The Northern Crew U-16 boys soccer team went where none of its teams have gone before - and that may be just the beginning.

Northern Crew, which plays out of the Family Sports Center in Butler, won the PA West State Cup Championship recently.

That allowed the squad to move to the United States Youth Soccer Region 1 Championships, which were held in Virginia Beach.

No team from the entire Northern Crew stable of teams - male or female - had reached the regional until this season, which marked the program's third in existence.

"That was our first State Cup championship," said coach Sean Glackin, who also oversees the Crew's girls teams.

"There are four or five teams that contend for the Cup each year and I thought we had as good a chance as anyone. We did a lot of preparation and we got a good draw in the final. We were quite confident," Glackin added.

The U-16 boys squad boasts four county players in Craig Bicehouse and Michael Ramirez (Slippery Rock), R.J. Case (Seneca Valley) and Nick Perri (Mars).

To win the state championship, Northern Crew went 2-0-1 in its bracket - a 3-1 win over Northern Steel, a scoreless draw against STM and a 3-0 win over Keystone Oaks - before blanking Centre (from the State College area) in the semifinals and 1-0 against Northern Steel in the finals.

Northern Steel also advanced to the regional tournament to represent the state.

In the state tournament, Crew goalkeeper Greg Blum was phenomenal, allowing just one goal in over 400 minutes of play.

Then came the Region I Tournament, and the caliber of teams the team faced became even tougher.

"At the regional tournament, we were in one of the toughest groups down there," said Glackin. "We lost 1-0 to (Oakwood Soccer Club, Connecticut), then we faced the No. 5 team in the nation and lost 1-0 to the Baltimore Bays, who were the Maryland State champions," he added.

In its third game, the Crew dropped a 3-0 decision to the Syracuse FC Cobras, the New York West State champions.

"We didn't win a game, but we were very competitive," said Glackin.

The Crew U-16 team had already captured the Kick-It-First Tournament in Akron as well as the Memorial Day Shootout in Erie, rolling to a combined 8-0-1 mark in the two tournaments.

It's that type of success some of the other Northern Crew teams is experiencing.

The club has boys and girls teams from U-9 through U-17. At the Bay Challenge Cup Tournament earlier this month in Cleveland, several of those teams competed and five teams won championships and one placed second.

Two boys' teams won titles (U-14 and U-11) while the girls U-9 team was second (1-1-2) and the U-10 (4-0-0), U-12 (3-0-1, played up a year into U-13 and won it all on a penalty kick shootout) and U-13 (4-0-0) all won crowns.

The U-11 team went 2-0-1, but was one goal from reaching the finals due to goal differential.

The girls U-13 team did not allow a goal and were repeat champions.

"I've see a lot of positive responses with the club," said Glackin. "We're developing kids into a quality team."

"It takes a lot of clubs 10 years to get to this point," said Mike Baptist, president of the Northern Crew Soccer Club and coaches the U-9 boys team. "We offer a quality program.

"We center more around the family. The kids have their own clubhouse inside the Family Sports Center for just Northern Crew members," Baptiste added.

This is also the first fall season for the program and it just started a junior program for U-9 to U-11. The numbers are already exceeding expectations.

"You can only have 14 players on each team and I had 22 for my U-9 team so we have a team and a developmental team," said Baptiste. "At nine years old, it's just participation,"

When the U-12 boys were in the Bay Challenge Cup, a new rule in Ohio states that teams have just eight players on the field.

"Here (in Pennsylvania) it's 11 versus 11 and I had 16 players so we had two teams," said Baptiste. "One was a runner-up and the other one was in the middle, but to have no subs, they did really, really well."

Baptiste and Glackin give all of their coaches a lot of credit for helping teach not only the basics of the game, but a lot more.

"The reason we're so big is we're not based on winning, but the kids putting forth their best effort," said Baptiste. "We teach kids values and about life.

"The numbers have exploded. We're one of the biggest clubs in the PA West. We could probably do two teams in each group, but in the PA West you can't, but the U- through U-11 teams you can."