Eastside Timbers DoC quits

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Gaff Leyland has left Eastside.

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OMG who cares.

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Is this true?

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Now that his girls who never faced any competition in State Cup and tanked at Regionals have all aged out he doesn't have any glory to ride on or post on his Insta.

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Obviously Lord Gavin is returning to Gondoresham, and evicting the line of stewards who have been ruling in his place.

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Is this the guy who coached a boys team at Eastside who are all now playing at OPFC or UPDX?

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Is this the guy who coached a boys team at Eastside who are all now playing at OPFC or UPDX?

No this is the guy who coached a girls team.

Is Eastside really a thing anymore?

Ha ! GW going back to Eastside. No way. You don't go from MLS to OYSA. You shouldn't go from OYSA to MLS either. GW proved that.

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Gaff what a joker he is! I give it 72 hours until a story about his antics makes the rounds!

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Eastside is a joke. Was the beast on the Eastside, now they can't beat PCU or the King of the Eastside UPDX.

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Eastside is a joke. Was the beast on the Eastside, now they can't beat PCU or the King of the Eastside UPDX.

Eastside is a rec club with an *almost* elite club facility; that's if they ever complete the clubhouse. Eastside have the fields UPDX dream about while UPDX have the success & draw Eastside can only dream about. Gaff was DoC for 5 years and Eastside pretty much went backwards under his tenure, especially with HS-aged boys.

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He killed Eastside boys teams and the girls were never good. Its going to be a long road back if they can even make it back.

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He killed Eastside boys teams and the girls were never good. Its going to be a long road back if they can even make it back.

That's the thing about youth soccer though. Every year, one group of kids age out, and a new group comes on board. Including a new group of parents who are new to the scene and have no preconceived notions about the clubs, and whose first exposure is rec. And rec teams, almost by definition, are neighborhood teams, so lots of kids in the community for whom ET is a logical choice should they show potential.

uPDX operates its own rec teams, and maintains strong relationships with a lot of rec coaches (most of whom are also parents) and staff, so when a rec player comes along who looks like he can compete in competitive, they get a lot of referrals. I don't know if Gaff pissed off the local rec community, but a new DOC is an opportunity to reset the relationship and mend fences and kiss the necessary ass. Perhaps even a [s]bribe[/s] donation to the local rec club so ET is more likely to be presented as an option should players express interest in moving up. And for neighborhood clubs, raiding the B and C teams of larger clubs is an excellent tactic just to build the talent base and financial foundation. ("Why subsidize their A team?" is a good question, along with "they constantly recruit outside their own club; they have no loyalty or preference for their own B team players. If they suggested otherwise that's BS". Which is a completely accurate statement about uPDX.)

Beyond that, perhaps a merger is in order? That's how uPDX got so big so fast, they combined multiple medium sized clubs into a large one. Organic growth to 3000 players is unlikely, but a large club has options that multiple smaller ones don't.

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That's the thing about youth soccer though. Every year, one group of kids age out, and a new group comes on board. Including a new group of parents who are new to the scene and have no preconceived notions about the clubs, and whose first exposure is rec. And rec teams, almost by definition, are neighborhood teams, so lots of kids in the community for whom ET is a logical choice should they show potential.

uPDX operates its own rec teams, and maintains strong relationships with a lot of rec coaches (most of whom are also parents) and staff, so when a rec player comes along who looks like he can compete in competitive, they get a lot of referrals. I don't know if Gaff pissed off the local rec community, but a new DOC is an opportunity to reset the relationship and mend fences and kiss the necessary ass. Perhaps even a [s]bribe[/s] donation to the local rec club so ET is more likely to be presented as an option should players express interest in moving up. And for neighborhood clubs, raiding the B and C teams of larger clubs is an excellent tactic just to build the talent base and financial foundation. ("Why subsidize their A team?" is a good question, along with "they constantly recruit outside their own club; they have no loyalty or preference for their own B team players. If they suggested otherwise that's BS". Which is a completely accurate statement about uPDX.)

Beyond that, perhaps a merger is in order? That's how uPDX got so big so fast, they combined multiple medium sized clubs into a large one. Organic growth to 3000 players is unlikely, but a large club has options that multiple smaller ones don't.

Eastside has 2000 rec players and over 800 club players, but other then pockets of Gresham and Happy Valley there is not a lot of money in east county.

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Eastside has 2000 rec players and over 800 club players, but other then pockets of Gresham and Happy Valley there is not a lot of money in east county.

Those number are very inflated both rec and club. Eastside comp numbers are down.

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Eastside has 2000 rec players and over 800 club players, but other then pockets of Gresham and Happy Valley there is not a lot of money in east county.

Happy Valley is Clackamas County, FWIW, and a lot of kids there play for OPFC.