Developmental soccer program set

David Tolle loves to coach youth soccer. He and his wife, Leah, own and operate an adult foster care home in Sisters and have three children who all love to play soccer.

Coach Tolle is working with others to bring developmental soccer this fall to all middle-school-age students in Sisters via Central Oregon Soccer League (COSL).

"The community interest for soccer was recently demonstrated by three different Sisters soccer teams that played during the spring season. We now have a regional soccer league available to all interested players and families for both the fall and spring seasons," said Tolle.

Oregon Rush is the driving force for COSL and offers developmental soccer for all of Central Oregon as well as competitive teams. Competitive soccer operates with a different approach by combining the best talent from multiple locations. This can be good for very motivated kids and families that are willing to spend upwards of $1,200 to play with a year-round traveling soccer team. For Sisters, the focus is on the developmental program since it provides the best structure for most of the interested players and families.

The Oregon Rush developmental program is an intermediate step between Parks and Recreation and Competitive Academy Soccer. The program is designed to introduce players to a much higher level of soccer then is normally provided by Parks and Recreation programs, yet still at an affordable cost. All games are played locally throughout Central Oregon, including half in Sisters.

"We believe there is greater interest for developmental soccer at the middle-school grades that complements the Sisters recreational soccer club, which focuses on the younger elementary grades," said Tolle.

The mission of the Sisters Soccer Club is to create an opportunity for safe, fair and enjoyable play, to instill in the players a spirit of good sportsmanship, and to foster improvement in playing skills and knowledge of the game.

"We build on these soccer basics by promoting a developmental program for middle-school ages," affirms Tolle.

"There (are) only enough Sisters players to form a few teams, so the fact that we are in a league with multiple other quality teams from around Central Oregon produces better players for everyone. We also retain a 'Sisters' feel by keeping Sisters players together rather than individuals joining a Bend, Redmond, or Eugene team with all the games and practices in other cities. That 'Sisters' feel is what makes this exciting!," asserts Tolle.

"Moving forward, we hope to enhance our middle-school players' skills and competitive abilities for the high-school soccer program. The SHS boys soccer coach, Rob Jensen, is supportive of this effort and looking forward to having Sisters middle-school kids eventually playing soccer for Sisters High," observes Tolle.

"Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) has also been very helpful with our promotion process," notes Tolle. "SPRD's sports manager, Ryan Moffat, realized the opportunity last February and was able to get the news out about the recent spring soccer season. We created three boys teams (U10, U12, U14) this past spring versus just one team in prior years. SPRD is helping promote for the fall season, and we hope to have a boys U12 and U14 teams and girls U12 and U14 teams."

For more information, interested families can visit http://www.oregonrush.com and click on the registration tab to sign up, or contact David Tolle at [email protected]