Crush Academy's Mission:
"We train kids to succeed in soccer and in life."
From the beginning, our mission has driven our actions and it will continue to do so.
Crush Academy's Values:
We strive to promote positive values like: resiliency, teamwork, bravery, accountability, and excellence. At every opportunity, we reinforce these values in the players which helps us to further our mission. Nothing is more satisfying than to watch the players develop into men and women of strong character and good values. We expect our staff, players, and their families to exhibit these same values on and off the field. These continue to build the positive Crush Academy culture that the East Honolulu community has come to know.
History of Crush Academy
The club was started by Todd Inouye in 2005 when he realized that there was a need for quality soccer training at a good value. At the time, there were premier soccer clubs and recreational soccer clubs, but there was nothing available for players who were competitive and perhaps played multiple sports or had families that required flexibility to make things work. Crush Academy became the "go to" club for players transitioning from recreational play to club-level soccer and is now one of the longest tenured clubs in East Honolulu.
Crush Academy's Philosophies
All Crush staff, players, and parents are expected to follow a club, player, team philosophy in that order. What this means is that everyone is expected to take into account the best interests of the club first, then the individual player, then the teams' best interests. We recognize that there is some overlap here but this helps in situations where there are conflicts. For example, if a strong player is club passed to an older age group Crush team and there is a conflict with his/her own age group team, we may have that player go to the older team's game if that older team is in a playoff game, etc. This is because having Crush teams do well in critical league games or tournaments will improve the status of the club as a whole and make recruiting easier for all teams. The bottom line is that Crush families must remain flexible and open-minded with regards to where their children play and who their coaches are. Staying on the same team throughout their soccer careers is much less important (and probably detrimental) than each player playing where they best fit. If all Crush staff and families follow this philosophy, we believe that each individual team will reap those rewards in the long run.
Many families and clubs believe that teams should come first, but this is wrong. Players do not stay on the same teams, they do not keep the same teammates, or have the same coaches throughout their careers. At some point, players will go to play for their school and if they cannot adjust to that change, they will not be successful. We prepare them for this reality as we are always thinking about what is best for players long term.
What is unique about Crush Academy?
Crush Academy is by far the most flexible club in Oahu League. We encourage multi-sport athletes as stated earlier, we allow players/families the flexibility to make something other than soccer their priority. We encourage players to guest play with other clubs as well as guest players rostering with our own teams for tournaments. We encourage club passing (younger players playing up or girls playing on boys teams) as long as the coaching staff decides it is appropriate/safe for the players involved. We also encourage more serious players to set higher goals like collegiate soccer. We have had many former Crush players play soccer in DI, DII, and junior college. Crush is a club that does its best to include all players who want to improve their game. As long as a player/family make it clear that they want to take soccer more seriously, we make every effort to accommodate them and their needs.
How does Crush Academy stack up against other clubs?
Crush Academy is a competitive club. While we do not label ourselves as a "Premier club", we do have some teams that are considered premier and are competitive in premier divisions. We also have teams that we prefer remain in the select division. Our staff will try to push teams toward a premier-level status (when they are ready) but Crush Academy will always follow the club, player, team philosophy so any teams that get premier status will do so for the benefit of the club and the individual players who are participating first. Overall, Crush Academy is often in the middle where our teams find themselves on the borderline between premier and select status. We are not a recreational club as our standards for play do not allow us to take every player that tries out. That said, we have found that players who desire to become premier level often accomplish that goal here. We have also found that players who leave Crush Academy to play on other premier teams, more often than not come back to play with us.
"We train kids to succeed in soccer and in life."
From the beginning, our mission has driven our actions and it will continue to do so.
Crush Academy's Values:
We strive to promote positive values like: resiliency, teamwork, bravery, accountability, and excellence. At every opportunity, we reinforce these values in the players which helps us to further our mission. Nothing is more satisfying than to watch the players develop into men and women of strong character and good values. We expect our staff, players, and their families to exhibit these same values on and off the field. These continue to build the positive Crush Academy culture that the East Honolulu community has come to know.
History of Crush Academy
The club was started by Todd Inouye in 2005 when he realized that there was a need for quality soccer training at a good value. At the time, there were premier soccer clubs and recreational soccer clubs, but there was nothing available for players who were competitive and perhaps played multiple sports or had families that required flexibility to make things work. Crush Academy became the "go to" club for players transitioning from recreational play to club-level soccer and is now one of the longest tenured clubs in East Honolulu.
Crush Academy's Philosophies
All Crush staff, players, and parents are expected to follow a club, player, team philosophy in that order. What this means is that everyone is expected to take into account the best interests of the club first, then the individual player, then the teams' best interests. We recognize that there is some overlap here but this helps in situations where there are conflicts. For example, if a strong player is club passed to an older age group Crush team and there is a conflict with his/her own age group team, we may have that player go to the older team's game if that older team is in a playoff game, etc. This is because having Crush teams do well in critical league games or tournaments will improve the status of the club as a whole and make recruiting easier for all teams. The bottom line is that Crush families must remain flexible and open-minded with regards to where their children play and who their coaches are. Staying on the same team throughout their soccer careers is much less important (and probably detrimental) than each player playing where they best fit. If all Crush staff and families follow this philosophy, we believe that each individual team will reap those rewards in the long run.
Many families and clubs believe that teams should come first, but this is wrong. Players do not stay on the same teams, they do not keep the same teammates, or have the same coaches throughout their careers. At some point, players will go to play for their school and if they cannot adjust to that change, they will not be successful. We prepare them for this reality as we are always thinking about what is best for players long term.
What is unique about Crush Academy?
Crush Academy is by far the most flexible club in Oahu League. We encourage multi-sport athletes as stated earlier, we allow players/families the flexibility to make something other than soccer their priority. We encourage players to guest play with other clubs as well as guest players rostering with our own teams for tournaments. We encourage club passing (younger players playing up or girls playing on boys teams) as long as the coaching staff decides it is appropriate/safe for the players involved. We also encourage more serious players to set higher goals like collegiate soccer. We have had many former Crush players play soccer in DI, DII, and junior college. Crush is a club that does its best to include all players who want to improve their game. As long as a player/family make it clear that they want to take soccer more seriously, we make every effort to accommodate them and their needs.
How does Crush Academy stack up against other clubs?
Crush Academy is a competitive club. While we do not label ourselves as a "Premier club", we do have some teams that are considered premier and are competitive in premier divisions. We also have teams that we prefer remain in the select division. Our staff will try to push teams toward a premier-level status (when they are ready) but Crush Academy will always follow the club, player, team philosophy so any teams that get premier status will do so for the benefit of the club and the individual players who are participating first. Overall, Crush Academy is often in the middle where our teams find themselves on the borderline between premier and select status. We are not a recreational club as our standards for play do not allow us to take every player that tries out. That said, we have found that players who desire to become premier level often accomplish that goal here. We have also found that players who leave Crush Academy to play on other premier teams, more often than not come back to play with us.