Erik Burstein Reviews

My daughter is extremely happy playing for Kutztown University and Coach Burstein. It is evident that he cares deeply for the players and he creates a tremendous culture that my daughter often refers to. We are very pleased with her experience so far!

Coach Burnstein runs a nationally competitive program where you need to meet standards on fitness, style of play and behavior. All the players are made aware of this and are held accountable to it. The culture is strong and the players totally buy into the way this program operates. Great environment, great coaching and great team.

Manipulator, completely dishonest, mentally abusive! Very knowledgeable of the game and will completely lie to you!

Year after year this program is one of the best in the country. Doesn’t happen on accident. Always competitive and always has good players. Organized and structured. Fun to watch.

Reading some of these posts on Coach Burstein is really disheartening. Having personal experience with this program, I always question players who want to claim that Coach Burstein creates an environment where anyone is in an abusive setting. The straight fact is that all of these complaints are most likely from parents or players who don't or did not get much playing time. College athletics is not a rec sport and it is also optional! Players do not have to stay in an environment where they claim it is not good for their mental health. I think it is questionable and unreasonable that anyone would stay in this optional position for 4 years if it was really that bad, which makes the validity of these posts suspect. Coach Burstein and his coaching staff have been nothing but the utmost professional, dedicated, caring, passionate, and committed team of coaches I have ever been a part of! I advise anyone who hasn't had a favorable experience with this talented team of coaches to leave and look elsewhere. No one has to stay in an environment you are not happy in.

I understand that everyone’s experiences are different, but some of the reviews about the team culture, turnover in the program and the way Eric runs the team are completely false based on the experiences my family had. I had two daughters play for Eric and their experiences were excellent and more than any parent would have hoped for. The team culture is outstanding, and in fact, both of my daughters have mentioned this to me on several occasions while at KU, and even after they graduated. They miss it so much! One of my daughters had a serious injury and Eric was supportive, caring and compassionate throughout her recovery. My other daughter didn’t play as much, and she was forced to play in a different position from what she was used too, but that position change eventually got her on the field more frequently. During her transition Eric was extremely helpful as she was lacking in confidence and struggling with her limited role on the team and the position change. Eric spoke with her frequently during this time and helped her relax, regain confidence and he was always honest with feedback. He made her a better player and was always supportive. In terms of players quitting the team, we did have a few players leave the team during the 7 combined years my kids played for Eric, but all of those players weren’t playing. In fact my older daughters best friend left the team because she didn’t play and felt she wouldn’t get the playing time she wanted because there were other good players on the team playing over her. My younger daughter came in with a class of only 7. All 7 of those girls stayed with the program all 4 years. None of them left the team and each of them got very different amounts of playing time. In college sometimes things don’t work out. It is easy to get mad and place blame, especially when you want the best for your child. My daughters experiences were great, and each of them had very different amounts of playing time, and neither one of them were the “superstar” on the team. Eric was an excellent coach and person! He has high standards, which some people may not like, but those standards kept the team successful and helped my daughters improve on and off the field. Highly Recommend!

My daughter has been on this team for the past three years and she has had NOTHING but POSITIVE things to say about her teammates, all the coaches on staff and her experience at KU. My daughter is not a starter, but she does get some playing time here and there. As her mother this is a bit frustrating, but coach is always honest with her, available to speak with her when she has questions, she feels like she is improving every season and she feels very well supported in her efforts to get more playing time. My daughter is very happy at KU and loves this program, the culture, all her coaches and her teammates. That is what is important.

My daughter played soccer since she was three years old- she loved the sport and continued to play through high school and club. As many student athletes, her dream was to become a college athlete- Sadly , Erik Burstein stole that dream and her love of the sport- Although SEVERAL reports have been made over the past 10 years - he continues to coach. Erik talks about accountable and unfortunately he is not held accountable for his actions! He is verbally abusive and condescending to All women!! Hopefully, the responses from this evaluation will open the eyes of those above Erik!! DO NOT COMMIT TO KU as Long as Erik Burstein is coaching.

I don’t know how he is still a coach. He treats his players horrible and has numerous complaints filed against him.

This coach runs a tight ship for sure with a dash of Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) to top everything off. This coach has soccer knowledge however he is always chasing the next thing. No consistency and that works to his disadvantage but players suffer the most. Anytime a coach recruits 19 in one class it should tell you something. Laziness in recruiting is apparent with large recruiting classes and tends to lead to players being played in positions that they were not recruited for. Mind games are present for sure with this program.