The coach assigned to Everett's team was not capable of teaching basketball, or even letting them play basketball at practice. No skills development was attempted... Everett decided to leave the team after a few weeks - we let the coach know why. I think it would have been difficult for YMCA staff to predict the outcome in accepting this coach. Nonetheless, Everett loves basketball and all team sports. He will continue with YMCA basketball in the spring season.

Our coaches were great and communicative. They were patient and able to keep my daughter engaged in learning the sport and playing together in a team

First team experience for my child and it went pretty well. They want to sign up again.

The referees didn’t call out players who were being over-aggressive. A few times opponents were guarding my son by literally wrapping their arms around him in a hug restraint. The refs saw this and did nothing, nor did the coaches of the opposing team.

The matches were well organized, my son gained skills and had fun. My one complaint is the practice times. 7:00-8:00 pm is difficult for kids who often go to bed by 8:00. If practices could be earlier, that would work better for kids.

The frequency of the practices and games is just right. The environment is encouraging.

Just wish the teams here Nicer and friendlier.

Basketball rules were not enforced at all games. They need to be more enforced as kids get older they need to know the rules.

We have been generally happy with the program in terms of ease of use and good communication, as well as overall friendliness of the kids and parents. The downside is that the coaches don’t actually have to have skill in the sport they are coaching. So there is a disparity of what skills the kids come away with depending on what team they are placed with.

Good coaching and strong development of skills and sportsmanship.

Love the program. It did at times feel like there were teams who were being favored by staff

I purchased basketball for my son. I asked for a change in coach. Called and left 3 messages. No one returned my call. My son did not play due to this. My son was placed on a team where a child was added the last week and that child physically assaulted mine and sent my son to the hospital. I did not find this a safe team for us to be on due to the conflict. The bare minimum that the ymca could have done was call. I will not recommend the y due to this. We used the YMCA for 3 years before this.

With not having real refs at a higher age level has been awful. The "refs" only call some things on teams and everything on another team and the kids arnt learning. Hire real refs again.

My child had a great experience playing Y basketball - I'm sure he'll play again in the future!

Coach Rick was great with the kids!

Coaches were amazing, the Y allowing games to be fun and allowing cheering is much different than previous seasons and created such a fun environment.

We thought coach Marty was great, very inclusive, great communication, super nice! Perhaps more elaborate questions on player skill during registration to more fine tune where to put players would be beneficial to all. My son felt that half of his team were very fresh to basketball and it was unfair to him and the other half of the team to carry a lot of the responsibility of the success of the team.

About 1/3 of our practices were canceled because the YMCA did not make sure the gyms were avalible through the local schools. It seems there should be more thoughtful planning. There are so few practices, having them canceled because of school conflicts of the location should be preventable. Also, sharing gym space with another team is not conducive to learning, it doesn’t work.

We had a great coach and refs were friendly and helpful

I was disappointed in how scheduling was handled. We had a shared gym that was crowded and no place to sit besides outside of the gym. There were two occasions where practice was cancelled last minute because of shared gym scheduling issues.

Then practices went to one day a week because of the gym schedule. Shouldn’t this be figured out Ahead of time? Of course things happen but it just seemed sloppy.

There were times when the middle schoolers would come in to prep for their practice and would hit volleyballs back and forth, these would regularly almost hit others and almost hit my 8 month old in his head. It’s annoying that the coaches didn’t ask them to not do that, or whomever is responsible for them.

Some parents are also not friendly or flat out rude, so I was disappointed in that - but that’s not a Y issue. I think there should be more encouragement for parents to engage somehow since their kids are becoming friends.

Lastly. The photos were haphazardly scheduled before a game and my child could not attend due to another thing we had going on. This upset her immensely. Please consider scheduling photos ahead of time during a practice instead of before a game.

My child had fun which is all that matters, but improvements to logistics are majorly needed.

Great coach and assistant coach! Reliable and consistent

Very inclusive

I think the Y is a great place to start learning skills without being super competitive. Best for grade school kids I think!

YMCA volleyball has become much less

For the most part it’s fantastic but I have noticed the last few times we’ve played basketball we get to practice to find out the gym is unavailable and the coach knew nothing about it. The last season we missed 3 practices due to gym issues, and now this season practice 2 was cancelled due to the gym being unavailable. It’s a bummer when we pay for the kiddos to play, but then numerous practices are cancelled. For that reason it makes me think twice to recommend or come back.

Does not feel inclusive doe neuro divergent kids.

Every single season played has been such a positive experience for my child.

KIds had fun and learned skills

The YMCA basketball offers kids a fun way to learn this team sport. Kids learn teamwork, skills, and are competitive in a healthy way. The communication from the YMCA and the referees are terrific. Games are on time. This is such a wonderful experience for everyone! Thank you, YMCA!

We have done YMCA volleyball for like 4 or 5 years it has been a great entry point for me competitive levels

We enjoyed playing with our coach and team, though we didn't know why we had to play one team twice when they were still two teams we didn't face.

The officiating was atrocious. Blatant fouls were rarely called. Kids were able to dribble out of bounds. I understand Y youth sports is a developmental league but how are the kids going to learn the basic rules of basketball when simple fouls and out of bounds isn’t called?

Love all the Y offers! Great place for kids to be exposed to sports and build confidence and for families to find connection

We enjoyed our volleyball experience very much. I was a coach and loved having facilities to practice twice a week. I saw a great deal of improvement in the athletes by the end of the season. My son did basketball, and it was VERY basic. He is 8 years old, and has played at higher levels in other leagues, so the experience for him was a bit of a bummer. There was just such a wide range of ability levels, it would almost be good if you were able to select the level of play for the season. I wish that they would have called things like traveling, double dribbling and fouls. Also, at his age, I think stealing should be allowed if they separated the league into basic and intermediate. I just felt like my son actually went backwards and not enforcing certain rules created bad habits for him.

We had a positive experience with youth sports basketball this session. The coaches were supportive and positive and we enjoyed the vibe of the teams each of my kids were on.

I like how the communication from both the YMCA and coaches has been timely and informative. Also, the refs and coaches have been wonderful. They ensure equal playing time for all kids and keep the learning of the sport fun and safe. Signing my child up for this sport experience has been everything that as a parent, I had hoped it would be. Thank you South Sound YMCA-Youth Sports!

Coach Kelsey and Coach Flavia for the Grades 2-3 Volleyball were the best! Thank you for making this sport available!

Positive and encouraging environment to develop skills and teamwork

We had a great coach! It was my son’s first year playing basketball and he learned so much. Even with all the errors my son made, coach continued to work with him and build his confidence. We can’t wait to return in Fall.

Make the seasons longer - my daughter’s team was just starting to gel together and then the season ended!

The referees! It's really hard for the kids to learn what is correct or not because all refs are different. Some refs call everything they should. And some refs call absolutely nothing.

There’s no seating for basketball games at the Y. I can’t understand this. Also on the first day of games, there was one referee in particular (woman with brown hair) who was pretty intolerant of the kids and didn’t seem to know or care that these kids are 7/8 years old and many haven’t played before. The coach we had genuinely did not spend any time teaching the new players HOW to handle a basketball. Somehow my kid is worse at ball handling now than when she started playing. He genuinely only focused on his star players. It’s not high school or college. It was really disappointing.

Keep the team together if possible at least for a year

I like the frequency of practices in volleyball. It made my daughters excited, a very good sport activity that they looked forward to during the week. Plus the games on Saturdays even made them more excited.

My husband has been coaching basketball for over 15 years. We realize other parent volunteer coaches are not as experienced & that’s totally fine. However it’s frustrating that the YMCA basketball referees do not understand the basic rules of basketball such as out of bounds/inbounding the ball, jump balls, teaching the kids correctly (such as no hugging, pushing, slapping on defense), and calling the rules that the YMCA sent the coaches prior to the season beginning (such as no not stealing off the dribble at 2/3 level & no backcourt press). We taught our kids to abide by those rules yet they were not consistently called so while we followed the rules, others did not, which was very frustrating for our players. We will likely take our team to the Tumwater league next year instead of YMCA. Thank you for listening.

I feel like it expensive and the kids aren’t really learning the sport. They are just playing which is ok. But to pay so much for them to play is a bit disappointing.

My kids are young for their grade (7 in Grade 2) and played the first half of the year on a K-1 (ages 5-7, per the website) team. They loved their team and it was absolutely age- and experience-appropriate for them. In the spring we were informed we would need to move to 2-3. Megan assured us that there would be no scorekeeping and players would wear wristbands, as in K-1. I understand that the Y needed to make space for more K-1 players, but it was, as expected, a rough experience. The coach was not particularly interested in working with less experienced players. I don't know if we were intentionally misled about the scorekeeping and wristbands, but they are definitely used in level 2-3. What had been a great experience in the fall effectively ended my kids' interest in basketball. It's disappointing that the Y chose to enforce rules in such an arbitrary way (it was ok for us to play K-1/5-7 in the fall?). It seems like valuing enrollment numbers over putting kids where they will actually thrive and building community.

Great coach and experience for my daughter's first volleyball and Y experience.

This was our first experience with the Youth Sports programs and my two girls enjoyed the k-1 grade volleyball so much we signed up for the next session. The coach was super engaging and even got parents involved. We can not wait to continue participating in the sports programs.

The emphasis on team play for all skill levels has been really great for my kid who is just dipping his toes into organized sports. The short sessions make sport sampling easy and accessible.