Five sports rolled into one
Little Rock Gaelic football association preps for first season.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
My first Gaelic football practice ended with a history lesson over a few beers about Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland.
As part of Bloody Sunday in 1920, 13 Irish spectators and an Irish player were killed by British security forces at a Gaelic football game at the park during the Irish War of Independence. As a result, Croke Park became a symbol of Irish nationalism, and rugby and soccer were not played at the park until 2007.
The story is recalled by Irish native Rory O’Brien, and is a combination of the History Channel and ESPN delivered with an authentic Irish accent. O’Brien is manager of the Little Rock Gaelic Athletic Association’s Na Fianna team, the first and only Gaelic football team in Arkansas.
I’ve just wrapped up a practice at North Little Rock’s Burns Park, the playing ground of numerous sports enthusiasts, on a sparkling Saturday afternoon with the team as O’Brien delivers his mini history lesson. O’Brien grew up playing Gaelic football — along with hurling, a national sport of Ireland — but in Arkansas it’s in its infancy. The association was just formed by local engineer John Wooldridge in October and has yet to play its first game. But talks are underway for an early June game in Fayetteville against a just-formed team in Kansas City along with possible match-ups against St. Louis, Austin and a fledgling northwest Arkansas team.
In the South, Gaelic football suffers from the same skepticism that befalls all sports labeled football with a qualifier in front, such as association, rugby or arena. A native Arkansan, Wooldridge was first introduced to the sport while living in Baltimore, after becoming acquainted with hurling. And even he was skeptical about Gaelic football at first.
“I didn’t like the sound of it at first,” Wooldridge said. “It sounded kind of odd. But I actually got a chance to watch it on subscription TV, on DirecTV. That’s when I thought it was pretty cool. That’s what first got me into it.”
The game is a combination of American football, soccer, rugby, basketball and volleyball. It’s played with 15 players to a side (or as few as seven) on a rectangular field (called a pitch) longer than a soccer field and wider than an American football field. The goals are a combination of a soccer goal and American football goal with crossbars placed on top of a soccer net. A goal in the net results in three points while a point is rewarded for placing the ball through the crossbars.
The ball is moved up and down the field through a mix of passing, kicking, bouncing or toe-tapping it. Players can carry the ball for four consecutive steps but then must either bounce the ball, toe-tap, pass or kick. Bouncing or toe-tapping the ball gives the player four additional steps, but it can’t be bounced twice in a row.
The ball can’t be thrown to a teammate; it must be struck with a hand much like a volleyball. Or a player can kick the ball to a teammate. When the ball is on the ground it must be played by another body part besides the hands.
There’s no offside, and shoulder-to-shoulder contact and open-hand slaps are allowed in order to strip the ball from an opponent.
The local association usually attracts about 15 to 20 people for practices held Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at Burns Park.
On the Saturday that I joined in there were about a dozen players. After running through drills for about 45 minutes (including Wooldridge demonstrating to me how to strike, toe-tap and pick the ball off the ground using my feet), I entered my first Gaelic football game, a six-on-six match.
I loved the fast-pace action of the game, and it’s individualism (defense is played man-on-man). But it was hard for me to forget the American football and basketball rules that had been instilled in me at an early age. On more than one occasion I optioned the ball like a good quarterback instead of striking it to an opponent, and I had trouble remembering to bounce the ball. Toe-tapping? Forget it.
But playing Gaelic football was fun, and I actually scored two goals (though there wasn’t a goalkeeper). It’s a game that will only gain a larger audience among the sports crazies in central Arkansas. Gaelic football is its own blend of football, faster than rugby, with more contact than soccer and less team-oriented and regulated than American football.
“It’s got everything that soccer doesn’t have,” Wooldridge said. “I have respect for soccer, but this sport gives you physical contact without the threat of violence. You have to be in good shape to play it as well. And you’ve got to have some athletic talent.”
For more information about the Little Rock Gaelic Athletic Association, including information on how to join, visit http://littlerock.arkansas.gaa.ie/
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