Gu12 Premiere OYSA

[Unregistered]

That's an ignorant statement. You only have to look at the standings and results in these age groups to know that your B teams can't compete with Eugene and Medford.

Gu13 OYSA Premiere = Salem Metro

[Unregistered]

The OYSA league is a good deal for the out of town teams (Medford, Bend, Eugene, etc.) because they don't have to travel for all of their games.

Competition wise, the lack division of the leagues and lack of depth is only a bad deal for the top teams who end up loosing out on better competition. Better competition leads to better development.

If your daughter's team is middle of the pack, they will be fine. If you dd's team is a top team, they will just have to travel more for competition, ie. NWCL.

The leagues will not come back together again any time soon. Non-profits don't just re-align with for profits easily. It's complicated.

[Unregistered]

The OYSA league is a good deal for the out of town teams (Medford, Bend, Eugene, etc.) because they don't have to travel for all of their games.

Competition wise, the lack division of the leagues and lack of depth is only a bad deal for the top teams who end up loosing out on better competition. Better competition leads to better development.

If your daughter's team is middle of the pack, they will be fine. If you dd's team is a top team, they will just have to travel more for competition, ie. NWCL.

The leagues will not come back together again any time soon. Non-profits don't just re-align with for profits easily. It's complicated.

And then there is the top teams that get screwed by politics and don't getting he option of playing better/more teams.

[Unregistered]

Absolutely!!

The top teams can't play one another. Instead, they have to get on airplanes or take long car rides to Seattle or California.

BUT, I'd rather drive to Seattle for a weekend tournament, than drive to Medford for a 65 minute smack-down. After all, Seattle is fun, and Medford is ......

[Unregistered]

Absolutely!!

The top teams can't play one another. Instead, they have to get on airplanes or take long car rides to Seattle or California.

BUT, I'd rather drive to Seattle for a weekend tournament, than drive to Medford for a 65 minute smack-down. After all, Seattle is fun, and Medford is ......

Meth ford? Is the word you were looking for.

[Unregistered]

I will never understand the thought process any of you parents go through. You way over pay for a crap product from both OPL and OYSA clubs and then you spend all your time and effort defending whichever side you are on and attacking the other one.

It is absolutely unconscionable that the leagues are split up like this, period. It only stays this way because parents let it.

Not completely true. Parents don't have unlimited choices. Right now you can choose OPL, Timbers, or no soccer. There is no 4th option that is all rainbows and unicorns. I wish there was, but it doesn't exist. And neither the OPL nor Timbers are different enough from the other to make it obvious for 100% of the parents to choose one over the other. About the only option that would force change is for ALL of us to pull our kids out of soccer and see what happens...

[Unregistered]

Medford

Where the majority of the hotel reviews say, "My car was broken into."

[Unregistered]

Not completely true. Parents don't have unlimited choices. Right now you can choose OPL, Timbers, or no soccer. There is no 4th option that is all rainbows and unicorns. I wish there was, but it doesn't exist. And neither the OPL nor Timbers are different enough from the other to make it obvious for 100% of the parents to choose one over the other. About the only option that would force change is for ALL of us to pull our kids out of soccer and see what happens...

actually those who are not in Portland don't really have much of a choice on the matter, it's a choice of the club in our town (likely a Timbers team) or drive a whole lot more than a couple weekends for games.

And really lets break down the choice for those actually in the Portland Metro area.
Likely your child has friends where they are playing now, you chose that club for a reason, it's possibly close to home, or it came with a recommendation from someone you know, your kids friends were already playing there or trying out there, all those are valid. So now some clubs become timbers clubs and some don't, if you happened to be at one that didn't, do you actually think about pulling your kid from where they are happy (most likely) and finding something new in the timbers variety? Or visa versa, if you did become timbers do you really think about pulling your kid from where they are comfortable and happy just because you don't like that your now OYSA instead of OPL? Either way you have a watered down league situation. So not really a valid excuse for why to switch. Unless you have an older (u14 or above) kid, why switch based off the league or affiliation your club has? And if you have an older kid you have a few more options (ECNL, Thorns Academy) other wise again why move your kid just because of their clubs league affiliation.

I don't understand why this is such a huge discussion topic here. Are people really switching what club their kid plays for simply because they are now playing in the OYSA league or OPL league?

The only reason I see this as a reason to be a topic is to get Oregon parents to band together to bring it all back to one league. It's about what's best for the kids, not whats best for parents or the heads of the leagues.

[Unregistered]

actually those who are not in Portland don't really have much of a choice on the matter, it's a choice of the club in our town (likely a Timbers team) or drive a whole lot more than a couple weekends for games.

And really lets break down the choice for those actually in the Portland Metro area.
Likely your child has friends where they are playing now, you chose that club for a reason, it's possibly close to home, or it came with a recommendation from someone you know, your kids friends were already playing there or trying out there, all those are valid. So now some clubs become timbers clubs and some don't, if you happened to be at one that didn't, do you actually think about pulling your kid from where they are happy (most likely) and finding something new in the timbers variety? Or visa versa, if you did become timbers do you really think about pulling your kid from where they are comfortable and happy just because you don't like that your now OYSA instead of OPL? Either way you have a watered down league situation. So not really a valid excuse for why to switch. Unless you have an older (u14 or above) kid, why switch based off the league or affiliation your club has? And if you have an older kid you have a few more options (ECNL, Thorns Academy) other wise again why move your kid just because of their clubs league affiliation.

I don't understand why this is such a huge discussion topic here. Are people really switching what club their kid plays for simply because they are now playing in the OYSA league or OPL league?

The only reason I see this as a reason to be a topic is to get Oregon parents to band together to bring it all back to one league. It's about what's best for the kids, not whats best for parents or the heads of the leagues.

Kids are still switching clubs but it's the same movement that has existed for many years. Kids move from the "feeder" clubs to the "destination" clubs. Splitting the league hasn't changed who those clubs are.

[Unregistered]

Hey, could you post this in a few more threads? Nobody gives a rip. If you can't handle a couple trips per season over one hour then you need to find another hobby for your DD.

I'm not the original poster but I can honestly say if you have more than 1 kid playing competitive soccer (I have 3) there is just unfortunately no way you can play in the OYSA league with the travel. Basically, almost every weekend for us would have been a long travel weekend and then also the lost opportunity to watch my other kids games those weekends. It's a bummer...I have no problem with either league but this travel issue forced us out of OYSA.

Are there other parents out there with multiple kids playing in the OYSA league? Just curious if this is an issue for you or what you're doing to work thru it?

[Unregistered]

I'm not the original poster but I can honestly say if you have more than 1 kid playing competitive soccer (I have 3) there is just unfortunately no way you can play in the OYSA league with the travel. Basically, almost every weekend for us would have been a long travel weekend and then also the lost opportunity to watch my other kids games those weekends. It's a bummer...I have no problem with either league but this travel issue forced us out of OYSA.

Are there other parents out there with multiple kids playing in the OYSA league? Just curious if this is an issue for you or what you're doing to work thru it?

It's a new thing called carpooling.

[Unregistered]

It's a new thing called carpooling.

If you're going to shell out 2,000 a year, you might as well miss the games too. Helps keep the costs down.
And they say parents are out of control with their kids sports. I don't see it. LOL

[Unregistered]

I'm not the original poster but I can honestly say if you have more than 1 kid playing competitive soccer (I have 3) there is just unfortunately no way you can play in the OYSA league with the travel. Basically, almost every weekend for us would have been a long travel weekend and then also the lost opportunity to watch my other kids games those weekends. It's a bummer...I have no problem with either league but this travel issue forced us out of OYSA.

Are there other parents out there with multiple kids playing in the OYSA league? Just curious if this is an issue for you or what you're doing to work thru it?

So you can imagine what it was like for us with three kids playing club soccer and living outside of Portland and playing in the OPL. Minimal home games (maybe 2-4 per kid and 8-10 away games per kid). We were willing to do it but many families in our area opted out of club soccer because of this. Now it did get better the last year of OPL for our kids in the top divisions and U13 and up but it was still a struggle to grow the club with the prospect of so much travel at age 10 and 11. I struggle to feel much sympathy for Portland families that might have 2 travel weekends (greater than 1 hour) a season if we were all combined statewide and played a home and away schedule. Sending each kid with a carpool once and that leaves one travel game per season. Not too much to ask. I really wish the state was united but I wouldn't want to go back to 2-4 home games.