During this summer, EMFC offers pickup soccer to youth players in Eugene & Springfield. We typically host these sessions Sunday morning at Lane Community College. The purpose of these sessions is to promote greater social interaction among club players & friends in the community, as well as to further improve and develop players by providing access for players to more consistently play within a wider variety of playing-environments.
Those pick up sessions are free for all our members. If you are on one of our Junior Academy or U11-18 teams, you don’t have to register. You can just go and play. If you have friends, who do not play in the club, they can register here.
On Sunday mornings we will open the LCC fields and provide balls, cones, bibs, and a variety of fields/formats set-up. Coaches and/or older players will help facilitate play for any players, of all ages and genders across the club, that attend and wish to play. All players attending on Sundays will be allowed to play. Coaches and/or designated older players at the fields will help facilitate the forming of teams, inclusion of all, and resolution of disputes or disagreements that may arise. Players will be expected to play with open and inclusive attitudes focusing primarily on the enjoyment of playing, rather than on competitive outcomes. You can learn more about our Pick up Sundays here.
These additional playing opportunities will be player-centered and largely player-led and designed. Our intended focus is on supporting and developing our players’ abilities to play, adapt, and enjoy playing with a diversity of players from across the club, and across a variety of formats and surfaces. We believe that the more a child plays, the greater their knowledge, experience, enjoyment, and motivation will be to continue to play in the years to come, as well as throughout their lives. Consistently playing pick-up soccer and futsal with a mixture of fellow EMFC players, and other less-formal formats of soccer will benefit players in the development of their technical, tactical, and social skills both on the field and beyond.
Our hope is that pickup soccer will also become a less organized option in Eugene and Springfield schools, parks, and fields around town. Many of us coaches grew up in clubs where pick up play was part of the culture. We want to facilitate more touches, more play for our players.
