BRIGHTON, Mich. – Metro Detroit parents who shelled out thousands of dollars for their children to go on a soccer trip to Sweden are demanding refunds after the trip was canceled.
Coach James Tyres, who works with Coerver Coaching in Brighton, was planning the trip to the Gothia Cup.
Nearly 50 families paid for the trip that was supposed to happen in July. They thought everything was good to go, but Tyres missed the registration date for the Cup.
"That was part of the illusion this whole time, is that we always believed that we've been registered for this, and then as time has progressed certain things, warning signs, started to surface where people started doing a little deep-diving, saying, 'You know what? Things aren't quite adding up here,'" Jake Jeakle said.
Jeakle paid nearly $6,000 for his children to go on the trip.
Documents show that officials with the Gothia Cup didn't receive any registration information from Tyres and never had contact with him.
Tyres is not responding to parents, and he ignored consumer investigator Hank Winchester's attempts to reach him.
Local 4 has reached out to the Michigan Attorney General and Better Business Bureau about the coach. Several parents have made police reports about the missing money, while others are battling with their credit card companies to get their money back.