Thunder Baseball

We have used them off an on for training for the past few years before deciding to move my son fully into their programs. One of the best decisions we have made for improving and expanding his abilities. Great coaches who always make sure the kids are learning and having fun. Coach Vail is one of the best.

Best facility and staff on the front range. Doing it right in EVERY aspect of the game and lifestyle that is BASEBALL! Hard to find an organization that's classy well run and produces results at elite levels. This. Is. It.

Thunder is a great youth baseball league for kids that are in to baseball. Great coaches and they have a nice indoor facility.

Grateful for this facility for our players' growth.

If you want inconsistent coaching and poor communication this is the club for you. My son was on the “Academy” team and we joined because they promised development and a great professional coach. Before the season even started the first professional coach quit and we got a different professional coach who was quite good. Half the season was a good experience under him. Well Thunder could not retain him either so then our “Academy” team ended up being “daddy ball” which was exactly what we were promised it would not be. With 3 Dad’s in the dugout controlling everything and not developing the other kid’s (my son said practices were like play dates) for the 2nd half of the season my son became an accessory player for the coaches kids. Not only was he not getting developed, but he was also getting yelled at further hurting his confidence (the outbursts in the dugout created a culture of fear). In addition, they brought in a majors level “guest player” (this was AAA team) that played nearly every inning who did not pay the $$ all the other players families had. It became clear Thunder plays only to win tournaments and at the expense of developing players and were not there to develop all the players like they promised when they took everyone’s $$.
When I took my concerns in a collaborative way to find solutions to the head coach, I was literally ignored for 3 weeks. I had zero return calls or texts. Zero. Finally after having to become uncomfortably assertive, I received a long winded late night email with an assessment of my son that was strikingly different than the previous professional coach from the first half of the season. I then took my concerns to the owner of Thunder and it was clear he did not care. Since they did not care about my son, we found plenty of other teams that wanted to actually partner with us for his development that had mature, professional communication skills.
Since we left there was a bullying incident on the owner’s team that he coaches because he plays the same 5 players on his team causing friction, tension and frustration like we experienced.
An organization thrives from the top down. In this case the top (owner) is a conflict avoidant non communicator that will bully you if you have a difference of opinion. He lacks the adult communication and professional skills one needs to run an organization. He has created a culture of fear and if that is what you want for your son/daughter, then Thunder is the perfect fit. If you want a professionally coached team, true development, strong communication and a culture that encourages failure as baseball is a game of failure, look anywhere else but Thunder.
I took the time to write this to help other families avoid getting sold and paying a lot of $$ to have your kid’s development stalled. They tell you what you want to hear when they recruit you but discard you and your kid quickly if you hold them to their word.

Acoach on my son’s team argued with the refs, prioritized his son on the mound and yelled at the kids instead of supporting them.

This reason is the primary reason I give the “team” a 1 star.

Thunder lacks the ability to show a good example to the team on good sportsmanship with this coach.

There are better clubs out there. Look around.

Exclusionary parent culture to new families not considered as part of the 1 star review.

I agree with McDuffee. We had an unfortunate experience resulting in my son crying more than playing baseball. My son is not the best player (he is a good athlete) and needed structure and guidance but instead of structure and guidance he was benched most of the season and the team pulled from other teams to find better players, so, my son sat most of the season and did not understand why. No child’s mental health is worth that. We have also hear similar unfortunate stories from other parents. The motto is that Thunder is not a “win at all cost” team but based on our experience, it is exactly that. Thunder needs to remember that parents talk, and this is a business where they cannot take chances on that.

Not a trustworthy or customer service oriented program at all. All they are interested in is getting your hard earned cash. We had scheduling issues, the web site is less than helpful when signing up for multiple lessons, and the coaches treated us poorly. When problems arose their communication was less than helpful. Buyer beware spend you hard earned money else where. If I could rate them with less than one star I would...