Soccer Governing Bodies
Portland Youth Soccer Association organizes match schedules, provides referees, and makes fields available for practices and matches. These sites provide match schedules, maps and driving directions to match locations, and information for club officers and coaches.
Oregon Youth Soccer Association is a regional youth soccer authority. Mount Tabor Soccer Club is not affiliated with OYSA. If you have a match outside Portland, you are likely to find maps or driving directions on this site. For coaches this site lists training/licensing opportunities.
United States Youth Soccer Association, a national youth soccer authority and USSoccer affiliate. The USYSA web site has useful coaching information. This site contains prototype definitions of "recreational" and "classic". Mount Tabor Soccer Club is not affiliated with USYSA.
USSOCCER, web site of the United States Soccer Federation, the national soccer organ. This site is dedicated to professional and international soccer. Look here for the latest news on our national teams, the Olympics, and the World Cup.
The web site of FIFA, the international soccer governing body, is useful for the Laws of the Game and international soccer politics.
Local Sites Related to What We Do
Portland Parks and Recreation publishes maps and driving directions to all city parks. Sometimes the PYSA site is missing a park, and you can find it here.
Portland Public Schools owns many of our practice fields. This site also has the school calendar.
Mount Tabor Little League is the local baseball/softball/Tball organization.
Portland Weather
Soccer is an all-weather sport, but to keep the kids on the bench comfortable here's a weather forecast.
Summer Camps
Soccer camps are the "language immersion program" of soccer. You retain more from one five-hour session than you do from five one-hour sessions. Your brain marinates in the juices of soccer longer, and you don't waste time in review.
This year (2008) we are once again working with U.K. International Soccer Camps to produce weeklong day camps, this time at Clinton Park. UK International brings coaches from Europe, the UK, and around the world to teach at these camps. You will find brochures on these UK camps in your spring registration mailing.
Many other summer soccer camp opportunities are available in the Portland area. These are typically for one week and keep players busy from mid morning till mid afternoon. Typically they are for boys and girls in the elementary and middle school ages. Some of these (not sponsored directly by the Club) are listed below.
We are blessed with top notch soccer programs at local colleges. Players who attend camps at U of P, Warner Pacific, or Concordia might be taught by next fall's champions! It is fun to attend a fall college soccer match and hear the kids yell "Hey! That's my coach!"
Note that soccer camps put on by local competitive clubs (PCU, OSA, ESU, etc.) will typically scout the players they are teaching, and suggest to some players that they try out for classic soccer. Some families appreciate this and some don't.
Some of these sell out early.
Coaching Material
Coaches: If you have favorite online coaching resources, send them to the compiler.
Positive Coaching Alliance is an all-sport resource for youth coaches.
The famous SOCCERCOACH-L Manual is a comprehensive coaching manual, the result of a years-long international collaboration on the soccercoach-l listserv. This is a huge resource with stuff for every coach. This is a unique resource because if you would like to receive lots of coaching-related email, you can join the listserv and be part of the collaboration. Expect up to 20 emails a day. The listserv email load is available in instantaneous form, with each email arriving as it is sent, or in digest form, where you get a single email per day containing all the items. Before sending to the listserv review ALL the etiquette.
The PYSA Coaches' Manual is on this site. Follow the menus to Coaching Education and then Coaches' Manual. This manual is aware of our particular brand of small-sided soccer for the younger set. It also contains a review of first aid for youth.
The OYSA Coaches' Manual is a comprehensive resource.
USYSA's Coaching Connection page is a smorgasbord of coach resources, including lesson plans.
FineSoccer is the compilation of Lawrence Fine, a soccer coach. The main web page has lots of drills and lesson plans (click "archives" links). FineSoccer is a unique resource because you can sign up to receive emailed briefs ("newsletters"). He has newsletters for youth players as well, geared for their interests and reading level. I (Graham Ross) have been receiving his goalkeeping newsletter for about a year and it has never been a source of spam or viruses.
Pill's Drills is a well-known source of games and drills. Lots of material here. Jeff Pill is an American coach at the national level.
Other Local Sites Focused on Soccer (MTSC does not support these outfits. Please submit links for inclusion.)
Women's and Mens' University of Portland Pilots soccer
Portland Timbers
Oregon Adult Soccer Association
Portland Indoor Soccer. Famous for its low ceilings and straight refereeing, this is a favorite arena-style indoor facility. In this style the walls are live and the game is a cross between soccer and no-check hockey (compare Futsal).
Portland Futsal. Futsal is FIFA's indoor soccer game. The walls are out of bounds, so the game rewards precise ball control. The facility is in Southeast Portland and has lots of opportunities for kids to play. They have programs for toddlers!
Some of us can recall that American football came from rugby and rugby came from soccer, but do we know what soccer came from? Why is a side line called a touch line? Was there always a goalie? Who thought up the offside rule (and did he get away with it)? Here is a brief history of the game of soccer.
Software support
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
Report broken links.
