We are relocating to the Portland area this spring and have a daughter who will be looking for a team. Goal is to join a org that will transition to ECNL or GA next year. Can someone tell me which programs have womens ECNL or play GA? Thank you in advance.
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ECNL - Northwest Elite and Portland Thorns Academy
GA - Bridge City and next closest is Washington Timbers in Vancouver, WA. There are also teams in Salem and Eugene.
Northwest Elite has quite a few teams at each age group. They also have ECRL that are decent at some age groups. I don’t have experience as a parent with Portland Thorns Academy
On the GA side, Bridge City is a 2 or 3 year old club that is still building. If your daughter was an age group with Rochelle Hearns as a coach then I would recommend. My daughter speaks highly of Rochelle. The teams are weaker for sure there right now, but I don’t think it will always be that way. If you are just looking for the strongest teams then the two ECNL teams are better than most Bridge City. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check out Bridge City. If your kid is a superstar and wants to play against the best then for now maybe one of the ECNL teams. If not, you might look around. Also there are some good non ECNL/GA worth looking at. Depends on what your daughter is looking for and how she fits in. I’d request a practice at the different teams and see what you think. -
Everyone smokes bridge city. They aren’t even a full service clubsOriginally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Originally posted by Guest View Post
We are looking for more of a established competitive program, as she currently is playing GA up a year U13 and doing well. I’ll reach out to Thorns, NE Elite, and Timbers and see which may be worth pursing. Thank you for the honest feedback.
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I agree with the above poster. If your looking at a more competitive team then Bridge city is not your choice. It sounds like shes a 2011 based on your comment, if so there are some good options. For this age the 2 strongest in ECNL and GA will be Washington Timbers and Thorns. Those two I believe played each other in the state final last year, and there seems to be a pretty good gap between them and the other clubs based on what I have seen this year. So it might depend a bit on where in portland you are moving. If you are moving east of downtown, then getting to Washington Timbers isn't difficult at all. If you are moving west of downtown then thorns would be much closer as they train out in beaverton. A lot of people who work in portland also live in vancouver, as its just across the bridge.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Bridge City has been around for over 5 years….they keep claiming that they are a “new” club, but the bottom line is that they are a joke. Rochelle used to be a great coach/director when she was motivated, but like most in this area she is now burned out and mailing it in. More about trying to recruit member checks than develop great soccer players. They used to have Shannon Boxx coaching technicals, but now it’s pretty weak on the staff side and most age groups train together as one big lumped up mess. On terrible fields by the way.Originally posted by Guest View Post
Avoid BC if your kid is serious and talented.
Thorns has the best talent, but they have a terrible toxic culture. Little Suzy may need some therapy after playing there.
NW Elite has the best coaching, but not sure if they will get the train back on the tracks after the turnover by both players and staff over the years.
Washington Timbers….ehh… avoid Timbers alliance clubs in my humble opinion. They are typically awful too to bottomComment
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Thorns have best talent: LieOriginally posted by Guest View Post
NW Elite has best coaching: Lie
Washington Timbers avoid alliance clubs : Lie
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Not necessarily lies, but definitely just one person's opinion. Personally, I agree with what was said regarding Thorns and NWE. I don't think Timbers Alliance has anything to do with it, but GA isn't going to be the same quality as ECNL in the Pacific NW.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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BC was a good idea, but then everyone realized it was girls soccerComment
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If your daugher is 2011 like this poster was guessing, then I agree with this. These are your best 2 options for that age group if you want a competitive team.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Name one good coach at NWE that actually attends trainings and games?
don’t worry, we ll wait.Comment
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who run the sessions and games if not the coachComment
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Go with Thorns or NW Elite. If your daughter can make Thorns, they seem to be stronger than NW Elite at most age groups now, and they offer more affiliation w the professional club. Most girls are choosing Thorns over NW Elite.Comment
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Don’t pick the thorns. Once to realize they don’t know what they are doing, the “affiliation” means Jack.
2003 Thorns Academy team was nearly the worst out of the 7-8 club teams in Oregon. They tried to sell everyone on the thorns BS and ended up under developing the players and begging players to stay.
2004 Thorns Academy team literally couldn’t get enough players to go to tournaments as everyone left. No one even wanted to guest play for them.
Consider the fact that both thorns teams were sold on everything but the kitchen sink they they ended up bottom of the barrel.
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It depends on the age group. It’s a mixed bag who is better.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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