Credit: Lower Bucks Outlaws
After a break of three years, youth football is on its way back to Croydon.
For years, the Yellow Jackets youth football team called Croydon home. The president of the organization ran the club with money out of his own pocket. When times got tough, the club shut down, and Croydon kids were forced to look for other local clubs to play.
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A new club is looking to bring back youth football to the section of Bristol Township.
“We’re trying to bring it back so that the kids in Croydon have a place in town to play,” explained Ryan Norris, the vice president of the Lower Bucks Outlaws Youth Football program.
When the old club shuttered, kids needed to go to Bensalem or Bristol Borough to play. The kids who played together would get broken up and it would be difficult for teams to stay together through a child’s entire school career, he said.
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“We’re trying to get the community back together,” Norris said.
The new team will be run out of the Lower Bucks County Athletic Association Complex and fields.
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When the league begins, the team will be a part of the Northeast Suburban Athletic Conference, or NESAC.
Norris and other club officials have already spoken with NESAC officials and received approval for the new team. Now, the focus turns to fundraising for equipment for the fledgling club. The club has hosted smaller fundraisers but the largest fundraiser for the upcoming season will be a spring flag football team.
Over the summer, the league will hold conditioning camps to get players ready for the upcoming fall season.
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“Everyone that I have talked to is on board for this,” Norris said.
For Norris’ family, the return has a special meaning.
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Ryan’s 10-year-old son played football in Croydon until he was 6. When the change came, he went to Bensalem but is excited to be returning home to play football. Ryan’s wife was a cheerleader for the Croydon club when she was a kid. Ryan himself played for a Levittown club growing up.
The club will allow for players between 5 and 14 years old, and kids will be broken up into different weight groups.
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You can find more information about programs and registration directly from the Outlaws on Facebook.
