The Northeast makes plans for the 2022 season

Rory O’Donnell, Northeast PRO, reports out that 2022 will see the GAA in Boston make a return to normality with games set to begin April 30.  There will be a total of 23 clubs entering 35 teams into 8 competitions.  The formats were agreed upon Thursday evening at a meeting of the board and the clubs.  

Galway, Connemara Gaels, Donegal and Aidan McAnespies will enter the Men’s senior football championship and Fr. Tom Burkes and Galway in the Men’s senior hurling.  Ladies teams will play a junior competition between Boston Shamrocks, Sean Og’s Ladies, and Connacht Ladies.   The schedule will be decided in the coming weeks and posted at www.gaaboston.com.

The draw for the Pat O’Brien Cup took place with teams drawn into two groups of teams.  Group 1 is Kerry, Gaels, Worcester and Wolfe Tones/Christopher’s and Group 2 is McAnespies, Shannon Blues, Galway and Donegal.  Games will begin April 30 with the winner of each group contesting the final.

Also on the calendar is the Wolves Hurling Club 7’s in Merrimack NH on April 30 and Aidan McAnespies are hosting a football 7s on April 23 at the ICC in Canton.

Lots to look forward to in the Northeast, keep up to date by checking out the Boston GAA website!

Hurling and Camogie kick off in the Southeast this Season

Nashville GAA hosted the Music City Invitational at Ted Rhodes Fields on April 2nd. Knoxville, St. Louis, Nashville, Indy, Atlanta/Twin Cities, Naperville, and Memphis all participated in six rounds leading into the championship. St Louis and Atlanta/Twin Cities played a very competitive final with a final score of St Louis: 3-06 to ATL/TC 4-06. We can’t wait to see how teams evolve throughout the year to come back to the Music City Invitational in 2023. 

Atlanta Clan Na nGael hosted the O’Sullivan’s Developmental Invitational at Silverback Park. Members from New York’s Liberty Gaels Camogie Club, Philadelphia Na Toraidhe Camogie Club, and CLG Orlando traveled to Atlanta to compete in a round robin format of friendly matches. Many girls had opportunities to play in a dual-club team. The three clubs represented all levels of the sport ranging from Junior to Senior. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn from one another, network, and work together to support growth and development of camogie in the East. Atlanta plans to host another invitational in 2023 with the hopes of bring more women together to play the sport loved by all and solidify the bond between teams.

USGAA represents at LGFA Congress

The annual LGFA Congress was held in the Europa Hotel, Belfast on March 4 and 5. Ciara Trainor, Chairperson of the Ladies Football Development Committee, served as the USGAA delegate.

One of the most anticipated agenda items was the motion to integrate the LGFA with the GAA and Camogie Association. The delegates voted 67-8 in favor of uniting the organizations in order “to jointly ensure equal investment, recognition and opportunity for all genders to play all sports in the Gaelic Games family.” This comes after the GPA motion to prioritize the integration passed at GAA Congress.

Other changes to note:

● Rule 444 was amended to read the ball may be kicked from hands or off the ground from the 20 meter line, directly in front of the goalposts for a kick out from goal after a score or wide in all competitions.

● Rules 346-352 regarding blood subs were amended to include suspected head injury substitutes. Future discussions are to be had regarding head injuries and concussion protocols.

2022 Camogie Congress 

Sandra Holland reports back from Camogie Congress with a great deal of enthusiasm. Here is what Sandra had to say about the experience:

The warm welcome I received as the US delegate was both humbling and gratifying and I will never forget it. I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking at length to Camogie President Hilda Breslin, Sinead McNulty and Louise Conlon. Of course, there were many others I met the delegates of the county board of my own home county of Kilkenny. I had the Galway and Dublin County boards offer to come to play us in the USA, they would love to connect more with us; clubs, divisions, teams, players, coaches.

I left with a wealth of knowledge and now feel so excited for the future. Of course, the main motion put forward was the integration, the votes came in at 97% in favour. From that, you can see that USGAA are all pretty well aligned for the future of Gaelic sports.

The Camogie Association is well organized; however, it is facing as many challenges there as we have here! Physical land, volunteers to set a vision for the future and infrastructure in place for the future direction of the organization. Strategic planning is at the forefront. There are action plans to have a baseline study done with a timeframe of six months to deliver. The outcome of this study will be monumental.

Exciting news coming from branding, awareness and coverage is that there is a contract in place to televise nine camogie games on a national broadcast per year for the next six years. 

I spoke with many county boards; they want to know and hear about us. The camogie association wants to drive coach to coach training through all codes. 

There is a podcast called “The coaching bubble”, a great resource for all our US coaches from youth through adult, all codes. Here is the link:.

Lastly, there was a challenge put forth at congress and I am passing it along with the hopes that it will be gratefully received and passed through our networks here in the United States.

Say one positive thing per day about camogie out loud to another person and in the words of, Hilda Breslin, President “we must be ambitious, BOLD in our ambitions for our game”