The female junior high school students of JFA Academy Fukushima take a USA trip every year.

The purpose of this programme is to have them learn and experience the world-class football in the U.S., where women’s football is at the top in the world, and to help them feel familiar with the world by experiencing history, life, education and cultures like sports in another country.

The girls visited Dallas, Huston and other cities in Texas from 22 March to 2 April this year. Regular training matches and player-mixed matches were held against and with four top clubs such as FC Dallas U-17, which list some U.S. national team players on their roster.

The junior high girls also had other opportunities to experience American culture as they joined practice of Houston Dash, one of the teams in the women’s top league in America, did homestaying, experienced a college education programme, attended a men’s professional league match and took a NASA tour.

Players Comments

YONEI Honoka, Class of 2015
For us third grade students, the last match of the US trip was our last match as a junior high student. The match ended up losing 3-4, but we all played out hard and it was a good match. I felt the 90 minutes flew so fast and I enjoyed playing. I had a lot of things to learn in the programmes off the pitch when I did homestaying, learned American culture and controlled my condition like my weight while eating different food from Japan’s.

CHIKAZAWA Rena, Class of 2016
My first US trip turned out to be valuable through football matches and homestay. I was able to grow in this trip. That is “keep trying in a match.” By trying something out, I was able to play well at times. We weren’t able to win any match in this US trip. With my learnings like the difference between the world and us and the disappointment I’ve experienced, I will keep up my work.

ISHIDA Chihiro, Class of 2017
During the 10-day life in the US, I had a great experience both on and off the pitch. Talking about my life off the pitch, I have a strong impression on homestaying. I shared our life with our host family even though we weren’t able to communicate through words. So we expressed what we wanted to say with gestures. On the pitch, the last match of the trip was the last one with this junior high squad. I’m glad we played the match as one. But I was disappointed we weren’t able to win out. From April, each one of us will take up training, keeping what to improve in mind.

JFA Academy Fukushima

With its lodging system (residential school system), JFA Academy Fukushima is an elite nurturing institute that educates and instructs football players for a long term. The school’s goal is to nurture not only good football players but also true leaders who can contribute to the international society. The organisation currently has schools in Fukushima, Kumamoto Uki, Sakai and Imaji and aims to spread the academy concept through various activities throughout the nation.

*Please visit JFA Academy Fukushima’s website for more information about JFA Academy.(Japanese version only)http://fukushima.jfa-academy.jp/
*JFA Academy Fukushima is supported by “toto Sports Promotion Lottery.”