Just curious

[Unregistered]

I was interested, in all the discussions of OPL satisfaction amongst customers it seems like you always get the same kind of canned phrases. "it is nice to not travel". "It is more competitive". "NWCL is such a great experience". I am curious behind the canned response do people really believe this? Or is like the almost automatic "Fine" you get when you ask someone "How are you?". What are some specifics, how is it more competitive?

My questions aren't meant to challenge people's responses, I just would prefer more information.

[Unregistered]

I was interested, in all the discussions of OPL satisfaction amongst customers it seems like you always get the same kind of canned phrases. "it is nice to not travel". "It is more competitive". "NWCL is such a great experience". I am curious behind the canned response do people really believe this? Or is like the almost automatic "Fine" you get when you ask someone "How are you?". What are some specifics, how is it more competitive?

My questions aren't meant to challenge people's responses, I just would prefer more information.

Start with the bad: being that the OPL is in its first years - the administration is not all that great. I also think it is a bad decision to have a person dually employed, by a club and OPL. This can bring about a major conflict in interest, or at least have the appearance that is hard to shake. The NWCL and the Europa league has a poor showing on the WA high school boys side due to their high school soccer schedule, the rest is fine.

The good: Not only does Oregon have an ODP program that is potentially heading in a great direction, but now you also have ID2 and NTC for player development and scouting (regardless of flaws or not). We are having a much higher amount of players being recognized from our state than ever before. This is great! Both of these opportunities came from the forming the OPL, much kudos.

The competition is always solid and there are enough teams in the OPL that it diversifies the teams. The youngers don't have to travel 3-5 hours to play a game in the middle of league, as how it should be for the majority of the teams.

The OPL board gets to make decisions without having to worry about the ramifications that it will have on recreational soccer, since there is no rec in the OPL. This also greatly changes the direction the organization heads and its influences.

It doesn't matter if you're in the OPL or OYSA, the best teams will still play the best teams in the top flight. You also don't need a one weekend of a qualifying tournament to figure out which teams those are. It has been great to have to play in qualifying tournaments. This has opened the door for new tournaments to be created and a better experience for the kids. The league placements have been very well done. The OPL was also very accommodating to our coach as he had 2 teams. He never had to miss one game for the other team and vise versa. We even rescheduled a game in the middle of the season due to a tournament that we forgot to request off and the OPL didn't fine us the $500 like OYSA does for a forfeit (OYSA would not accommodate mid season changes, especially for tournaments).

There are many more reasons that I have enjoyed my OPL season. I honestly do like OYSA, but I like OPL (even at the start-up phase) quite a bit more. I think in the end, the two group will be back together again.

[Unregistered]

Great reply! Thank you.

Start with the bad: being that the OPL is in its first years - the administration is not all that great. I also think it is a bad decision to have a person dually employed, by a club and OPL. This can bring about a major conflict in interest, or at least have the appearance that is hard to shake. The NWCL and the Europa league has a poor showing on the WA high school boys side due to their high school soccer schedule, the rest is fine.

The good: Not only does Oregon have an ODP program that is potentially heading in a great direction, but now you also have ID2 and NTC for player development and scouting (regardless of flaws or not). We are having a much higher amount of players being recognized from our state than ever before. This is great! Both of these opportunities came from the forming the OPL, much kudos.

The competition is always solid and there are enough teams in the OPL that it diversifies the teams. The youngers don't have to travel 3-5 hours to play a game in the middle of league, as how it should be for the majority of the teams.

The OPL board gets to make decisions without having to worry about the ramifications that it will have on recreational soccer, since there is no rec in the OPL. This also greatly changes the direction the organization heads and its influences.

It doesn't matter if you're in the OPL or OYSA, the best teams will still play the best teams in the top flight. You also don't need a one weekend of a qualifying tournament to figure out which teams those are. It has been great to have to play in qualifying tournaments. This has opened the door for new tournaments to be created and a better experience for the kids. The league placements have been very well done. The OPL was also very accommodating to our coach as he had 2 teams. He never had to miss one game for the other team and vise versa. We even rescheduled a game in the middle of the season due to a tournament that we forgot to request off and the OPL didn't fine us the $500 like OYSA does for a forfeit (OYSA would not accommodate mid season changes, especially for tournaments).

There are many more reasons that I have enjoyed my OPL season. I honestly do like OYSA, but I like OPL (even at the start-up phase) quite a bit more. I think in the end, the two group will be back together again.

Great reply, thank you for sharing your personal experience instead of just the trite normal answers.

[Unregistered]

Start with the bad: being that the OPL is in its first years - the administration is not all that great. I also think it is a bad decision to have a person dually employed, by a club and OPL. This can bring about a major conflict in interest, or at least have the appearance that is hard to shake. The NWCL and the Europa league has a poor showing on the WA high school boys side due to their high school soccer schedule, the rest is fine.

My first thought was to agree with you on this regarding the dual employ of the admin person who works for LOSC. But on second thought, there is no more of a conflict than the league run and controlled by 8 directors. Time will tell.....

NWCL was a good concept, but failed in the administration and format last year. They have tweaked the format which may be able to help it survive. The cost is still way too high and this may already be riving out some WA teams when they examine a cost/benefit scenario. Additionally, all of the profits from extraordinarily high fees are benefiting who? We know that NWChammpions LLC is run by Greg Ion of WPFC, but is there any payments elsewhere?

The good: Not only does Oregon have an ODP program that is potentially heading in a great direction, but now you also have ID2 and NTC for player development and scouting (regardless of flaws or not). We are having a much higher amount of players being recognized from our state than ever before. This is great! Both of these opportunities came from the forming the OPL, much kudos.

Neither of these programs came as a result of forming OPL. They are creations of US Club Soccer. Many of the top clubs were dual sanctioned so the programs would have been available regardless.


[/QUOTE]The competition is always solid and there are enough teams in the OPL that it diversifies the teams. The youngers don't have to travel 3-5 hours to play a game in the middle of league, as how it should be for the majority of the teams.

The OPL board gets to make decisions without having to worry about the ramifications that it will have on recreational soccer, since there is no rec in the OPL. This also greatly changes the direction the organization heads and its influences.

It doesn't matter if you're in the OPL or OYSA, the best teams will still play the best teams in the top flight. You also don't need a one weekend of a qualifying tournament to figure out which teams those are. It has been great to have to play in qualifying tournaments. This has opened the door for new tournaments to be created and a better experience for the kids. The league placements have been very well done. The OPL was also very accommodating to our coach as he had 2 teams. He never had to miss one game for the other team and vise versa. We even rescheduled a game in the middle of the season due to a tournament that we forgot to request off and the OPL didn't fine us the $500 like OYSA does for a forfeit (OYSA would not accommodate mid season changes, especially for tournaments)..[/QUOTE]

Is the competition more solid than it was before? Likely the same teams are involved. The biggest benefit is at the lower levels, Div 1 and Div 2. These are competitive groups and the travel is less than it might have been. At the Premier divisions, I think most teams would have been willing to travel for a game or two if the top teams were truly in Bend/Eugene/down south. Where I have an issue is with too many teams placed in Premier divisions. Perfect example was last year's U12 Girls. There is no way 4-6 of those teams should have been in Premier. But that would have required dropping down some of the founding clubs teams. At least the qualifying tournament would have kept some of those teams out of the top division. OPL can correct his by setting criteria on numbers of teams in a division and promotion/relegation. One of the positives of OPL has been the flexibility as discussed with the scheduling for coaches. But the flexibility in division placement has failed. Let's limit each division to 8-10 teams. Bottom 2 play the top 2 in lower division in round robin to determine who goes up and who goes down.

One of the biggest positives was reffing. We had all 3 ref at every game and on time. I don't know if anyone else read the ref reports on the website during the season, but there seemed to be a serious effort to get all of the refs used on the same page. I honestly thought that the OR refs used during NWCL play were far superior to the WA refs used.

It was a decent start for OPL, but if they are going to continue, they need to tighten up numerous aspects of the league. I am not entirely negative on the 1st year, although it may sound that way from above. I was more or less responding to the poster.

[Unregistered]

OPL can correct his by setting criteria on numbers of teams in a division and promotion/relegation. One of the positives of OPL has been the flexibility as discussed with the scheduling for coaches. But the flexibility in division placement has failed. Let's limit each division to 8-10 teams. Bottom 2 play the top 2 in lower division in round robin to determine who goes up and who goes down.

OPL has already set new criteria for this and has put a cap on the amount of teams in the Premier leagues. I completely agree with you.

One of the biggest positives was reffing. We had all 3 ref at every game and on time. I don't know if anyone else read the ref reports on the website during the season, but there seemed to be a serious effort to get all of the refs used on the same page. I honestly thought that the OR refs used during NWCL play were far superior to the WA refs used.

It was a decent start for OPL, but if they are going to continue, they need to tighten up numerous aspects of the league. I am not entirely negative on the 1st year, although it may sound that way from above. I was more or less responding to the poster.

I agree with the reffing. They picked a great staff to oversee the league.

I agree as the poster above to most of what you say. There were flaws, but all-in-all a great season with much to look forward to

[Unregistered]

1st year OPL

I thought the OPL was great, and it was only their first year. I think they are going to have a bright future as all of the changes have player enjoyment and development in mind.

This was my hope with the OPL and as a customer moving from OYSA. OYSA was stagnet and honestly didn't give a crap about my kids, at least that was the face they put on when you discussed anything with them.

Things that still need to be improved. The NWCL is a good idea but a bad model. I understand that is changing, so good. Timbers Acad is a big disappointment for the younger kids. My son is in ODP but not next year. The trainings are a joke and the cost is out of line with anything I have ever seen. Maybe at the older ages U-16 and U-18 he will make a Timbers US Dev Acad team. The way the ODP program is being run right now does leave a bad taste in my mouth about the Timbers. My kid starts and stuff but the coaching sucks, they never seem to really learn anything, it is just a crap program.

I don't know what the OPL could offer, I guess nothing and that is OK. The club program for the boys is very strong right now.

[Unregistered]

Youngers don't travel?

The youngers don't have to travel 3-5 hours to play a game in the middle of league, as how it should be for the majority of the teams.

Last I looked at the schedule, the U11's will be traveling to Seattle the beginning of Oct., right in the middle of league season.

[Unregistered]

The youngers don't have to travel 3-5 hours to play a game in the middle of league, as how it should be for the majority of the teams.

Last I looked at the schedule, the U11's will be traveling to Seattle the beginning of Oct., right in the middle of league season.

I don't think any U11 parent minds traveling to play top level teams in a tournament style format. Nice try OYSA parent.

[Unregistered]

I'm not an OYSA parent. In fact, this is my 3rd year as an OPL parent. I didn't say I minded travelling, just pointing out that the youngers do travel in the middle of the season.

[Unregistered]

I don't think any U11 parent minds traveling to play top level teams in a tournament style format. Nice try OYSA parent.

With OPL, you are exchanging travel to Bend and Medford for Seattle.

Although I think the competition is better in Seattle, I don't think OPL is run any better the OYSA.

I am in OPL because our club belongs and most of the competitive clubs in the area belong to OPL.

If we all went back to OYSA, I wouldn't really care either way.

I am not a big fan of the dead weight at OYSA nor am I a fan of the big egos from the DOCs from OPL.

I wish everyone would go back to focusing on the kids.

[Unregistered]

Overall, I thought the competition was good at OPL, although these were the same teams we were playing the previous year in OYSA. It honestly threw me to get used to the decisions about where games would be played. We are not a metro area club so everything was played in and around Portland. I'm not sure any of the other stuff (NWCL, etc) was really all the different from what was previously available. Just a different flavor of Kool-aid. I guess overall I could just never shake the feeling of being an outsider. That is probably the biggest concern I had. If I am paying to be a member I should feel like a member, nit just someone who has had guest privileges extended to them.

[Unregistered]

OPL was fine but

The OPL was fine and is geared towards those top teams. There needs to be another split.

OPL should run the two leagues from U-11 to u-14, premier 1 & 2

An OSL (Oregon Select League) should run leages, division 1 & 2

OYSA should run rec.

What is happening now is all the money is focused on the OPL Council. Why does Clackamas United, Hillsboro SC need to support the OPL Council when their money would be better used at a OSL group.

At some point your writing a check to the council and getting nothing in return, like OYSA was.

If there was another level whose focus was select teams that would be better.

[Unregistered]

Really you can't be serious...

The OPL was fine and is geared towards those top teams. There needs to be another split.

OPL should run the two leagues from U-11 to u-14, premier 1 & 2

An OSL (Oregon Select League) should run leages, division 1 & 2

OYSA should run rec.

What is happening now is all the money is focused on the OPL Council. Why does Clackamas United, Hillsboro SC need to support the OPL Council when their money would be better used at a OSL group.

At some point your writing a check to the council and getting nothing in return, like OYSA was.

If there was another level whose focus was select teams that would be better.

If you follow your logic to it's extreme, each club might as well have their own league. On average there were 20 teams per age level in OPL, now you want to reduce that to 10?

As reviled as the qualifiers were this is the reason they were necessary, to ensure, as accurately as possible that teams were playing at the right level. Has anyone compared the "inaccuracies" of qualifying with the "inaccuracies" of OPL's process? It would be interesting to know if there is a statistical difference. Continuing to slice the pie into more pieces is not the answer. Ok real world soccer example, if you look to the countries that have multiple professional leagues (Brazil for example), what you notice is a larger than average population, and a larger than average soccer participation rate. These are the elements that drive additional leagues when done correctly. Looking a Oregon we have a small population and probably average participation playing youth soccer. This describes the exact problem bemoaned on the forum so often. There are not enough players to justify a multi-league structure. The one positive element OYSA brought to the table is fees were paid to a impartial entity responsible to kids soccer as a whole.

As evidenced above, first one group takes their cut of the money (OPC). Sooner or later someone else has their handsout and wants their cut.

I am embarrassed as adults we are debating what should happen with our children's teams, not with them in mind, but instead focusing on the almighty buck.

[Unregistered]

But.....

We do have that many teams and clubs for a three tierd system. The only problem is the money is focused on a few clubs, the OPC.


This system gives the money back to the leagues and players not by dividing the money up but by focusing the funds to each league, currently the money is benifitying the DOC's of the eight clubs only.

Players will find the best teams/leagues through the tryouts Process.

[Unregistered]

We do have that many teams and clubs for a three tierd system. The only problem is the money is focused on a few clubs, the OPC.


This system gives the money back to the leagues and players not by dividing the money up but by focusing the funds to each league, currently the money is benifitying the DOC's of the eight clubs only.

Players will find the best teams/leagues through the tryouts Process.

So other then the obvious ego/personality clashes isn't that what OYSA was doing? All registration money came into one entity who would apply this money as directed by a board.

The money gets distributed out, but there is only the overhead of one organization instead of three. The idea that "I am only high level competitive teams", "you are rec teams" is artificial, inefficient, and merely a marketing pitch put out by OPL.

There is much to be learned from OPL, but the best way to run statewide Soccer is under a unified organization. Not under a bunch of special interest groups.