Our athlete has been in cheer for a long time, some of that at ODT. There are some great things about this gym. The individual and team camps are fun and exciting. Being away from home with your team is a good bonding experience, the camp is very clean, safe and well run. The ODT facility is large, with a spring floor, a dead mat, tumble track and rod floor. There is other equipment that most gyms have and it is all in decent shape. They have opportunities for children with special needs so that is nice to have. Their Sr level 5 team will take high school age boys that have had little to no cheer experience. That works both for the gym, they can have strong boys hold up their experienced athletes and the boys get to participate on the highest level ODT offers. Most athletes work all their lives to be on that level of team. The owner is a police officer and is always concerned about online safety of the athletes. They have the most wonderful tumbling coach that was brought from California a few years ago. Sadly, he is no longer coaching as a team coach and just focused on private lessons and tumbling classes.
There are not so good things too. Their business management really needs improvement. We are constantly being billed incorrectly and we are not the only families dealing with overcharges, undercharges, charges for classes that we did not take or things we didn't buy. Many families removed their credit cards and waited for refunds. Even families that had stopped going to the gym found charges on their cards. If you go to this gym watch your billing each month. Keep your cost sheet and a copy of your contract to refer to later. They will tell you things that aren't in your contract and you might not get your money back. Uniforms, warm-ups and backpacks never came in or came in so late that it couldn't really be used for the season. Some athletes were not signed up in time for competitions and had to sit out. They don't run it well at all and don't give much information about what is happening.
Coaching is also a serious problem at this gym. If your athlete is on the level 4 and above teams, it will be a good experience. The owner is the coach for those levels and pays more attention to the teams. Make sure to set your expectations low and try to not become involved, just watch the competitions. Your athlete will have a better time the less time their family spends in the gym. Anything level 3 and below is a mess. One coach does nothing but yell at the athletes. She threatens violence, says mean things and refuses to coach. Over years, families complained about her behavior and she left many athletes in tears. Nothing has been done to manage that. A new coach who was hired this season had many families and staff telling the owners not to hire her because her reputation is so bad. Three years, three different programs; one she ran into the ground and closed. They said that they needed coaches and they would manage her closely. Her team was a hot mess all year until the gym decided to cross down level 5 athletes and helped her coach. One coach showed up to a team event intoxicated and had an inappropriate relationship with another coach at the gym. One is not able to get a coaching certification because of not passing the USASF background check. I don't think they background check their coaches very well or have any standards and are desperate for coaches. They also don't coach with the same set of coaching practices across all teams. If an athlete moves between teams, their experience is way different depending on what that coach's personality is.
Parents can be not that friendly here either. Many were kicked out of the parent room and practices locked down because the parents would talk bad about each other, the gym and even the athletes and other children. This made the all the parents not be able to watch because of a bad few. Parents would threaten that they would pull their kid unless their kid got a certain spot on a certain team and some of the time the coaches allowed it to happen. The parents across teams rarely talk to each other, mostly just kept to the families of the team that their athlete is on. There is a bit of favoritism happening even though they swear by their tumbling rubric. It still comes down to what the parents want and if they threaten to leave, not what builds the best teams, score sheet or what the athletes skills are.
Not sure I would send my athlete back to ODT unless I knew the placement would be level 4 or higher. It's sad because there are not very many options in Oregon. If one of the mega gyms like Cali All Stars moved in the area or another program that had multiple teams, level 4 and level 5, ODT wouldn't last long. High school cheer is becoming a better option, schools now have competition teams and the costs are much lower. read more
