by Cu Chulainns on February 9, 2011
Last year's champions Berkeley off to a good start. (Photo courtesy of Cal Berkeley).
In the 3rd round of this year’s Northern California Collegiate Hurling Championship at San Francisco GAA headquarters, Treasure Island on Saturday, champions University of California Berkeley – known locally as Cal – despite going behind early went on to record an emphatic victory of 51 (11-18) to 7 (1-04) over this year’s rookie outfit UC Davis .
The students from Davis after suffering big defeats to inaugural champions Stanford in the previous two weeks, came out with all guns blazing for their third hurling initiation and thundered into the lead when grabbing an eye-opening one goal and one point (1-01) in the first five minutes.
Davis had adjusted their game plan somewhat and let the ball rather than legs do a lot more of the work. A new goalie was doing well between the uprights and this allowed their captain James Daly, a more experienced player, to influence outfield.
Cal meanwhile in their first game of the season took a while to get into things but slowly they began to turn it on and by the end of the first half they led by 17 (3-08) to 7 (1-04).
Though trailing, Davis had proven a match for their more experienced Bay area opponents in that first period and hope still lingered for more of the same for the second. However Cal pushed on again and unfortunatley for Davis they could not stay with them this time as tired legs and a limited bench took effect.
GaelicSportsCast
by Cu Chulainns on January 1, 2010
DC Gaels American born football and camogie players at the NBC4 Health Expo (l to r) Caitlin Blanford, Mary Beth Ginder, Courtney Blanford, Christine Thorton, and Maureen Dorsett (Photo courtesy of Washington DC Gaels).
The hard efforts by the mostly All American club, the Washington D.C. Gaels in promoting Gaelic sports in the D.C. region, seem to be paying off as their participation in last January’s NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo has reaped rich reward.
The club, which does not depend on Irish summer immigrants for its existence, is very pro-active as regards recruitement and prefers to recruit athletes from colleges, schools, gyms, and universities rather than folks sitting on bar stools. Their ‘Guerrilla Hurling’ in downtown D.C. back in February caught the city by surprise and has Washington folk still talking !
The D.C. Gaels had a great showing at the NBC 4 Health & Fitness Expo on January 16th and 17th at the Washington Convention Center. Over 85,000 people attended the ‘Expo where D.C. Gaels players shared their expertise about the sports of Gaelic football, hurling and camogie.
As a direct result of the ‘Expo, the D.C. Gaels will now be collaborating with Gonzaga High School, the Miss DC International pageant, and a local YMCA branch to spread the love of Gaelic games in the community. And, on the recruitment front at the NBC event, over 50 people signed up to attend the Gaels spring field days and to get fit through Gaelic sports.
The D.C. Gaels hope to make their participation in the Washington D.C. NBC 4 Health & Fitness Expo a yearly event and to continue to endorse Gaelic sports as a fun fitness option.
The D.C. Gaels compete in the Mid Atlantic Division of the North American GAA and has teams in mens and ladies football, camogie and hurling and have won national titles in all four codes over the past two years. Recently, the all American camogie team went to the National Finals in Chicago and came away with the C level Camogie championship.
GaelicSportsCast
