Austin Sports & Social Club

I play softball in the Thursday night super social league. Really fun league. Win or lose its always a good time. Most of the other teams are down to earth and just looking to have a good time. Sign up is easy now that they’ve moved to their new online system. They’ll match you up on a team too if you are flying solo.

Guys and gals–
Notthing but great things to say about these guys. I know kevin personally and this is simply a bad loss to a playoff im sure. I would argue that our team is the most talented group out there and we still lose the championship— so maybe not the besthaha. Point being— its a social league not the NFL. Drink a beer and relax.
Staff has always been respectful out our time– they show up and call the games to the best of their ability.

The concept of Austin sport and social club is great; however I have one strong complaint. The refs are horrible. In my last flag football game the head ref was «Kevin». For what ever reason he played favorites. Throughout the game I would ask him «how much time is left». He would get so mad at me for asking that. I seriously thought he was going to eject me from the game. You could just tell he hated that question. When the other team asked he was more than happy to help out and tell them the time. I’m sorry but football is about clock management and if there is no visible clock on the field I’m going to ask.
Now I know not every call is going to be right in a game. People make mistakes and you have to consider human error. Here’s one big example: so if your team is on your side of the 40 the QB can’t run unless they are blitzed. Well there was one play where the rusher crossed the line with her foot so the QB took off running; granted it probably was a hard angle and he couldn’t see. Boom out comes a flag. My team didn’t yell or complain at all to the ref. Now AFTER the game is completely over we are sitting in a circle having a team discussion. That play came up and we were talking negative but not rudely. Kevin comes up to our group uninvited and says «the refs are standing right here”(as in behind our team group). My response to that was «hey man refs make mistakes and its human error but her whole foot was literally across the down marker, it’s not a big deal. It’s just constructive criticism». Please keep in mind we were having a team discussion and we honestly were not even bashing on the refs. Kevin ask us to leave the field.
Any ways the entire moral of this story is if you ever get a game where «Kevin» is a ref I strongly suggest asking for a different ref who won’t get mad at silly things.

I’ve played in this league for a couple years on softball and kickball teams. Recently, I’ve noticed a serious disregard for the players who choose to sign up for the SSC. This year was my first (and last) time volunteering to be a captain for a softball team my friends and I chose to sign up for.
I had several questions throughout the sign up process (that could not be remedied through their worthless ‘help’ section on their website) and NEVER was able to get ahold of anyone in the office. The only time I received any sort of feedback was when our team owed the opposing team money for a forfeit-​more on that in a minute. No updates for when shirt pickup was, no responses to emails or phone calls, rain outs were poorly communicated, etc.
Their forfeit policy is bogus. Our team sent in our forfeit notification at the end of the day 3 hours before the game was scheduled to take place. Unfortunately, the «office staff» (whom I am convinced do not actually exist) had left 5 minutes prior to our notification of forfeit, resulting in a 50 DOLLAR FORFEIT FEE to be paid to the opposing team for their happy hour drinks prior to our next game. I have a REAL hard time justifying a $ 50 fee for a forfeit when you already have to pay just as much to join a joke of a sports league.
What’s worse is they aren’t consistent with their ridiculous policies. Our team was expecting to receive the same $ 50 forfeit fee for a similar situation, but because the opposing team was able to pull a few random folks together and decided to scrimmage instead, their fee was ‘waived’. A couple teammates and I had a conversation with the ‘on staff’ guy at the fields that evening. He was initially in agreement with our argument that the fee should be applied to the opposing team, but the more we talked, the more he decided he didn’t want it to be his problem, changed his mind, and told us to «email the office». When I explained that the office people were pretty incompetent when it came to feedback of any kind, he shrugged and walked away. Wish I could say I was surprised as to how the situation was handled.
While that was easily the most enjoyable game of the entire season (since it was a scrimmage, we didn’t have inconsistent umpires to deal with), it was immensely frustrating to not see the same protocol enforced on the opposing team. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time with this league. It’s lack of organization, communication, and consistency end up making what’s supposed to be a fun, laid back sports league pretty unenjoyable.

This league is horrible I play in the Wednesday dodgeball league and the refs are a joke. We were told at the beginning of the year games were 3 mins then when I ask a ref who is clearly not monitoring the time he gets mad and says its 5 mins and there is no way it’s been 5 mins. I then ask the head referee the next week and he confirms the time limit and dismisses me and says that he was just going by the old rules. This is just one example of many that display lack of actual officiating as well as not even caring about what the rules actually are. I’ve played two seasons and this is my last as I the officiating has somehow gotten worse. Assc somehow ruins dodgeball! I would not recommend this league to anyone!!!

Update:
I was contacted by a member of their staff after posting my initial review and she was apologetic and wanted to make things right. Eventually, she set up a call with me and their director who I spoke with on the phone and have since shared several emails with. In regards to my first issue with the forfeit, it was confirmed that this was not a rule and the ref erred in forfeiting us but by the time this exchange occured, the season was over and there wasn’t much that could be done about it. On the second issue of the ice bucket challenge being filmed during already delayed games, I think this is more a philosophical difference between myself and the director and we couldn’t come to an agreement.
However, everyone I worked with was professional and clearly trying to right what I felt was a wrong and in the end, we will get a discount on a future league should we choose to play so I am satisfied with the effort made and the resolution.

I’ve mulled over whether or not I wanted to write a review on Austin SSC. I played dodgeball in the Fall 2013 season thinking it would be a great way to meet people and have a Monday Funday. The season went from kinda fun to ridiculously frustrating.
The thing that made it frustrating? The referees. There is ZERO consistency. We were a team of newbies trying to learn the game, but it’s really hard to learn when the refs enforce rules (or don’t enforce rules) differently. We never knew how anything would be called, and by the playoffs most of my team didn’t even want to play.
Second, I can’t play a game when I don’t feel that safety is taken as a priority. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous when someone gets hurt and the ref refuses to call a time out to at least make sure the person is okay. I thought long and hard about emailing the league but ultimately decided against it. If a ref and two other ASSC reps don’t even bother asking me if I’m okay why should I have bothered?
I decided to try WAKA, I’m two seasons in and the experience is a lot better. Teams actually go to the bar and mingle after, I’ve met more people and the refs actually care about consistency and safety.

I have a number of complaints about this organization. Let me start by saying I organized/​captained an outdoor soccer team for 3 seasons.
The process of setting up your roster with the organization is completely unintuitive. But that is the least of your worries if you choose to give this organization any money.
I have had a horrendous experience with this organization. The staff members don’t know a lick about the sport. You cannot get ahold of any of the staff. They will not return emails. They will not serve the players. They are lazy. They do not care about players satisfaction. Be warned. Beware.
Despite having to play on a crater ridden field with nonexistent grass. My team decided to continue to play with this organization. (But no really, the fields are absolutely terrible. Like you can roll your ankle really bad just from running on them.)
My 3^rd season, we had some of the worst officiating I have ever experienced, and I’ve played soccer for nearly 15 years at all levels of competition.
This is what happened. The referee gave one of my plays a hard red card because he thought he tripped another player. When in fact the referee was in no position to make any call on the play because he didn’t even move from the center circle for the duration of the game. The other team was just as mystified from the red card as I was. Being the captain, I blurt out «What the f#*k», the ref proceeds to walk over to smugly and tell me about his authority on the field. Then he tells me I am not going to be playing the rest of the game, but does not present me a red card. He then tried to take the ball out of my hand, which was my ball that I brought. I tell him not to touch it and drop it to my feet when he kicks it our from under me. Rude.
I immediately walk over to a staff member who had witnesses the whole incident. He tells me that I indeed was not red carded and that they handle suspensions and that he would make sure no suspension was issued for me. I tell him I never want to have that official at our games and he tells me to send an email to the main office.
The next day, I send a lengthy email to the office outlining what happened while also urging them to speak to the staff on hand, the team we played against and also the assistant referee. I get no email in return.
A week goes by and it’s game day. I send another email to the office inquiring about suspensions on my team because I was told I would not be issues a suspension by the staff member on site. I get an email back which only contains a copy and pasted version of the red card and suspension rules that are on the website. Within 3 minutes, I yet again outline the situation and ask for a more in-​depth analysis of the suspensions associated with my team. No reply.
I show up to my game and talk to the staff that is there about my situation. They tell me no problem. I go to the field we are scheduled to play on and we have the same referee, FML. He tells me to get off the field. I refuse. I tell him to go get the staff because they just told me I could play. Staff walks over, submits to the ref and tells me I cannot play.
Huge waste of time and money.

Zero out of Five. Do NOT try this out. We paid our sign up cost and completed our registration 2 weeks ahead of time. We got the confirmation email, and I adjusted my work calendar. So, When we showed up to Doc’s to meet our team and get our shirts, our names were nowhere to be found. The snarky hipster teenager working the t-​shirt table said something like «yea that’s sh*tty, sorry, you should like, call the office or something».
No explanation, no apology, nothing. I still haven’t gotten an email or phone call, and they still have our $ 48. I passed on playing in another league and now we are on no team this spring. We are so absolutely frustrated with ASSC. They should call it A-​WTF.

Absolutely HORRIBLE experience with ASSC. And the #1 reason being THE REFS ARE AWFUL. Super inconsistent, extremely bossy– It’s very unnecessary to be this way IN A «FUN» SOCIAL LEAGUE.
#1 The ref made us take our sweatshirts off so the other team *see the shirt* in 50 degree weather. COMMON MAN GIVE US A BREAK IT’S FREEZING– the other team knows who’s on their team and who’s not!
#2 ONE person with no shirt = made us forfeit game. He tried to compare it to professional games: no jersey, no play. THIS IS NOT PRO BALL.
#3 In the baseball games they said you must touch the person with the ball to get them out– but the next inning when we did EXACTLY that, he/​she wasn’t out because we touched him/​her and didn’t touch the base. WTH?! MAKE UP YOUR MIND.
#4 CALM DOWN WITH THE GIRL PLAYS. It’s supposed to be fun, your lucky enough to have girls on the field playing football. Who cares if we don’t catch it/​throw it/​etc. We are there to have «FUN» and be «SOCIAL».
#5 One game of kickball girls were allowed to bunt. The next week NOBODY was allowed to?! Again, MAKE UP YOUR MIND. PS the ball is WAY to big and it’s simply not easy to kick the ball further than a bunt.
#6 The list goes on, but you get the picture. Please keep in mind that you are a social/​fun league ref!!!
All in all, our team had fun playing an making fun of the refs. We are here to have fun– it’s a shame the refs took the games so seriously.
We are regulars with WAKA kickball and wanted to try something different but after this experience, from here on out we are sticking with WAKA.

Originally a 2-​star rating from me for just the Indoor VB Super Social league, the management contacted me and wanted to let me know they are making improvements to the club and that 2014 should be much better than previous years. For their quickness in getting info to me (a con from before), I’m giving them another star.

I joined the bowling league last year. To join as a single player is $ 69 for 5 weeks of play. I suggest you read the long list of rules in advance before signing up. Rules actually pertaining to the sport are fine, but there are numerous rules having nothing to do with the sport. For example: if you aren’t wearing your assigned league t-​shirt you can’t play (you are sidelined), and there are penalties if you are found «cheating» by wearing someone else’s shirt, etc. Game #8 our *star* player (tongue-​in-​cheek as we didn’t really care if we won or lost, that’s not really the point of a social league is it?) who was commuting back and forth from Houston on weekends accidentally left his t-​shirt in Houston and our ASSC host refused to allow him to play. Our opposing team brought a spare t-​shirt (having played this league before they knew if one of their players couldn’t make it to bring along their t-​shirt) and so we let him play on their team against us, rather than not let him play at all. He led our opposing team to victory but we forgave him… lol. Another rule is if you don’t have at least 3 of your 5 players show up, and at least one female, you forfeit the game and owe a fine of $ 50 payable to the other team for their bar tab. Since we were a friendly group no one enforced this rule. I think ASSC somehow has lost the meaning of «social» in social sports league. I’m giving it two stars: one for the great venue (Dart Bowl) and one for my cool teammates.
Update —- I received the following response to my review from the ASSC management, which I think is definately a step in the right direction towards improvement:
Thank you for your input! I wanted to send you an update of what is being done in response.
First, you might be pleased to know that, for our bowling leagues, we do not enforce the $ 50 forfeit fine policy and it has now been removed from the written rules on our website.
Second, we have reviewed and carefully considered your suggestion. Team uniforms facilitate team camaraderie and interaction. Because of this, they are integral to the social spirit that makes use unique to other sports leagues in Austin. This is the primary reason that we discourage not wearing the uniform while participating in any of our leagues.
However, in an ideal world, we agree there would be a provision for those who, despite their best efforts and intentions, find themselves without a uniform on a game night and can prove that they are indeed registered and on their team’s roster. Any such provision would have to be carefully administered so as to avoid potential abuse.
To address this issue, we are currently working on structuring and implementing a policy that will address this issue. We hope to have this new policy finalized soon and we hope you will consider returning to one of our leagues once we have done so.
Thank you again for your feedback and have a wonderful week!
Emma

I do enjoy the sports and social part of this organization, but the stuff and people in charge are complete morons and the only thing they’re good at is taking your money. They just don’t seem to ever be organized with anything from shirt pickup, game scheduling, or reffing. Management needs to take charge of his employees and fix the problems before someone better organized creates a BETTER Austin Sports and Social, and it will happen.

Had an incredible experience in their Fall Kickball league. It was a fun mix of exercise, happy hour, and competition.
After reading the Unilocal reviews, my wife and I signed up to try something new. I’m glad we did! Kickball definitely made my Tuesdays the best day of the work week. A lot of the negative reviews seem to be in regards to not liking people on their team. I had a great time boozing and playing kickball with my team.
Good times. I’m about to try out 3v3 soccer.

There are other ways to make friends in Austin and other ways to play sports.
The main problem I have with Austin SSC is that it’s so poorly run to the point of being laughable. I’ve played a couple of seasons of Ultimate Frisbee with Austin Sports & Social Club and not only to the «refs» not know the rules, but there is no attempt to balance teams. There are always one or two teams that completely dominate the sport and the rest are left with no clue of what they’re doing. It becomes frustrating and two of the seasons I’ve played on the «put-​together» teams no one on my team bothered to show up so we had to forfeit our games. When I told Austin Sports & Social Club about this, they literally said that my teammates showing up wasn’t their fault, so why should they give me a refund. They didn’t offer a free season or anything, so I basically paid almost $ 50 for an ugly t-​shirt.
The refs are nice guys and mean well, but as a whole, this is a poorly run business and a waste of time and money. I wouldn’t recommend ASSC to anyone and I’m honestly baffled that they continue to survive as a business.

I’ve played a couple sports with ASSC, including soccer. It’s a great time and pretty well run. The schedule is good, they have decent fields and refs. Everyone is really competitive but friendly out there.
There are also social events like party barges and it’s a good time.

When I first moved back to Austin, I got a job. Then I thought I’d make some new friends and joined a Super Social sand volleyball league. Like many people, I thought this was a fast track to making new friends while playing a game I like. And you know what? It wasn’t bad but not good enough to do it more than twice.
First of all, do not mistake super social for the «I just want to have a few beers and have fun out there» league because in the end even if both teams are shanking balls left and right no one likes losing, right?
There are entirely too many variables in this type of socialization to flat out blame ASSC for my less-​than-​ideal social experiences through them, such as their need to fill a team of friends that’s just 1 or 2 people short and without insights such as is this guy a social drinker who’s joining a bunch of people who consider taking the field hammered?, for instance.
The two seasons I did at a Pflugerville bar there were some logistical issues of ASSC matches ending for the night but ASSCers still wanting to play pick up games versus bar patrons also wishing to use the courts to play with their own friends.
I’d recommend anyone to give ASSC a try, but do so with a grain of salt knowing there are several variables that will make your experience completely different than mine or anyone else’s.

This organization is good on paper but horribly executed in reality.
SUPER STUPID:
— Super social is a deceptive term. I thought people would be friendly and good at soccer but instead, they’re all angry and suck at soccer.
— The fields are far and the games are short — drive 30 minutes, play 40 minutes, drive 30 minutes.
— The officials are horrible: the refs are inconsistent with the calls and the linesmen are usually stoned, wearing headphones, and wandering half way onto your field.
SUPER SOCIAL:
— They host boat parties on major holiday weekends during the summer and partying with 200 people is generally a good time
— They have host a tailgate during home games with BBQ and beer and it’s a perk of your league registration
— I’ll admit, the t-​shirts are pretty cool

Austin SSC was really hyped up to me as a great way to have fun and meet new people. Overall, felt kind of like a waste of time.
First goal was to meet people around my own age, make new friends, come together over our mutual inability to play good kickball. We were in the super social league, so supposedly against other newbies.
Strike 1: My entire team consisted of 35+ (some even 45+) really awkward folks. They were nice enough, but nobody I’d want to hang out with outside of the game. I guess this may have been luck of the draw, so whatever. Probably 3 out of every 4 opposing teams were in their 20’s, but had all joined as a team and knew each other.
Strike 2: We did not win a game the entire season. Not so much that we were bad (and believe me, there were maybe 3 or 4 of us that had any athletic ability whatsoever), but the other teams we played just ANNIHILATED us. We found out several times that the teams we were playing were on their 5^th year in a row playing with the super social league. Maybe they just wanted easy pickins, but sounds like they should have been moved up to the «experienced» league. Constantly losing by a landslide is not fun. A couple of players quit mid-​season because of this and never returned, forcing us to constantly scramble to find fill-in’s.
Strike 3: I’d say 75% of the refs were super rude, acted like they were really annoyed to be there, etc. I get that it can be a drag arguing the rules with drunk newbie kickball teams, but come on.
It got to the point where I honestly resented my Tuesday evenings being taken up by ASSC. I kept going because I’d paid for it, but ultimately wound up bailing out the last 2 games. It just wasn’t fun. It didn’t serve my purposes at all.

Back in grammar school were you the fat kid with glasses and headgear that got picked last for everything but the spelling bee? Guess what? Because we are all adults now, you can finally experience the joys of kickball without getting teased mercilessly. Or back in the day, were you the reigning champion of the neighborhood wiffleball games? Do you yearn to go back to that simpler place and time? Well my friend, Austin SSC allows you to relive those glory days to your heart’s content!
Okay, how it works is you pay about $ 45 to be put on a random team of new friends or you pay more to register a full team (prices vary depending on the sport and the number of people on a team). There are two divisions, social and super social which are more competitive and more social respectively. If you are playing certain outdoor sports, you can bring concealed beverages to the field. After the games you and your team head to the designated bar where there are drink specials, bar games and the opportunity to mingle with the other teams. Seasons usually last 6 – 8 weeks and games are once a week.
It’s a co-​ed league with a wide array of sports (bowling, dodgeball, football, indoor volleyball, kickball, sand volleyball, soccer, softball, ultimate frisbee, and wiffleball), so there truly is something for everyone. Looking to meet new people? Join a team-​Yay, new friends!!! Already have a crew, but sick of doing the same old thing? Register a team-​Yay, a fun activity!!! If you don’t have enough for a team but want your small group to play together, they are very accommodating and will place you on the same team. They also have tournaments, boot camps and social events (party barge, anyone?). It’s a fun way to stay active, meet new people and show off your long forgotten dodgeball skills.