No reason to leave LI but stay away from Island Box unless you want to deal with the bait and switch with a director/coach that you'll never see, a clueless PAL coach calling the shots for his kid to be the center of attention and being lied to about everything. Go take a look at NOTB instead...much better quality of training and tournament play
Someone else I know told me they had the same experience with Island Box. Pretty much what you described. Which makes me even more wary of Island Box when I consider that and see an inflated price along with that. But I also tried NOTB and wasnt impressed at the level of instruction there. And thought tournament was really disorganized. Have seen youth box tournaments outside Long Island and they are night and day to what I saw here. Are there any other options?
For box on LI its either IBL or NOTB. Regarding the $650 price tag at IBL for league play, that is because it includes season tickets to the Riptide. In order to enter in the Riptide youth box league, you have to buy the tickets. They would sell on their own for about $500. IBL is tacking on $150 which seems pretty reasonable. The Riptide youth league has their games at Nassau Collesium which is pretty cool assuming it gets off the ground.
IBL had an issue where the director got a DWI or similar and wasn't able to travel to NY. Not exactly a bait and switch but the result was the same, no legit box coach. It remains to be seen whether he'll be there this year. If he is, he's excellent. Overall, still decent quality training without him and they do go to real box tournaments which is great. Also, the number of boys in their practices is manageable numbers. The facility isn't great. IBL only has one real rink when they can get it and one sort of practice rink that really isn't good. Their in house tournament is good and has certified box officials.
NOTB training is very good overall. They have real Canadians who know the game inside and out - and more than one of them. They also have a lot more kids, therefore fewer reps. Their facility is much nicer and you have two full-size rinks. NOTBs in house tournament is not as good, I didn't notice the chaos the other poster mentioned, but the officials are really not box officials and no shot clock which is annoying. NOTB does not go to other tournaments, it is strictly a clinic and then one inhouse tournament.
To sum it all up: if you're looking for your son to play box tournaments and he already has some background in it, IBL is probably better with the caveat that you do have to make the team to actually play in tournaments. If you're looking for your son to learn box skills and dont care about tournaments then NOTB is probably better.
Hope that helps.
$500 for a season ticket is assuming Island Box is going to get you the most expensive season tickets. I got a hunch that the 1 season ticket you're getting for being in the Riptide Box league (which then you'll have to go and buy another season ticket to with your son) will be the cheaper season ticket package, which is $180
When last I looked and it could have changed, to get into the Riptide league you had to buy 2 tickets at $288 each. IBL could have a different deal, I don’t know, I didn’t look at it that closely.
If you enter the Riptide league as a Free Agent ($600 cost) you get the 2 season tickets. Below is copy/paste from the Island Box website:
If selected Team tuition of $650 includes:
- Rip Tide Tri State Box Premier League Played at Coliseum on Riptide floor, plus 1 season ticket to all NY Riptide games with all the benefits of a Riptide season ticket holder and player in the Tri-state Box Premier League - Uniforms Supplied for tournaments and games - 6 weeks of team practice - USBOXLA Tournament Tentative date: 2/22/20 at Sportime Bethpage ( more tournaments could be added a la carte.)
But if you are part of that Riptide premier league why would you only get 1 ticket. Riptide is clear on their weboage that each player gets 2 tickets.
I bet you they are are splitting the league cost of $500 between 2 players. So each player only gets to play 2 or 3 games in the Riptide league instead of 5. I would ask a lot more questions begore signing up for IBL.
And CoachL had that dwi accident back in the first year of the program 2017-18. But he wasnt showing up in 2018-19 either with no excuse. He is busy with his Colorado program. He is not coming here.
