great with our sometimes difficult toddler. There were cancellations and the notice wasn't great but the cancellations were due to wet fields - MOCO won't let you play on a field when its rained within 24 hours. They told us that up front and since we knew about it we just assumed classes were cancelled when it rained and didn't rely on specific notices.

Thanks Kids Pro!

We've repeatedly had great experiences with Kids Pro Soccer and Marcel was great with our sometimes difficult toddler. There were cancellations and the notice wasn't great but the cancellations were due to wet fields - MOCO won't let you play on a field when its rained within 24 hours. They told us that up front and since we knew about it we just assumed classes were cancelled when it rained and didn't rely on specific notices.

there was another thread about this recently...

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/46460.page#317429

We are signed up for one of their programs and it's been great so far. Coach is terrific and they've been very responsible in our experience. One cancellation so far, but it was due to application of pesticide and we got lots of notice and they'll add another class on at the end.

This is just to alert parents to not sign up their kids for soccer through the Kids Pro Soccer program. I have signed up 3 times with them in the past 18 months and had bad experieces with their lack of professionalism. The last time I signed up (which was this summer), I had the worst experience ever-- the organization is badly run, classes are frequently cancelled or rescheduled to new locations without notification of parents, and the Manager/Coach (Marcel) is one of the most rude and abnoxious people I have met. Unfortunately, several desparate parents like myself end up signing our kids repeatedly with this program, but I have finally learnt my lesson on this last round. This is a general complaint that is echoed by many parents I have met through the program