Thorns Academy

[Unregistered]

Well, my dd is D1 material and I'm glad she committed and will sign her LOI in the future. It's nice to rise above all of this riff raff. Those mired in it, well I feel sorry for them.

I wrote that post because my DD was able to get to D1 in spite of all this nonsense. We had to go rouge and figure it out on our own. I would just like to see something in place for my younger kids (who might not benefit to the same level) and other kids in our state. It just seems so obvious to me that we are over thinking it and putting way too high of a burden on the parents. All the pieces of the puzzle are here it but it is shadowed by a money grab.

[Unregistered]

I wrote that post because my DD was able to get to D1 in spite of all this nonsense. We had to go rouge and figure it out on our own. I would just like to see something in place for my younger kids (who might not benefit to the same level) and other kids in our state. It just seems so obvious to me that we are over thinking it and putting way too high of a burden on the parents. All the pieces of the puzzle are here it but it is shadowed by a money grab.

Indeed. Money grab (and ego stoke) is right.

[Unregistered]

OK then have it your way, again, the poster put up that puny little college commit list and wanted to compare it to past FC Portland and THUSC teams. So there is on recent past THUSC team, do you think the Onyx list is going to be any less? Cherry picking one team "Iridium" to compare your college commit list is pretty lame if you ask me. THUSC has a very good history of placing players in college. So that Academy parent has to be someone that does not at all know what they are talking about, or just a troll.

Puny little list? I don't see any U17 list from Thusc or FCP. So how are they doing? Plus the Academy will get more offers this year. But remember, if you wanted to get to college, you needed to play for Thusc. Hardly.

[Unregistered]

Are the President's and Board of Directors of each club.

3 of the guys you listed just work for local clubs.

The other is the General Manager of the MLS Portland Timbers/Thorns.

They may be relevant in their clubs, true. But leaders of of our mighty youth soccer in Oregon?

Remember OPL was created so that the clubs could be run by soccer people (Gavin,Tom,Fraser, Cony) instead of by non-soccer people (the board of directors of OYSA, or the Individual clubs). We created it, and now we are living with the consequence of it...

[Unregistered]

Remember OPL was created so that the clubs could be run by soccer people (Gavin,Tom,Fraser, Cony) instead of by non-soccer people (the board of directors of OYSA, or the Individual clubs). We created it, and now we are living with the consequence of it...

That is funny. Then what happened? They turned on each other.... control and money.

[Unregistered]

Remember OPL was created so that the clubs could be run by soccer people (Gavin,Tom,Fraser, Cony) instead of by non-soccer people (the board of directors of OYSA, or the Individual clubs). We created it, and now we are living with the consequence of it...

Not true. It was created to give the clubs control over player development and not have to follow arcane rules created by non-soccer administrators at OYSA. It never took control of any club away from that club's boards. There may have been clubs whose boards deferred control to their DoC but that didn't have anything to do with the OPL.

[Unregistered]

That is funny. Then what happened? They turned on each other.... control and money.

Kinda funny how the clubs best known for player development actually stuck together. And the kick and chase crew ran away to the Timber's safety net of empty promises...

[Unregistered]

Puny little list? I don't see any U17 list from Thusc or FCP. So how are they doing? Plus the Academy will get more offers this year. But remember, if you wanted to get to college, you needed to play for Thusc. Hardly.

No one specified U17 the comment was THUSC & FC Portland teams of recent. I'll put Onyx college commit list up next year against the next 3 years of the Academy combined and we haven't even started with FC Portland yet. Give it up and yes that list of commits is puny.

[Unregistered]

Puny little list? I don't see any U17 list from Thusc or FCP. So how are they doing? Plus the Academy will get more offers this year. But remember, if you wanted to get to college, you needed to play for Thusc. Hardly.

No, you don't need to play for THUSC. But your odds are pretty good if you are playing for THUSC.

[Unregistered]

Kinda funny how the clubs best known for player development actually stuck together. And the kick and chase crew ran away to the Timber's safety net of empty promises...

I don't know if that blanket statement is true. My take is that there were two major clubs who focused on boys and one major and one smaller that focused on girls. My DD learned from the ones focusing on boys. She had excellent pre high school training but at the older ages the club was unable to field really good girl's teams (probably because of their lousy attitude toward female players). Many (but not all) of the best players disbursed to the West side with the majority landing at THUSC. We looked at THUSC too but it was riddled in parent created drama and my DD did not want to deal with that. We chose an alternative approach: out of state ECNL. It worked for us and we were not the only ones. It could have been wonderful to have a local club with a good fit and a high level of play. It just did not pan out. To me, two things would go a long way toward making Oregon soccer better:

1. Stop the parent drama
2. Consolidate talent

Honestly, all the drama seemed to fall off when everyone on the team is really good (out of state ECNL). On these teams they didn't need the average players as they had a pool of much better than average players. It was more fun for the player so they were more committed (it is hard to commit when half the team is not that good). Parents didn't want to jeopardize their player's chances of playing on such a good team so they kept their negativity to themselves.

So, IMHO it may be this mix of average with really good players (diluted talent) that creates much of the drama. The parents of the average players nit pick on little issues (so and so did not show up at practice for track yada yada) and the parents of the better players are irritated by the lower level play of the average players. In essence, consolidation of talent significantly reduces drama.

[Unregistered]

I don't know if that blanket statement is true. My take is that there were two major clubs who focused on boys and one major and one smaller that focused on girls. My DD learned from the ones focusing on boys. She had excellent pre high school training but at the older ages the club was unable to field really good girl's teams (probably because of their lousy attitude toward female players). Many (but not all) of the best players disbursed to the West side with the majority landing at THUSC. We looked at THUSC too but it was riddled in parent created drama and my DD did not want to deal with that. We chose an alternative approach: out of state ECNL. It worked for us and we were not the only ones. It could have been wonderful to have a local club with a good fit and a high level of play. It just did not pan out. To me, two things would go a long way toward making Oregon soccer better:

1. Stop the parent drama
2. Consolidate talent

Honestly, all the drama seemed to fall off when everyone on the team is really good (out of state ECNL). On these teams they didn't need the average players as they had a pool of much better than average players. It was more fun for the player so they were more committed (it is hard to commit when half the team is not that good). Parents didn't want to jeopardize their player's chances of playing on such a good team so they kept their negativity to themselves.

So, IMHO it may be this mix of average with really good players (diluted talent) that creates much of the drama. The parents of the average players nit pick on little issues (so and so did not show up at practice for track yada yada) and the parents of the better players are irritated by the lower level play of the average players. In essence, consolidation of talent significantly reduces drama.

This is an interesting perspective. I like it.

[Unregistered]

I don't know if that blanket statement is true. My take is that there were two major clubs who focused on boys and one major and one smaller that focused on girls. My DD learned from the ones focusing on boys. She had excellent pre high school training but at the older ages the club was unable to field really good girl's teams (probably because of their lousy attitude toward female players). Many (but not all) of the best players disbursed to the West side with the majority landing at THUSC. We looked at THUSC too but it was riddled in parent created drama and my DD did not want to deal with that. We chose an alternative approach: out of state ECNL. It worked for us and we were not the only ones. It could have been wonderful to have a local club with a good fit and a high level of play. It just did not pan out. To me, two things would go a long way toward making Oregon soccer better:

1. Stop the parent drama
2. Consolidate ta

Honestly, all the drama seemed to fall off when everyone on the team is really good (out of state ECNL). On these teams they didn't need the average players as they had a pool of much better than average players. It was more fun for the player so they were more committed (it is hard to commit when half the team is not that good). Parents didn't want to jeopardize their player's chances of playing on such a good team so they kept their negativity to themselves.

So, IMHO it may be this mix of average with really good players (diluted talent) that creates much of the drama. The parents of the average players nit pick on little issues (so and so did not show up at practice for track yada yada) and the parents of the better players are irritated by the lower level play of the average players. In essence, consolidation of talent significantly reduces drama.

Your story has to be made up, how does parent drama spill down to the kids? My dd's team could care less what the parents think. They pay attention to their team and that's it.

[Unregistered]

This is an interesting perspective. I like it.

It's a made up story.

[Unregistered]

Your story has to be made up, how does parent drama spill down to the kids? My dd's team could care less what the parents think. They pay attention to their team and that's it.

How can you be posting in this board and not notice the drama?

[Unregistered]

I don't know if that blanket statement is true. My take is that there were two major clubs who focused on boys and one major and one smaller that focused on girls. My DD learned from the ones focusing on boys. She had excellent pre high school training but at the older ages the club was unable to field really good girl's teams (probably because of their lousy attitude toward female players). Many (but not all) of the best players disbursed to the West side with the majority landing at THUSC. We looked at THUSC too but it was riddled in parent created drama and my DD did not want to deal with that. We chose an alternative approach: out of state ECNL. It worked for us and we were not the only ones. It could have been wonderful to have a local club with a good fit and a high level of play. It just did not pan out. To me, two things would go a long way toward making Oregon soccer better:

1. Stop the parent drama
2. Consolidate talent


Honestly, all the drama seemed to fall off when everyone on the team is really good (out of state ECNL). On these teams they didn't need the average players as they had a pool of much better than average players. It was more fun for the player so they were more committed (it is hard to commit when half the team is not that good). Parents didn't want to jeopardize their player's chances of playing on such a good team so they kept their negativity to themselves.

So, IMHO it may be this mix of average with really good players (diluted talent) that creates much of the drama. The parents of the average players nit pick on little issues (so and so did not show up at practice for track yada yada) and the parents of the better players are irritated by the lower level play of the average players. In essence, consolidation of talent significantly reduces drama.

I'm calling your bs. You don't have a dd on an out of state ECNL club. Your a TA troll.