MONKEYS launch grass roots WPS(L) 'Movement'

The Monkeys kicked off their spring season and with it, unfounded dreams are being rekindled.  For Bay Area soccer players in the Monkey's age group, Women's Pro Soccer (WPS) doesn't exist.

The details of the FC Gold Pride season ticket holder events and on pitch action are fading into fond memory.  As the WPS season itself kicked off with Sky Blue FC facing Philadelphia, the arm chair venue in front of Fox Soccer Channel has far less appeal for a nine year old Soccer Monkey that just wants to play.  There simply is no substitute at this age, for being present, at the pitch in the environment that was Women's Professional Soccer in the Bay Area. The Soccer Monkeys have had to find their inspiration elsewhere.

As an optimist, I would like to believe that the collapse of WPS on the west coast of the United States represents more of a changing of the guard than the end of an era.  As my daughters icons like Ali Riley and former Cal star Alex Morgan take to the pitch in Western New York with the WPS Flash, there is a whole new group of young ladies in that market that are about to be inspired.  In the big picture, even though we are now without a WPS team here in the West, it is vital to us that the league succeed in this it's third year of competition.

Also as an optimist, we Bay Area WPS fans can and should be looking forward to the plans of Terry Foley and company as he sets to launch two west coast teams professional in the WPSL.  Sure, the WPSL has been around over here, and in fact proclaims itself to be the largest women's soccer league but I am hopeful that as rumors would suggest, this is a cautiously wise stepping stone effort to establish a solid foundation for the rebuilding of high caliber professional Women's Soccer on the west coast.  In a recent chat on twitter about the WPSL, Foley hinted that the aim of the Bay Area Breeze and sister team Orange County Waves is to build a west coast foundation for women's soccer which could perhaps lead to a west coast league of it's own.  If true, this strategy is historically sound as was the case when both the Dodgers and Giants of Major League baseball moved out west from New York.