New Discovery! TA coaches overly paranoid that his best players are leaving for ECNL

[Unregistered]

Agreed. From our perspective there can only be one and maybe two truly competitive teams per age group at the older ages. As such you see a lot of the HS age girls moving to one of these teams. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with development and has much more to do with recruitment and how well a DOC is able to persuade higher level players to His / Her team...

So how come the Timbers Alliance DoCs can't attract these players? Recruiting is not the reason kids leave those clubs. It might determine where they go but not why they leave.

[Unregistered]

Love to know what club teams from Oregon aged u16/u17/u18 in the last 5-10 years have advanced past the semi-finals at USYS Far West Regionals.

Please post:
list the year it happened, the age group, the location of regionals and if you can remember how much better was this team than rest of the teams in Oregon in their age group.

Trying to pinpoint when this dilution started.

I think the 97 Copa team made it to semi finals a few years ago in Hawaii.

[Unregistered]

I think the 97 Copa team made it to semi finals a few years ago in Hawaii.

Good for them! The question was what team made it past this round(QF/SF) and advanced to the finals in the last 10-15 years. Thanks in advance.

[Unregistered]

The reality is that at the HS age there are not as many talented players to choose from and it becomes more noticeable at the older ages. The B team isn't going to do squat to provide players at that level. For my most competitive girl we felt that Crossfire out of Redmond had much more to offer than ANY Oregon team. If Oregon could consolidate talent at the older ages that would be great.. but they can't do that and still provide salaries for multiple docs at clubs all over the place. The dilution of talent sucks

It's just going to get worse as the Thorns academy attempts to expand.

If it's all about recruitment, you would think the girs would stay with the current teams (probably closer, great team, solid coaching, out of state opportunities.) There should be no reason to leave, or make recruiting possible. If recruiting is happening it's due to the lack of something at the kids current team.

[Unregistered]

It's just going to get worse as the Thorns academy attempts to expand.

If it's all about recruitment, you would think the girs would stay with the current teams (probably closer, great team, solid coaching, out of state opportunities.) There should be no reason to leave, or make recruiting possible. If recruiting is happening it's due to the lack of something at the kids current team.

In Oregon the pool of really talented players at the HS ages gets smaller and smaller as they move from frosh to senior (U15 to u18).

Staying with your local club team is only viable when that club recruits/attracts similar or better players. That's how it works in Oregon. The coaching is really not that important as it's Girls Soccer and the top youth coaches migrate to the boys side of things. With so many clubs offering so called premier teams what is lacking is a supply of premier players to upgrade the teams year after year. Especially teams located on the Eastside of Portland. Sandy, Gresham & Zig Zag aren't producing players in droves. It's not realistic for a kid from Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood or Lake Oswego to consider driving to Gresham HS to play club soccer as a HS Student. Slim pickings in one geographic area will drive the better players to the teams with the best core of good players. So far that's made the westside of portland the destination for the HS aged player. Some areas lack population and interest.

[Unregistered]

Oregon actually had a Girls U18 advance to the USYS Far West Regional Finals in Jordan Utah. Nearly every top player in local market was on this team.

Nearly 20 years later Oregon can't get the best girls to play on one team and represent improving their exposore to coaches, earning their way to top flight competitions and developing the skilss needed to play at a higher level.

What's different from 20 years ago? Back then clubs didn't have to keep their best kids from the cradle to the grave at their home club just to pay the coaching fees. Today they do. Terrible symptom of today's club landscape for Girls.

I so agree with you,. Clubs are now selling the promise of "elite". What they promise is that by participating the players will be playing many times against the best. What they didn't spell out is that even though the team can obtain elite competition they can't necessarily play at that level and in essence become the weak link. You know, the teams that parents of actual elite team players complain about having to spend money and travel to play. It is shameful what the youth sports leaders are doing today. They are doing it to make money. Plain and simple.

[Unregistered]

In Oregon the pool of really talented players at the HS ages gets smaller and smaller as they move from frosh to senior (U15 to u18).

Staying with your local club team is only viable when that club recruits/attracts similar or better players. That's how it works in Oregon. The coaching is really not that important as it's Girls Soccer and the top youth coaches migrate to the boys side of things. With so many clubs offering so called premier teams what is lacking is a supply of premier players to upgrade the teams year after year. Especially teams located on the Eastside of Portland. Sandy, Gresham & Zig Zag aren't producing players in droves. It's not realistic for a kid from Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood or Lake Oswego to consider driving to Gresham HS to play club soccer as a HS Student. Slim pickings in one geographic area will drive the better players to the teams with the best core of good players. So far that's made the westside of portland the destination for the HS aged player. Some areas lack population and interest.

You are correct. Even so, we do not have enough supply to staff 2 ECNL teams per age group and 1 Academy team on the girls side.

[Unregistered]

I so agree with you,. Clubs are now selling the promise of "elite". What they promise is that by participating the players will be playing many times against the best. What they didn't spell out is that even though the team can obtain elite competition they can't necessarily play at that level and in essence become the weak link. You know, the teams that parents of actual elite team players complain about having to spend money and travel to play. It is shameful what the youth sports leaders are doing today. They are doing it to make money. Plain and simple.

You're right it would be much better to try to make an all star team and then go back and play the teams those playesr just came from Sounds 'elite'.

[Unregistered]

You're right it would be much better to try to make an all star team and then go back and play the teams those playesr just came from Sounds 'elite'.

That's basically what ODP is for boy's and girl's. It would be great to see the ODP teams play agianst TA and ECNL clubs through out the year and a few more tournaments.

[Unregistered]

That's basically what ODP is for boy's and girl's. It would be great to see the ODP teams play agianst TA and ECNL clubs through out the year and a few more tournaments.

Why? knowing what on some of those ODP teams, it would be a waste of time.

If you're that excited talk to a coach, they do friendlies all the time.

[Unregistered]

You're right it would be much better to try to make an all star team and then go back and play the teams those playesr just came from Sounds 'elite'.

And still not win the league.

[Unregistered]

You are correct. Even so, we do not have enough supply to staff 2 ECNL teams per age group and 1 Academy team on the girls side.

We have enough for ONE of those teams. The ECNL parents really need to know that about 80% of their dd's would never make a good ECNL team.

[Unregistered]

We have enough for ONE of those teams. The ECNL parents really need to know that about 80% of their dd's would never make a good ECNL team.

Isn't this an indictment of the level of play among all girls clus in general here in Oregon?

[Unregistered]

Isn't this an indictment of the level of play among all girls clus in general here in Oregon?

This has been hashed out over and over on here. No. The overall level of soccer just isn't that good in Oregon.

[Unregistered]

All I know is that I keep seeing new faces at my dd's practices. Many are pretty damn talented. They're coming from somewhere.