45 www.sanfranciscogaa.com www.facebook.com/pages/San-FranciscoGAA/462640713764298 Find us Online San Francisco North American senior Hurling Champions 2010 Is there much crossover to the sport from people with no Irish connection? There is some but not as much as we’d like to see. Adult Americans are fascinated by the sport but a lot of them believe they are too late in life to pick it up. Irish American kids are open to it at under age level but few follow through to adult level with it. Unfortunately for kids in America, hurling has to compete with a variety of other sports and hurling and GAA in general cannot provide the avenues to educational scholarships that American Football, Soccer, Baseball and Lacrosse can, which is why the drop off happens at after minor grade. Has this festival given a boost to your club? Yes it has, it has brought in some more players who had not hurled in a couple of years to compete for a place on the San Francisco team. What most excites your club about the festival? For the majority, a free trip to Ireland is a big deal but it will be great to compete in a competition like this and see how we match up against the rest of the world. What does Galway mean to you? Galway means a great deal to our Club with our founding member being a Galway man. One of the leading organisers of this tournament, Mattie Kenny also hurled for this club for a period. Out of the travelling party of 6 from Naomh Pádraig, 3 are from Galway. Does anyone on the team have a special connection to Galway, if so please tell this story? We have a set of brothers from Kiltormer and another from Castlegar in our travelling party, Galway is their home and they are extremely proud to represent their new county in a tournament in their home county.
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