GETTING STARTED: Football Friendly Country - The Most Likely Locations
By RONAN DEANE
This is part two of a four-part series which is an unsanctioned and unofficial rough guide to setting up a Gaelic football team in your area.
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Merry Christmas to all Gaelic football enthusiasts. Give yourself and the Gaelic football community of the Pacific Northwest the best gift possible and form a new team for them to play against.
Last month we discussed why we need to have more teams/clubs playing Gaelic football in our neck of the woods. It's about being able to enhance our sports popularity and create a stronger, more competitive sporting community. But we must focus on geographical regions were there exists the best possibilities for success.
There are a number of characteristics of football friendly regions. Fulfillment of some or all of these traits will determine whether there is any hope for a budding Gaelic football club.
POPULATION: Obviously, the probability of success increases with a greater population. I would argue that 50,000 inhabitants would be sufficient to support a Gaelic football team. That kind of population, with the right leadership, could produce a healthy club. Also, for cities with 100,000 or more, where a team may already be in place, there should be moves made to develop a league of some format.
Even between two clubs league play_off structures can be developed that allow for meaningful competition. For national competition within the Western Canadian or North American regions, a select team can be picked from participating clubs to represent cities like, for example, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle or Vancouver.
If there is a strong club already in place in your city then see about having people from a particular suburb move off and create a new side. If it doesn't work out, their original club will still be there for them to return to. So there's nothing to lose!
IRISH COMMUNITY: An Irish population with active cultural structures makes it an awful lot easier to form a Gaelic football team. Obviously with an Irish club in place comes Irish people interested in partaking in Irish activities. Young Irish ex_pats, sons and daughters of Irish immigrants, and friends of Irish people are often the most likely to get involved in the new recreation. And this is one where they can intermingle with other Irish ex_pats (at annual tournaments), keep fit, and enjoy some of the craic both on and off the field.
NEARBY COMPETITION: With the above two criteria fulfilled you may be able to get a team going but what good is a sport if there is no_one to play. For example, Anchorage, Alaska has a large population and fairly healthy Irish community, but forming a Gaelic football club there would be tough, because of the extreme distances that need to be traveled. The closer and more abundant the competition, the easier it is to play matches, and after all, isn't that the reason why people play sport. To compete!
YOUNG POPULATION: I'm not being ageist, but younger people are more keen to play sport, and more open to playing new sports. The social side of the Gaelic football scene is also more appealing to younger more outgoing types with late night sessions and dancing not uncommon at the annual tournaments.
Take this example of success in a place where a similar initiative might not have seemed likely to succeed. A young Canadian, Matt Kidd learned how to play Australian Rules in 2001 in Calgary.
By 2004, he had formed the Red Deer Aussie Rules Team with little or no help from his previous club. His team then went onto defeat his own former team_mates in league competition that same first summer.
He had three of the above four traits fulfilled. He had a population large and young enough to optimize the potential, and in the Calgary Kangaroos, had competition only an hour or so down the road.
Matt also had one other big thing that was essential. Gusto! His own deep enthusiasm, passion and love of the sport. This is the only absolute necessity required before attempting to establish a new team.
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If this series of articles interests you, there will be plenty of people to help. Here are the contact details for clubs already in place in Vancouver (www.isscvancouver.com), Edmonton (www.edmontongaa.com), Calgary (www.calgarygaelicfootball.com), and Seattle (www.seattlegaels.org).
All of these clubs would love to hear from anyone who wants assistance, guidance, or words of wisdom. I am also available to chat, just contact me at ronandeane@hotmail.com, and in subject line write “Getting Started.”
(I have had some e_mail issues this last month and I am worried I may have missed or lost some attempts to contact me. I implore you to try again if you feel I have ignored you).
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