My son attended the Max Emfinger All-American Bowl Game in Austin, TX on Jan 8th. The game was originally scheduled to be played at SMU in Dallas, TX. Not until about a week before the game did the location change. Not to mention, emails starting to show up from Max stating that he was having difficulty getting sponsors and may have to cancel the game. He was begging the parents to find sponsors or become sponsors themselves. When registering for the game, parents had to pay $100 up front and mail in the payment by a certain deadline. The cost was to cover housing, food, and uniforms. The kids were allowed to keep the jerseys, which in some cases did not arrive until 5 mins before the game and were not in the correct sizes. Example - my son is a 2XL and had to wear a M.
The hotel location changed the night before everyone was suppose to arrive. The checkin time was suppose to be between 3-8pm. However, the hotel manager did not have the list of names of the players and who was to room with who and the individual responsible never showed up so around 8:30pm someone just placed kids in rooms or told them to pick roommates. My son shared a room with 3 other big boys. There were only two beds in this small room and the boys alternated as to who slept on the floor. They were fed sandwiches every night (2 slices of bread, once slice of meat and one slice of cheese). Their breakfast consisted of a box of juice and a tiny breakfast sandwich. I did not even dare to ask what lunch consisted of.
The whole thing was disorganized. Tuesday was suppose to be college day for the college coaches to watch the boys practice. No college coaches and practice was for 10 mins. No practice on Wed due to cold weather. Thursday about an hour of practice. Friday the boys were suppose to go to the Children's hospital but that never happened. My son as well as the rest of the team spent most of their time doing nothing but hanging around. And believe it or not... Max even had an itineray that was sent out with the package. An itinerary that meant nothing as it was not even followed in the least.
The time of the game fluctuated from 4pm to 5pm. We were told shirts and game film could be purchased. Shirts were available (limited supply), no game film was able to be purchased so if you did not bring a video camera you were out of luck, and pictures were sold for one team photo 5X7 and 4 individual wallets for $25. No order form, you just wrote your name down and paid a woman no one knew. I of course decided against that.
I really thought this was a good way of getting my son noticed by more schools. He already had offers but I wanted to give him more options. I now see it was not only a waste of time and money, but another way of Max to make money. He stated on his website he had 120 kids confirmed. At $100 a piece, that is 12,000... Where did that money go if it seems like no bills were paid? I guess the saying, "You get what you pay for" holds true. My heart just goes out to all those businesses and volunteers who helped Max and were ripped off in the end.
I just want to for-warn any other parents looking into using Max as a recruitment tool through his All-American Bowl Game... Run in the opposite direction as fast as you can!
I will say if the end result was for the boys to have fun playing in a game... Some got that. But as for the week adventure, it was a nightmare. The most exciting part of the whole thing was when the final horn blew at the end of the game and the week long terror came to an end.
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