Tom Urquhart's School of Baseball

Do not spend the money. They love to name drop and pitch college scholarships. The teams are not competitive or well coached.

Both of my sons have been with Urquhart for over a year and I have to say the improvements that they have both made has been great! My older son plays on the showcase team and that experience has really opened his eyes and has him more driven than ever. The opportunity to play college teams as a high school junior and get in front of coaches and scouts in a live environment is awesome.

Prior to me signing a contract with these people, Tom Urquhart's office manager, who is also his wife, Paula, told me that Tom was a pitcher with the Philadelphia Philllies. At a later date, when problems surfaced with the team, I decided to check if Tom in fact had pitched with the Phillies, but was unable to find any evidence of that online. I did find that Tom pitched with the minor league team, affiliated with the Phillies, which was a big deal to me, since the contract included 14 lessons, and I wanted my son to get lessons from the MLB pitcher. I now understand that if a player has ever played for a minor AAA league team, affiliated with the major league baseball team, he can say that he played with that team's organization, for example "the Phillies organization", but, surely they can't expect an average person to know that. If, for example, someone tells you that they had pitched with the Kansas City Royals organization, you would picture them on the pitching mound at the Kaufman stadium, and not on the mound of the Royal's affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers, in Papillion Nebraska. In any event, Tom's wife told me that he had pitched with the Phillies, not with the Phillies organization. Also, Tom's profile on coachup.com stated that he "pitched 4 seasons with Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates". In a later phone conversation with Tom, I brought up the Phillies issue, but Tom would not address it. My son's team did not do well in the Blue Valley Golden Glove league games, which surprised me, because in the beginning Tom told me that they are very selective about drafting players. So, apparently to make up for the regular season's losses, Tom's facility signed my son's AA team to play against single A teams in tournaments, and the team did win a few games there, but for my son it was not a good experience. At the end of this season, Tom had sued 4 people, for non payment of the team fees, two parents from his 18U team and two from the 12U team. Since my son left half way through the season, I was one of the people Tom sued. As you can imagine, my experience has not been good. The judge did not find in my favor, and, although Tom has admitted the fact that the profile on coachup.com must have been created either by him or by someone from his office, he denied any knowledge of the fact that it states that he had pitched with the Phillies and the Pirates for 4 seasons. Buyer beware! Additionally, this facility is only 4,000 sq. feet, which is very small, compared to other places, such as Mac N. Seitz. Do yourself a favor, and check out other places.

This is a great spot for development. If you spend time outside of practice working on your game, you will have tons of success. My son gets great pitching and arm care instruction and because our expectation is to get lessons from the Urquharts and staff and to put those lessons learned into the work we do at home, we are having a great experience. My son loves to work on his craft and is benefiting from the positive influences associated with this school. We are signing up my youngest this season to hopefully play on a 10U team.

The negative reviews sound like maybe there was a mis-match in expectations.Tom is perfect for my 13 yr old son at this stage of development. There are no radar guns on site that I saw. Tom emphasizes arm health with velo- not going to strike anyone out with your arm in a cast. I understand, and my son understands, what the building blocks need to be for speed, control and deception. i would encourage any parent signing up to be clear on expectations. If you are looking for 95 in high school, you probably need a different coach (and a tissue donor for that new elbow)

This organization was the best thing that happened for my son. He took pitching lessons from Tom for over 15 years. I can honestly say if it wasn't for Tom's coaching, We believe he wouldn't have got as many college offers as he did. If you are looking for baseball private instruction this is the place to come.

Stay away from joining a team here. Tom himself gives good pitching lessons, but the teams are horrendous. They are money hungry and the coaches are horrible. This organization is all about getting your money.

Tom is a very good coach. He can teach more in 1/2 hour than most coaches teach in a year.

Sadly I wish I could say I was pleased with the "do the right thing" business wise or Coaching wise... I WISH I could say there was developmental coaching... but there simply wasn't for either option. Not even an inkling. With the "mandatory" practices in which only 4-5 of the 15 show up and outfielders are taking infield practice and one Coach... come on! These kids parents (18U that is) are payin WAY too much for this lack of coaching behavior... I have heard the head coach even say if you don't know how to play by now I can't teach you this stuff... (and it wasn't even directed at my kid FYI) THAT'S WHAT WE PAY YOU FOR IS TO DEVELOP AND COACH THEM!!! Not berate, belittle (in front of other coaches and players and umpires... in the middle of games BTW and on the mound... and yelling at their own coaches across the diamond... and not just on one occasion either), insult and embarrass on the baseball field... respect the GAME, Coach!!! I listened to other teams who figured out who the Scouts were by "oh all this team's coach does is just hate on the kids all the time." That was late June 2017Then we'll get to the business end. I gave a month notice that my kid wouldn't be playing with them in the fall 2017 league... and requested a refund as they had plenty of time to find a replacement... basically was laughed at by the GM... I can give you her name here but won't) and was told I had already signed a contract and I was out of luck... around $1700!! the contract hadn't even begun yet!!! Now I can understand quitting mid season or ANY part of the season... but a MONTH before it had even started???!!! I shoulda paid one season at a time and done more due diligence and would have reconsidered... sadly my son now has a HATE for baseball whereas before he loved it. He's let go of any baseball post highschool now and is employed but this company seems more MONEY MINDED than player development and coaching. Because it just.... does.... not..... exist. I am not one to usually do this, however, if you're considering my experience, be forewarned.

This was the worst baseball experience I think I could have imagined. If you are desperate and have no other option, sure they will take your money. 7-9 kids show up for every practice but 13-15 show up to play the game? They tell these kids if they work hard and practice they will play. But then they have other kids show up that are relatives of coaches or are children that they are trying to get on the team. Very shady. I have seen them thrown out of tournaments and banned from baseball fields. Don't walk away, run. Just very shady.