The Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) had a banner year of competition in 2013 in the Northwest. The region was up to eight clubs and decided on dividing into Washington and Oregon divisions. The off-season has been a rough one, though. Clubs are dropping and currently just five are listed on the league website: three from Oregon and two from Washington.

AC Seattle won the Northwest last year and are one of the returning Washington clubs along with Issaquah. AC Seattle’s Emily Magnotto is the new NW Commissioner. She’ll be at the WPSL new clubs meeting February 22 in Las Vegas. More should be known about the state of the Northwest soon afterwards.

The two clubs dropping from Washington are the Spokane Shine (kicked out of the league) and Emerald City FC (decided to not continue). Not listed from Oregon is Oregon Rush.

There had been hopes that Spokane might stay in the mix with a new club operated by the Shadow, and that Tacoma City FC might be ready for entry this year. This article explains Tacoma’s decision to wait a while.

Meanwhile the Shadow have decided to not enter a team in the WPSL this year as well. Spokane is busy getting ready for its men to enter the Evergreen Premier League (EPLWA) this summer.

“While the Shadow have decided to forego participating in the 2014 WPSL campaign, we are definitely dedicated to continuing a women’s soccer presence in Spokane, especially considering the level of talent in the greater Spokane community and the dedication many players have put in over the past few years playing in the league,” says Shadow General Manager Gerald Barnhart.

There has been interest in creating an Evergreen Premier League companion league for women. There has been no organizational movement towards it yet, though.

The Shadow hope to field a team for exhibition matches. “In doing so, we are looking to play a series of friendlies this year to keep momentum moving toward 2015, whether it be WPSL or perhaps a new EPLWA-type league if things are really successful in its debut (men’s) season.”

Barnhart is a fan of what was developing last year in the WPSL NW. He covered the Shine and helped start the Evergreen Cup. “Personally, it was one of my goals to keep things going this season after covering the Shine the past two seasons for INWsoccernews.com, but we were well into the process of re-launching the men’s team the Shadow have long been known for and the costs of creating an EPLWA team were easier to manage in the first year than they were for WPSL; though that league’s management was being flexible in regards to the extended amount of time we needed to make a final decision.”



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