The CRUSA FC Bucks Junior Academy welcomes players of all abilities to develop a love for the game and learn the foundational skills necessary to play in our travel program. Professional trainers work with players in the U7 and U8 age groups to develop the basic soccer technical and tactical skills, foundations for aspiring soccer players, with emphasis on individualized attention (low player:trainer ratio). Professional trainers and parent volunteers are utilized to supervise/coach weekend festival games.

Professional Training


Twice each week. Fall and Spring on Monday and Wednesday from 6-7pm at the Northampton Township Civic Center. Winter modules are one weeknight and one weekend day at a local CRSD school gym. A CRUSA FC Bucks Coaching Director will oversee and train at each session. The training staff will include professional trainers and college players.

Weekly Festivals


Festivals are a series of small sided, round-robin, outdoor games held at both CRUSA FCB home fields, and other local clubs within a limited travel area. Festivals are typically held on Sundays in the Fall, and a mixture of Sat/Sun in the Spring, and last approximately 2 hours.

Intramurals


Full year Junior Academy registrants have the option of enrolling in our Fall and Spring Intramural Programs at no additional cost.

*Please Note: The required Uniform kit is purchased separately and is good for two years of Academy. Approximate cost of the full Academy uniform kit, consisting of jersey, shorts and socks is $45.

Players will train together in small groups and are assigned to a trainer for each session.  For the festivals, players will be assigned to teams for the small sided games (6-8 players per festival team; 4v4 or 5v5 formats). Professional trainers/coaches and parent leaders will lead and supervise the games. Players will be assigned to different festival teams, mixed in with different kids, and assigned to different coaches every week. Team Snap is used to manage player availability.

The games will most often be small-sided 5v5 (4 plus a goalie) festivals.

A “festival” consists of several, 15-20 minute small sided games, and scores or standings are NOT kept. U7 and U8 teams will play 2-3 games at each festival in the fall and spring. Whenever possible, the small sided teams are formed with the same birth year players, and play teams that are of the same birth year, but sometimes U7’s and U8’s can be mixed.

**The benefits of Small Sided Games are many – repeated touches on the ball by all players, more passes attempted, repeated decision making in a confined area, more opportunities to play both sides of the ball, both offense and defense, and more playing time per player, resulting in more player engagement throughout the game.