Twenty-two-year-old Portlander and soccer player Torie Snyder has experienced the city’s love of women’s sports mostly as a spectator.

“My family has been going to Thorns’ games since the inaugural season,” Snyder told OPB, referring to Portland’s professional women’s soccer team, which consistently draws some of the biggest crowds in the NWSL.

Snyder got a taste of the city’s love of women’s sports teams in high school while playing for St. Mary’s Academy. But Snyder moved across the country to become a student-athlete at the University of Vermont, where they just wrapped up their final year. They returned to Portland this summer, and in so doing, cemented themselves as part of a historic season for women’s sports teams.

Snyder is one of the 21 players on Portland’s new pre-professional women’s soccer team, the Cherry Bombs FC. They compare the atmosphere at a Cherry Bombs match to a small-scale Thorns game — with a little more of their home city’s flair showing.

“It feels quintessentially Portland,” Snyder, who plays as a defender for the Cherry Bombs, said. “And just to have that support behind me has been awesome — I hear people saying my name and it’s kind of a surreal experience.”

Women, transgender and nonbinary athletes have historically found support and enthusiastic fan bases in Portland — and as professional women’s sports have grown in visibility nationwide, grassroots support in Oregon has continued its steady rise.

Growth rapidly accelerated this summer as two new professional women’s franchises and the Cherry Bombs joined Oregon’s already robust lineup of women’s sports teams. The expansion comes as state and city leaders are in desperate need of a win, with the lingering effects of the pandemic continuing to dampen Oregon’s economy.

The state’s two new professional teams, the WNBA’s Portland Fire and the Athletes Unlimited Softball League’s Portland Cascade, mark significant economic investments in Oregon’s women’s sports landscape.

The Cherry Bombs offer a smaller economic bump, but a large heaping of Portland culture with the punk rock-themed Mary T. Cherry as a mascot and the Portland Opera performing at games, along with cherry-themed food and beverages from local vendors. The atmosphere is akin to a music festival in Southeast Portland’s Lents Park — the main entertainment just happens to be fiercely competitive soccer.

Courtney Schmidt is general manager for the Cherry Bombs, and for the organization’s two other pre-professional teams, the Pickles (men’s baseball) and the Bangers (men’s soccer).

“We’re definitely more of a grassroots DIY type of organization,” Schmidt, who played soccer at Lewis & Clark College, said. “Which is how we like it, honestly.”

The organization’s value of supporting women and non-binary community members is the driving force behind the culture for players and fans, Schmidt said. One of the Cherry Bombs’ biggest partnerships is with Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, and a portion of every jersey sale goes back to the reproductive healthcare clinic.

Schmidt said more than 150 players applied to be on the Cherry Bombs, which plays in the pre-professional USL W League’s northwest division. Because the athletes are amateurs, they are not eligible to receive a salary, but they are provided housing with host families and the team picks up other expenses.

The Cherry Bombs have a wide range of ages and experiences, from high school and college players to athletes in their 30s. The season is less than two months long because many players report to their college teams by mid-July, Schmidt said.

“It really is a good way for players to play for different communities during the summer, stay active, stay training,” she said, “and then get more eyes on them.”

Between the Cherry Bombs, Bangers and Pickles, Schmidt has a full-time staff of around 15 people, and dozens of seasonal interns who help put on games. The organization generates revenue through community partnerships and by selling tickets, merchandise, food and beverages.

Schmidt said, at 27, she’s probably the oldest staff member.

“I feel lucky to be part of the organization that really focuses on bringing in young people and teaching them,” she said. “My staff, we’re all learning together, we’re all growing together still. And I think that just contributes to an atmosphere and a team culture of positivity and support and knowing that we’re not all going to be perfect.”

Portland’s support of women’s sports has made her job a tad easier. She said Portlanders naturally want to show up for teams like the Cherry Bombs, and that contributes to a good experience for the players. The team did lose or tie nearly all their games, but Lents Park sold out for some of the games and Schmidt said the energy was high all season.

“I think Portland’s a great city for women’s sports,” Emma Cameron, goalkeeper for the Cherry Bombs, said. “You can see all the fans that show out to our game, it’s like no other team that we play against. We have from the young ages to old ages, we have everyone out here supporting us, and I think that atmosphere just shows how much women’s sports is growing in the area.”

Cameron hails from Boston but currently attends college at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. She said the team grew close over the short season, and while she’s excited to show her college teammates how much her game has grown this summer, Cameron said she’s sad to leave Portland.

Cameron and other players who traveled to play for the Cherry Bombs stayed with host families. Forward Oluwatomisin Eludipo’s hometown is Ibadan, Nigeria, and the recent Faulkner University graduate lives in Philadelphia when not playing for the Cherry Bombs.

For her summer in Portland, the 24-year-old stayed with a host family that also welcomed a Pickles player and a Bangers player into their home. Eludipo also had a 16-year-old host “sister,” she said.

“It’s been like home,” Eludipo said. “They’ve been very welcoming and just very loving. I feel so at home, and I think that’s also the spirit that makes me just so happy on the field, just being comfortable at home and just feeling loved. And it feels like I’m from Portland.”

The Cherry Bombs FC final home game is Sunday, June 28, at 7 p.m. at Lents Park.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/28/portland-cherry-bombs-fc-womens-soccer-first-season/