Elzie Odom Recreation Center

Pretty nice facility in a nice location. I’ve been to watch basketball games, I’ve participated in a women’s league here, and I’ve also been for a birthday party. All were good experiences!

Don’t ever send your kids to the summer camp. The counselors are a joke and they will end up hurting your kid. My daughter will no longer attend this camp and will request a full refund tomorrow.

Being new to the city, I was referred to this location. The staff is friendly yet professional. Ernie and Christina are a wonderful representation of the Rec Center. both are welcoming and helpful! I went in to enroll my child in a mini camp and came out with a better option, junior league cheer. My child was so excited! We love seeing our child come out of her shell more and the games are real intense. Better than NBA games.
They also have a nice rock climbing wall, skating rink, and many class offerings. Overall, a nice recreation center!

Three Reasons Con-​Arlington Sports and One-​half Reason Pro-​Arlington Sports
If you are looking for a safe and encouraging environment for your child to play a sport, do not play with Arlington Sports through Arlington Sports and Recreation. The first, and most unfortunate problem with the league is the roster of parents who sign their children up to play. The over-​whelming majority of them are the type who carry a kind of blood-​lust for victory, encouraging, often by way of example, all sorts of reprobated behavior in their children, including but not limited to cheating (in multiple forms) violent aggression, cursing, bullying, and even theft.
Secondly, parents are able to sign-​up their children to be on the same team as friends and long-​time playmates, which is a nice feature if you are a fist-​time player hoping to start your sporting adventure with a buddy. However, it is clear that most of the families have taken this as an occasion to form their own low-​income club league. So the few players that did not have a team-​sized list of friends to sign-​up with get placed on a team of left-​overs, and most of those players are the youngest and least skilled in the entire league. Moreover, the sign-​up process does not require birth certificates or any other form of ID. Suppose a team of almost eight year-​old children, who have been playing soccer together for years, is playing a team of four-​and-​a-​half year-​olds that have never played on an organized soccer team before. Not only does this set-​up make it frustrating and difficult for early players, but it also poses a major safety issue. They will absolutely dominate the younger, less skilled players, and they will, since it is likely that their parents are types mentioned above, behave atrociously and maliciously as they do so.
Thirdly, and finally, Arlington Sports is poorly managed. Even though the facilities are average and quite adequate for gameplay, the officials are poorly trained, and along with their inadequate training, they work well with the coaches and parents of the kinds of teams mentioned above. They have no problem rearranging teams, fields, or other vital regulatory materials without consulting all teams involved. This is, perhaps, the greatest liability for Arlington Sports since a team that might have to forfeit because too few of their players showed up, could recruit, virtually, any kid of any age and skill level from the stands if they can do so surreptitiously enough (and they will). It is an ill company that many of these officials and coaches keep with one another.
The only bright side of Arlington Sports is the existence of a few gems for a low price, like a sincere coach who wants to teach children about healthy competition and teamwork or a smattering of well-​bred families with a sense of moral obligation and ethical duty concerning their children and community. However, these kind few are over-​whelmed by the degenerate, and it’s better to just have that inevitable meeting with them at church or a business function than find them at Arlington Sports where your child is sure to be demoralized.

I go here to vote. I’m pretty sure the way the voting is run has very little to do with how the place is run, so I won’t hold it against them that during the 2010 election the computers went down and it took forever to reboot because most of the helpers were 110 or older and easily confused. I won’t even hold it against them that this district elects Joe Barton – the one congressman to stand up for BP during the oil spill and say we were being too hard on them. What a D-​Bag.
The center itself looks kind of nice. They have classes and so forth at reasonable prices. And a big wall for climbing. And exercise machines that look new and modern in a room that’s mostly been empty every time I’ve went into the building.
And the place doesn’t smell like armpit or anything. Always a plus in a recreation center.