Game Day USA - Naperville, Illinois

Jennifer Budd

I'm giving 2 Stars because we had a good experience with the All Star Weekend in Naperville, IL, but a not so great experience at the Junior All-American Tournament in Fort Myers, FL.

To give some feedback, my son (15) does not play travel ball. He was nominated based on his JV stats for the high school season. They accepted him into the All-Star Tournament, he was the "hand-picked" to come to the All-Star Weekend Tournaments in either FL or AZ.

When we came to Ft. Myers, the first day was great! The atmosphere, the message from the former MLB players and the skills evaluations. However, once we were broken up into our teams that's when it became apparent that these teams seemed a bit lopsided. A lot of egos and errors on the team and the coach seemed like he really didn't want to be there (mind you this is over Thanksgiving weekend and he is a former MLB player). Really no coaching going on, or so it seemed during the pool play. The day of the bracket play we literally heard the coach say he was ready to go home and we were going to lose pretty quick so they might as well shake hands now (the coaches). I thought this was very unprofessional and unfair to the kids who traveled from states away to play here.

My son played his primary position ONCE, and pretty much sat the bench the entire rest of the tournament. When he was out in the game, he kept getting put in positions that are not his primary or secondary. Like he was set up to fail - the kids who had parents that were constantly in the coaches face were the ones who got all the opportunities. My husband and I believe our son should showcase without us stepping in, especially at the high school age.

At the end of the tournament (going 0 and 3), the only feedback our coach gave me son was pretty much he needed to work on ground balls in the outfield (not an outfielder) and put on weight. Even though his pitching was on point after shaking the rust off, there were no compliments or feedback on his primary position.

Admittedly, his hitting was lacking due to not playing since August and limited availability and funds for extra hitting practice.

My son was appreciative of the opportunity, but left with much disappointment.

P.S. the other kid on his team with similar build as my son was also treated about the same as my son, and not given the opportunity to showcase his primary position.

Kevin Schmid

Honestly the one star is only because you can not leave a zero or below.
For the amount of money paid to participate in the allstar tournament, you should be able to expect the teams to be balanced, and players to play in either their "primary" if not at the very least secondary positions.
This is not the case, coach kids (who were strictly registered, not awarded) play their positions, while players that earned tags play where ever the coach puts them.
Kids that are awarded tags are there in expectation that they will get to showcase their talents and move on to the more "Elite" tournaments, and never even get the opportunity to do so.
What is worse is the fact that some teams have three players that are pitchers as primary positions, while others have zero. It is no wonder teams are winning by double digits.
In short, Gameday USA is no better than scams that take advantage of the elderly.

thomas guarnieri

I came out to see my grandson play in a travel tournament and was appalled to learn the policy of Game Day USA. My son is a Special Education who dedicates himself to helping students. He is a divorced father of three boys who spends nights without his boys working a second job and weekends without them as a working musician all in order to make ends meet. Game Days policy is to charge a parent bringing their child to play in a game $15 /day or $40 weekend pass. Appalling behavior, all in the name of profiting from hard working parents. This company should be boycotted by all travel teams organizing tournaments. Shameful!!!!

donald leicht

Kids work hard to win a championship but tourney director cancels due to rain. Fields are turf and the rain was going to clear in 1 hour. They got their money so no worries on their end. We will never put our teams in another game day tourney again. Shame on them!

Chris White

As an umpire you do not want to do games for this Organization especially in Rantoul, IL. The staff in Naperville have been made aware of several issues with the Tournament Director and UIC there and refuse to do anything about it. The UIC and Tournament director are the same person, he reaches out to have umpires hold dates and then doesn't follow through and schedules. Additionally he will schedule umpires and give them a schedule and then tell them the day of the game they are not working. They are also the lowest paying organization there is in Travel Baseball. I have never seen an organization run this way and I would not recommend umpiring for this organization. In fact I would tell your kids teams to play for other organizations other than Game Day USA. There is the Rock Tournament Group, JP Sports, and Diamond Sports Promotions all of which are great for umpires and teams to play in and they are ran very well unlike Game Day.

Michele Johnson

Championship Game of a 14U tournament and this is the ONLY umpire on the field. The previous two days we had two umpires for all the pool games.

No ice available at the field for injuries.

No organizational presence at the field in the least.

This tournament seems like a HUGE money grab. They have the fields, but not much else.
This is the for the Cheesehead Championships in Wisconsin Dells 2022.

Steve Gwisdalla

It costs more to see my 14 year old play than to go watch a AAA baseball game. You guys are horrible. This will be our last tourney with you money grubbing clowns. We already pay for travel. We paid for the tourney and then you charge $10 a day and all we get is a full Porta john.

J D

Prefer not to give a negative review but in my 4 years of travel baseball experience as both a coach and a parent gameday tournaments seem to be more of a cash grab than a contribution to youth sports. I gave them an extra 🌟 however due to a recent bad experience that they at least responded to and made an effort for resolution. I'll explain. They cancelled a Sunday game series for weather when it was an easily playable day. There was no effort to prepare the fields and an immediate cancellation while all the other tourneys in the area played. It was just a poor call on their part, but they did step up and make amends to the teams in honor of their mistake. I just hope they do better in the future as for some of the players coaches and parents in these tournaments that give 100%, we expect the same in return.