from John Riordan in New York
WHEN New York’s minor football team take on Roscommon in Croke Park on Saturday, it will mark the second year in a row that an all-American born 15 will take to the field in for a championship clash.
It’s part of a new branch of player development which is being actively encouraged by the GAA as evidenced by the presence of Donegal-born development officer Simon Gillespie who is approaching the completion of his first full year in the Big Apple.
The 25-year-old Ballyshannon native whose home club is Aodh Ruadh studied PE teaching at the University of Limerick before taking a masters in history. He did his undergraduate dissertation on the negative affects that alcohol had on participation in the GAA in the 18 to 21-year-old age bracket and did his masters thesis on the relationship between the catholic church and the GAA during its formative years.
So it’s fair to say, the Association runs deep for Gillespie.
“The first year has been a tremendous learning experience for me,” he told me a couple of weeks ago.
“Just getting around the Tri-State area (New Jersey, Connecticut and New York) where our county board is located is a task in itself. Our county board catchment area is just smaller than the size of Ireland so with clubs all over the location it’s a pretty big task to coordinate such a scattered number of clubs.
“Every day is different to the next. A lot of time is spent coordinating and administering to the various schedules and competitions and making sure there isn’t a crossover with such a limited number of venues in place. Recording our numbers has become a huge task trying to approximate how many kids are actually playing our games over here.
“After that we have anything up to six county board or county management meetings and seven county teams to try and prepare to compete against Irish teams. The days are so different - some days I could be coordinating an underage blitz and the next constructing a template registration site for our boards.”
Of all the obstacles you’d imagine Gillespie runs into, he says organising playing facilities is the single biggest problem.
“We have so many clubs without their own grounds that to develop a sustainable youth program into adult level is very difficult. The opening of the Rockland GAA fields has been a tremendous asset to the game over here and it really is a credit to the Rockland Field Development Committee that the grounds are now the centre of underage activity in New York.”
But he is also keen to open up new markets through the highschool system in the area.
“This year we are piloting a high schools girls programme in four schools and it seems to be getting a good response but developing that link into the youth and senior ladies board will present a huge challenge.”
With the minors travelling to Ireland this weekend and the senior team hosting Roscommon in the Bronx on Sunday, May 1, Gillespie insists that the ultimate goal is for a New York team to be able to compete with the top teams back in Ireland.
“Like everywhere we are looking to increase the number of clubs and players playing our game. In particular we are looking to develop our facilities and reach a stage where all our clubs can have regular access to local facilities so they can properly develop they own programmes.
“There was a general feeling of joy and surprise throughout the community over here when we heard our minors had been given the privilege of playing in Croke Park and being the curtain raiser to the Division 3 and 4 finals. We are delighted about the prospect of our boys on centre stage and many people see this as the highlight of our minor board’s existence. We know the boys have put a tremendous effort into training over the last few months and we’re sure they will do us proud against Roscommon.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/5fYkGosGOBI/post.aspx
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