Friend just called me completely irate. Her daughters team showed up in Spokane tonight to play a GAL game with 9 players. Spokane Surf had to give them a bunch of kids so they could at least scrimmage. They have to play the other Spokane team tomorrow. Why are they even in this league? I heard they bring in Boise teams to play 2005 and 2006. What ages do they actually have viable teams at?
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Shut your face, Bridge City is the best EVER !!!!! -
The truth is Bridge city is teh oddclub out. They shouldn't be in the GA or any other thing. The only reason they got in is because of what their mission is, which is to be an all girls club, which aligns with the league. However, it is true they sell certain spots out to Idaho teams, and also use players from other clubs just to try to compete, and they still struggle at it. Makes no sense for them to be in it.Comment
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We play for North Idaho and were there on the other field warming up when this game started. I felt bad for all involved. The Bridge City kids aren’t even close to the level. It looked like the Surf kids and coaches tried to be as nice as possible but they ended up pouring in a bunch of goals even though they gave the Orange team 3 pretty good players. Sounds like the Surf team has kids that travel a pretty significant distance for their GAL team to so just bad situation all around. A lot of families traveled hundreds of miles for a glorified scrimmage. I don’t know how GAL can allow Bridge to stay in the league next year. If they can’t get players to travel 5 hours to Spokane how are they going to field a team for the California games and events?Comment
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Sorry I was wrong Bridge City sucksComment
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The other Spokane team made Bridge play 9v11 yesterday. Went up by 6 goals in about 15 minutes and proceeded to knock the ball around for an hour with no desire to even score while the poor Bridge City girls chased it around. What a waste all around. The Spokane teams were anticipating and training for an actual match and ended up with essentially a scrimmage session at best. Bridge City families drove hours and dropped money on hotels and restaurants to be hung out to dry and utterly embarrassed. Maybe they should outsource the 2008 team to Indie Chicas too. What a joke.Comment
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It’s going to get real ugly for them once their schedule against the California teams start. If east Washington teams are beating them by 5+ goals, some of these other teams might win by 20 if they care too. I wonder how they are going to get kids on a plane to go get smoked when they can’t field a team for a Spokane away weekend.Comment
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Truth is Bridge City is only in GA because of Rochelle Hearns connection to top brass at US Soccer. But the club is a sh-tshow. It’s an ego trip for the people involved with the club and unfortunately the suckers that pay to have their kids there get screwed. Good coaches and nice people, but an air and switch program to call themselves elite at any level. The 08 team probably have 7 active players and they are far from any elite skill level. 07 isn’t much better, but at least they have a full roster. Older ages are made up of a mix of high school players, but the skill level is less than tier 3 OYSA at the same age group.
This is the problem with Oregon youth soccer. Too many clubs allowed to exist due to politics. The kids and their overall development suffer. And the main reason Oregon girls teams fail to compete with the rest of the west and PacNW.
Sucks to pay money and travel when you don’t have enough players. How does this help the kids. Only demoralizes they and ruins the love of the sport.Comment
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Shame on you Rochelle…same ole BS of padding your pockets pretending to love the sport. I would sue this club if I were the parents that paid thousands of dollars for my kid to play only to find out they have no team. Bunch of soccer Bum fraudstersOriginally posted by Guest View Post
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Makes the whole league a joke. If you can't compete, kick them out of the league.Comment
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ego is the root of so many evils in youth soccer...it really is disappointing.Comment
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The concept of BC sounds great, but the reality is they can't attract any talent and WA Timbers/Eugene (at 08 level) are WAY better and they will still struggle against CA teams. Oregon doesn't have the talent to support 5 "Elite" teams in the PDX area as there are still OYSA teams that beat the ECNL teams when they play.Comment
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I believe BC will improve over time. My daughter plays for them currently. She is not old enough for GA yet. My prior experience with club soccer was with my eldest child who is currently attending the college of his choice and not playing soccer, also by his choice. He had a couple of miserable experiences with coaches along the way. Still he played a ton, travelled out of state here and there and learned to deal with hard things. Club served its purpose in my opinion. He is succeeding in college to a greater degree than we expected. I am grateful for the role youth sports and his clubs played in his development. As for my daughter, I approve of the BC's mission and of my daughter development thus far. She also does training outside of BC in full transparency. Do we expect her to go much further than high school, no. Sure it would be fun to see, I really don't care if she plays college. But am I one of those "sucker" parents pumping money into club soccer? Sure. I could put my money into other things I suppose, but she enjoys this and she is willing to work at it. That is enough for us. I knew some of the coaches before she started which helped us chose the club. BC is providing her with something I am very happy to see--confidence, enjoyment, and pride in doing something that is sometimes hard and uncomfortable, as Pac NW players all know about. I think in the end BC will do just fine. Perhaps if you have a kid that is a superstar there are better options, but for 95% of players, I think it is just about finding a good place for your kid to grow and develop. This post is not an advertisement for BC but I see quite a bit of negativity here, and overall, I don't see reason to be to down. It just depends on your perspective I guess. Also, not at all saying that BC is the best, I know many have good experiences with other clubs. My daughter outside of BC training includes a small group of players from other clubs like UPDX and they have good stuff to say overall about their clubs too. I understand the argument some have made about them not belonging in GA. I guess time will tell if things improve after this first year and them still being a relatively new club.Comment
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Well said, I have two daughters that also went through the club experience in PDX and we were fortunate enough to have very good experiences. In my opinion you are of the perfect mindset. Hope your daughter has a wonderful time and learns many good things.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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I can appreciate your feelings toward the mission at Bridge City and the experience your young daughter is having there. The problem most of us have with the club is the fact that they are billing themselves as an “Elite team club” and spending a lot of money traveling and trying to recruit “elite” players.Originally posted by Guest View Post
There is a very small percentage of players in this city that have the ambition and talent to perform at the highest levels of this sport. It is borderline criminal to promise these young athletes the chance to play on an elite team when it is very clearly not even approaching elite levels. That is a bait and switch. And it takes precious time away from young athletes that have a very small window of opportunity to develop and showcase their talent.
if your kid just wants to play soccer and have a fun experience with a team/club environment while building friendships and doing extracurricular activities that is great! And there are plenty of clubs, I would argue most, that can provide that. But the moment you market your club as an elite place that can get the athlete to the highest level, you now have the obligation and responsibility to live up to that. Bridge City doesn’t even come close and that it obvious.
Thorns Academy and NWE are both struggling to compete and they have been established for years. Time for Bridge City to focus on the mission of helping young women thrive through team sports, but stop calling themselves an Elite club. They are not the same and the mission is clearly different. Sorry.Comment
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