gaa in usa

vannistelrooy10

anybody have any experience of gaelic football in the usa??? like playing for one of the clubs, which are the best and the standard of the game???

Flukey

Anywhere there is an Irish community you'll find some. If you are going somewhere in particular, then check for the Irish people in the area and take it from there.

Culchie

Visit www.boards.us and post a query there. I'm sure you'll get a response.

Benedict XVI

vannistelrooy10 wrote:

anybody have any experience of gaelic football in the usa??? like playing for one of the clubs, which are the best and the standard of the game???

It all depends on where you go.
NY obviously has the largest number of clubs at all levels and after that it’s Boston. NY however is not affiliated with the North American County Board (NACB) they have their own rules. Every thing below is based on NACB experiences; I do not know what happens in NY
Boston is affiliated with the NACB and has about 6-8 senior football teams, a handful of intermediate teams and about 8 junior teams. It has about 4 senior hurling teams and about the same in junior. There are also a few ladies and camogie teams.
Outside Boston senior teams are thin on the ground, about 4 in both Chicago and Phily and less elsewhere. There are scatterings of junior teams throughout the US, Washington, SF, Denver, Atlanta, Florida etc.
The typical season runs from late May to late August with the North American Championship taking place on Labor Day weekend, (1st weekend in September).
Teams have 13 players, because the pitches are too narrow they take out the full back and full forward.
Of the 13 players 8 (it used to be 3) can be ‘away based’, that is players who join between mid April and the mid July cut off period, these are usually guys who are out of the championship in Ireland and come over for a few weeks/months. The others have to be ‘home based’ i.e. signed up prior to mid April, mainly guys who live there.
The standard has dropped a lot in the last few years for various reasons. Because of the back door at home teams are staying in the championship much longer and therefore fewer players are going to the US as ‘away based’ early in the season as they used to.
With a crack down on illegal immigration fewer guys are coming out in spring and staying until autumn as ‘home based’ players and add to that the number of long time residents that are moving home each year the pool of players is getting much smaller.

Boston and Chicago each have an ‘Irish Cultural Center’ which has good facilities for players and spectators. The same is true of Gaelic Park in NY, but after that it’s usually a high school football (American) field or public park that teams play in.

In NACB has a website at www.nagaa.org/
New York can be found at www.ny-gaa.org

Big Nelly

If in boston my cousin is head of the GAA over there.....well if not head way up there....was quotes from him in Irish papers a while ago when there was problems with a GAA club in Boston!!

Steve_o

Played for a month in New York the standard was ok!

C-J

my brother plays football in Boston for the Mayo team. It seems to be quite advanced with a lot of football clubs, Shannon Blues, St Columbkilles etc. They even have an Allstar system and my brother recieved one last week. Hear the training is quite tough though due to the heat, though the teams play rugby during the winter when the football season is over to keep up their fitness and strength

mchurl

heading to australia soon and i was wondering anyone know what its like over there playing wise? im use to a high standard normally so would hope its high enough!!

Adnerb

Myself and my boyfriend headed out to chicago for 3 months last summer and we had a great time, he played football for the parnells and we got to meet some great people, i would go back in a flash, you will have no regrets no matter where you go!!!

we are actually hoping to head to San Fran this year does anybody know any of the football teams there?????

cournioni

http://www.sfgaa.org/clublinks/

Hope that helps Adnerb.

StupidLikeAFox

Whats the standard like out there anyway, is it a matter of jus goin over and if ya can kick a ball your in, or would it be up to inter county/senior club standard?