Sophia Smith snaps a selfie with an autograph-seeker’s phone as she and other members of the Portland Thorns sign autographs after a practice on Friday at Pine Nursery Park in Bend. 

For the second consecutive year, the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League, kicked off their season with a week-long training camp in Bend.

The field of winter dreams for the defending league champions — this year and last — is the turf at Pine Nursery Park. This is where the team creates the foundation for what it hopes will be another title-winning season.

“We are discussing what we want our values to be this year, what our principles are as a team on and off the field,” said goalkeeper Bella Bixby, a Milwaukie native who played college soccer at Oregon State. “We can’t just hit reset. We had a very stellar ending to the year last year. It is a blank slate, and we need to be able to build on what we did last season.”

The Thorns weren’t the only soccer players dreaming big.

With the day off from school Friday, Zoey Kincaid, Isabel Lau and Sophia Swan, along with dozens of youth soccer players from Central Oregon, got an up-close look at their favorite team and some of the world’s top women soccer players.

“It is really fun watching professionals,” Lau, 12, said gleefully.

Kincaid scored an autograph from her favorite player, Christine Sinclair, team captain for both the Thorns and the Canadian National Team and the world leader in international goals scored.

“It is cool to see how they play,” Kincaid, 11, said. “When they hit the ball with their head into the goal, that is really cool.”

The Thorns came together in Bend after a turbulent off season.

In October, Merritt Paulson stepped down as the chief operating officer of both the Portland Timbers and the Portland Thorns in the wake of an investigation that found abusive behavior, misconduct and administrative failure throughout the NWSL.

Also dismissed following the investigation were Gavin Wilkinson, general manager, and Mike Golub, president of business.

Paulson announced he was selling the team in December, and coach Rhian Wilkinson announced she was stepping down after just one season at the helm. Mike Norris, who was an assistant coach in 2022, was appointed the head coach.

But with the preseason schedule just a month away, the Thorn players are trying to focus on their play on the field.

“Anytime there are changes within the structure of the club it is going to have an impact on the players,” Bixby said. “We have taken it upon ourselves to remain inward-facing as a team so that we can protect each other and bear that burden together. We can’t just stuff it down. We have to be able to talk about it and grow. This team is very close. We are feeling it. But we are here to play soccer and here to win championships.”

Their week in Bend allows the players to renew friendships and start new ones with new players, said forward Sophia Smith, who was voted the 2022 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.

“People are coming off their off-seasons, so it is about getting your feet back,” Smith said. “It is team bonding. The team it is getting to know each other, getting to know the new draft picks that came in and welcome them into this group.”

Smith pointed out that what happens on the field during the week is not nearly as important as what happens off it. That is where the team camaraderie is built.

This year, one team bonding moment took place at Puzzle Effect, an escape room located in Bend. The Thorns were broken up into four teams to see who could solve the puzzles the fastest in order to escape.

“I think they would say that we had one of the easier rooms, but I think they were just jealous that we won,” Bixby said of her group. “Last year we did go-karting and that was a little too competitive.

The escape room was a little more focused, and we were able to have that team structure. I learned some leadership qualities about my teammates so that was great.”

Norris, who is just in his second year in the organization, has found that getting away from the normal daily routine in Portland, living in tight quarters for a week and sharing meals together in the hotel really helps to build a cohesive team.

“It has been a while since we have been together. A lot has happened; it is nice to be back on the field together,” Norris said. “I got more out of the six days together in the hotel and eating meals together than we would in a normal setting.”

Perhaps the most rewarding part of holding its training camp in Bend is to see the reach the team has outside of the Portland Metro area. And getting to interact with young soccer players in Central Oregon. After all, all of them started in the same shoes with aspirations of playing to play professionally.

“It is a blessing to be a role model for girls who want to do soccer beyond club and beyond college,” Bixby said.