Academy
Like all other Super League clubs, the Crusaders run several teams as part of their academy system that operate under the main team and provide a route into it. The Reserve team were formed in 2006 and played friendly matches for two years before eventually being replaced by the Crusaders Colts, as part of a joint-development programme between the club and the Wales Rugby League board. The team played in the Conference National division in 2008, the fourth tier of rugby league, finishing second in the league table and beating Bramley Buffaloes in the Grand Final.
Due to the club's promotion into Super League, the team dropped their Colts name and joined the Super League Reserve League for 2009. In their first match they beat Leeds Rhinos 48–40, but could only achieve two more victories in the season, against Castleford Tigers and Hull KR. All the reserves team's matches for the 2009 season were played at Old Parish in Maesteg. The move to Wrexham in 2010 coincided with the formation of the South Wales Scorpions, for whom many of the reserve side ended up playing and who maintain strong links with the Crusaders.
Despite currently no longer having a reserve side, there are plans for a team to be formed in North Wales in the future. The Crusaders under-18 side were formed for the 2008–2009 Gillette National Youth League Winter season, winning the league in their first season and finishing fifth in their second, whilst still being based in South Wales. In 2009 the club's first under-16 side was set up, and in 2010 an under-15 team was added to this scholarship programme. The Crusaders also have four development squads based in Bridgend, Cardiff/Newport, Merthyr Tydfil and Swansea/Port Talbot that consist of juniors aged 12–16. Crusaders also have a junior team playing in the Gillette National Youth League under the name North Wales Crusaders.
Read more about this topic: Crusaders Rugby League
Famous quotes containing the word academy:
“I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike—and I don’t think there really is a distinction between the two—are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her or his own, is not going to be liked.”
—Harold Bloom (b. 1930)
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)