Juvenia History Note

The Juvenia Kraków Sports Club was established on December 8, 1906 as part of the Men's Industry and Handicraft Youth Union established by Fr. Mieczysław Kuznowicz. In 1911, a football stadium called the Juvenia Sports Park was opened in Krakow's Błonia Park. During the Nazi occupation the club had a strong football section and organized an underground championship in Krakow. After WWII the club introduced other sport disciplines well as re-igniting football to include swimming, boxing, chess, motor sports, weightlifting, volleyball, basketball and rugby . The greatest successes in Juvenia's history as Polish Champions are in chess (A. Tarnowski) and in motor racing (Koprowski brothers).
Currently, the club is located in Krakow's Błonia, in the vicinity of the Zwierzyniecki Sports Club situated between the Cracovia and Wisła Krakow football stadiums. Juvenia run a senior and 2nd XV teams for men, a junior section with boys and girls along with a women’s 7s team. In 2006, Juvenia Kraków celebrated the golden jubilee of its 100th anniversary.

juvejpg


The rugby section in Juvenia Kraków was established in 1973. The first game of Juvenia's rugby players a year later with the team that had been relegated from the 1st League - Posnania Poznań. They lost 60: 0. The defeat did not demorilise them, on the contrary, it mobilized them to continue their hard work, even though Juvenia's rugby players did not win any matches for the next three years. It was only in 1976 that they started to win and in the same year they also achieved their first significant success when they reached the Polish Rugby Cup semi-finals. Unfortunately, they lost to Czarni Bytom 12:15. Juvenia was very close to promotion to the 1st League twice, the first time in 1982 but they drew the last match with Budowlani Olsztyn 7: 7 and Olsztyn were promoted. The second chance came two years later in 1984 but promotion eluded them again. In 1986 the rugby club was moved to Korona but the move resulted in the club being suspended. Rugby disappeared from the sports map of Krakow for a while and was not resumed until 1993. In 2000 Juvenia were promoted to the Ekstraliga where they remained for three seasons. In 2003, unfortunately, the club was relegated to the League 1, however, in 2005 Juvenia managed win promotion in the play-offs and they still play rugby in top flight Ekstraliga. In the 2008/09 season, for the first time in its history, they managed to win a bronze medal at the Polish Rugby Championship! In 2012 juvennia were relegated but won promotion to the top flight league in 2014 but financial problems forced the club back to division1 but within a year and new sponsors and management Juvenia won promotion again to the Ekstraliga.
In the 2015-16 season Juvenia were successful in a series of relegation play-off games and retained the Ekstraliga status and repeated the same success in the 2016-17 season and the following rugby season. In 2018-19 Juvenia maintained their place in the Ekstraliga without having to face the relegation play-off matches. The 2019-20 season saw Juvenia in 4th place and a finalist in the Polish Cup competition. The club’s grassroots project also yielded positive results with the U.18s reaching the final of the prestigious Dubai 7s Tournament and winning the Polish league and cup competitions outright in the same season.

Juvenia Krakowjpg

The current 2020-21 season is underway and Juvenia have yet to establish continuity with the induction of the juniors passing to the senior Level and several older players retiring from competitive rugby. However, the senior squad player wise is such that the club has created Juvenia II Krakow which competes in the 3rd tier of Polish rugby, the Liga 2 for the 2020-21 season. The investment and restructuring made by the club at all levels has paid off and even the Juvenia Veterans have re-ignited their interest and have started a series of friendlies for the current season along with the Juvenia Beach Dragons made up of players from the media platforms and journalists in an effort to raise the profile of rugby in the Krakow community. Juvenia is also involved in organisation of 2 international rugby festivals- the Krakow Rugby Festival and Krakow 7's.