Kate and Keith Clark:
The Face of Gaelic Football in Vancouver
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KEITH AND KATE Clark launched a winter training program for the Vancouver Harps which has proved highly successful.
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By RONAN DEANE
To say that Keith and Kate Clark have helped the Gaelic Games in Vancouver would be like saying "Walt Disney worked in cartoons," or "Maradona played for Argentina in the '86 World Cup."
It would be such an understatement it could be laughed at when you see the state of the games in Vancouver today. Over 150 different players have kicked a ball in the name of the Harps each season since the Clarks took on the games in earnest. You have to hand it to them.
Although others had been plugging along (and putting in hard hours!), since the turn of the millennium the games were merely surviving. Keith and Kate were among those that were simply plugging along.
But in 2006, the couple came up with a great idea. It was at the end of a good campaign, a campaign that the Harps men had won, and rather than basking in that achievement, they asked, 'what needs to happen next'?
What they saw when they looked out the window that day, it was a mild autumn day and they realized that there was something that Vancouverites had available to them that no other team in Canada could have.
Winter Gaelic football...people thought they were mad. Although it was an immense undertaking for anyone to commit to, that's just what they did.
Momentum began to build quickly, and before you knew it there was a December games day (2006), an Australia Day Aussie Rules game (January 2007), the Black Frog Seven's (February/March 2007)… Anyone can do it once, but it all happened again the following winter season.
The summer impact of these winter seasons has been impressive.
The Harps Men have been undefeated at home (unless by the second string Harps side), and won a Championship. The Ladies have won back-to-back WCD titles. Perhaps more significantly, the Ladies defeated their long time nemesis, the Seattle Gaels.
Although Keith thinks of a hurley stick as nothing more than a cool shaped weapon, hurling has been effected by the vibrancy of the games that Keith and Kate have created. The games are flourishing. Together, they are the face of the Gaelic Games in Vancouver.
Keith and Kate will be taking a small step back to develop their new business CanQuests (Check it out at: canquests.com), but you know they'll be keeping an eye on the GAA scene in the west.
Join the Facebook group "Kate is Great" for an appreciation of their cult following. But just remember this, "Cults are a little weird"...
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