Seattle Hurling Blog

Mind Games...

Friday, July 20, 2007, 09:17 AM

Freck! You know, I'm looking at the tournament this past week going, "we're in really good shape".
We got both the hurling and Gaelic football thing all figured out. Everything should cater to all the different needs from the teams and players. All the outside things (trophies, shirts, after-party, insurance, pitch lining, nets, food, drink, PA system, poster, website, photography, packet, etc. etc. etc.) are taken care of or on schedule to be taken care of.

Then Sean Bennett has to point out that it’s supposed to rain on Saturday.

What the hell??!?!

Maybe I should have seen the writing on the wall with having Rain City Clothing sponsor the tournament, but come on! It's July 21st! The rule in Seattle is that AFTER July 4th, your summer starts. That's when you don't worry about rain; you bust out the shorts and sandals and let the muggy sun heat up your house until 11pm.

Yeah, rain or shine, you play hurling or Gaelic football. We're not talking about Nationals 2006 conditions here, but you know, I just want to have a tournament where the weather is not a factor!

Regardless though, things are looking up, so I'm happy with what I have control over and looking forward to the games.

Honestly, I don't think the rain is gonna come down hard, I think it'll be that weak rain that doesn't effect your day except make traffic a lot slower. I look forward to meeting the boys from San Fran (both squads) and hoping that Vancouver doesn't point and ridicule everything, stating how they're tournament is better (it is quite good, we patterned a lot of things around it).

So lets all hope that Mother Nature decides to open up the clouds and peek down on the Seattle Gaelic Games. If not, then to hell with her, we'll still go hard.

see everyone tomorrow.
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Eyyyyy ya bitch

Friday, July 13, 2007, 03:37 PM

Maybe I'm not spelling it as properly as it should be, but the correct pronounciation is "eye ya bitch".

You get the idea?

Good. Now, that phrase can often be heard throughout the games and practices of the Seattle Gaels hurling team. Usually by one irish man who is one of our most skilled players. This phrase is usually blurted out when someone (ie: me) hooks him, shoulders him or just plain makes him look foolish.

(Ok, not really, he'll blurt it out when he misses a 60 yard point by going two feet to the left of the bar)

Regardless, that's the phrase I have to use when thinking about my lack of blogging.

Honestly, I got burned out on the month long blog.

Then when the tournament site needed to be up and the Youth Camp page needed to get done it was hard to justify writing some stupid blog about the latest energy bar I ate when I could be working on that stuff.

Ya'll hear me?
Word.

But now that those two things are up, it's time to tend to the crack-addict step child known as my blog.

Now I could talk about the past and everything, but who cares. I haven't received the ridiculous photos of Chip, Scott, Nate and Kevin's golf attire at our Golf Tournament last month, so what other news could I possibly talk about?

Hurling City League

Oh yeah, the Hurling City League, I guess that just went and flew by in my time of absence.

Anyways, the season is over and it's now onto the finals. The Blue Beyonders came back from being 0-2 to win the next two and storm their way into the playoff final against the Red Eagle Bears. So the final standings were this
Red Eagle Bears: 2-1-1
Blue Beyonders: 2-2
Black Ninjas: 1-2-1

The Black Ninja's started out strong, but then lost its steam when its manager, James Walsh bowed out the last two games due to a groin injury. The Blue Beyonders got their act together after their players started showing up. Who woulda figured?

So the final is set, July 28th, 2pm,
Blue Beyonders vs. Red Eagle Bears

Both are 1-1 against each other this year, so this matchup is looking to be a good one.

Seattle Gaelic Games Tournament

The Seattle Gaelic Games Tournament is coming up even sooner than that though! Saturday, the 21st of July, teams from all over the west coast will be coming up for some Gaelic Football and Hurling. We, the Seattle Gaels, have some tough games against Vancouver and San Francisco.

The set up is nice though. We'll have a full size field in Marymoor Park, the Gaelic Football teams will have their own as well and there plans to be plenty of things for people to do while watching.

Anyways, come check it out, tell your friends to come check it out, because seriously, if there is anytime for someone from Seattle to see their first game of Hurling (and Gaelic football), this is it! It ain't gonna be on some off field where no one knows the score except for the ref and in the one game they see, they *SORTA* start to figure it out by the last whistle. This should show them all they need to know about the sports.

And tell them to buy a shirt!

Heh heh...just had to throw that in there.

Seattle Youth Camp

The Seattle Youth Camp is going on during the 28th and 29th of July over in Magnolia Field. We are trying to get some kids interested in the sport and offering a two day camp where they amerce themselves into the sport and hopefully get a good feel for it.

If you know of any kids or parents that might be interested, go here: www.seattlegaels.com/youth and have them sign up.

Ok...that's it for now. It's Friday. I'm out with the deuce

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While you're here, check out the great Seattle Gaels promo Rob Mullin did.

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We talking about practice!

Saturday, May 12, 2007, 02:53 PM

We talking about practice man! We talking about practice!

Hurling practice has started May 1st and from the first two weeks, things have gone off about as well as you could hope for. Nice weather, field space, lots of people coming out, etc. It's usually like this during the beginning of the year and hopefully it'll pick up.

Lot of new guys have been coming out and those are the ones that need to keep coming out. They're getting better too and it's fun to watch.

I've missed a couple myself. One for work and one for having a chest cold. But seriously...we talking about practice man!

James Walsh and Paul McGarry are putting together the final touches on the city league and I'm looking forward to getting some games in.

For those that missed out on the first social night, then you missed out on a good one. Free bowling, free shoes, free pizza. Fun time.
One of the greatest comebacks of all time happened too when Larry (cyber) Ray came back from about 40 pins to beat me in the last two frames. Throughout the whole night, when I wouldn't watch the ball after throwing or talking all the smack that I did while rolling a 90 on the 1st game, that was the moment that made me shut up. That was it. Couldn't say anything besides congratulations.

No pictures were taken though, unfortunately.
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Month Long Blog April 30th

Monday, April 30, 2007, 11:00 PM

Well, it's been a month and the Month Long Blog is ready to shut down. But that doesn't mean that the blog is done nor does it mean that things are going to slow down.
The season starts tomorrow with the 1st practice. Now is when the Gaels step up and begin their next journey. Last year, we went through Junior C and now it's on to Junior B.
We are ready for it, I can tell you that. What I don't know is if we're ready to win it. That is what the next 4 months of practice is for. That is where we step and improve just as much as we did last year. Last year was not our peak. That is what everyone needs to know. Everybody has room to improve and that's what we need to work on. Treading water is only going to land us a Friday exit out of Nationals.

To kick off the 2007 season, I thought I would end the Month Long Blog with season wide predictions.

City League Champs: Romio Rebels
Why? I don't know. Teams haven't been set with the City League teams, but if I'm going to randomly choose a team, I gotta choose the team I was on last year. Go Rebels!

City League MVP: Brian Doolan
Brian was a key part of the Blue Cobra's last year as well as the national team. Brian also happens to be heading over to Washington State to go to school. Not sure why though. Regardless, this will probably be his last year and just the way he's been improving and stepping on defense, I think it will land him a MVP in something. We can always give an award to the guy who scores some points, but I think Brian is gonna prove that good defense is more valuable.

Vancouver's Round-Robin Tournament: My team
Ok, another one where I can't really guess who's gonna win because of how it is set-up. The way it works, everybody shows up and throws their name into a hat. Then the teams are picked and off we go.
To me it sounds like a brilliant plan. I love the idea and would be open to stealing it without Vancouver's consent.
I'd also like to point out that the random team I was placed on in the 2006 Men's Football 7 on 7 Tournament went on to win. Was it luck? Heck no, I was an imperial part of that team. Definitely the 6th best man out there! By far!

Seattle Gaelic Tournament: San Francisco Na Fianna
What we're gonna hope to do with this is put together a tournament that allows every team from varying degrees to have some competitive matches that challenge them and give them a chance to play the game.
That being said, Na Fianna coming in as a Junior A team really speaks volumes of their skill. Would we give them a challenging game? I think we could. Would we win? I'm gonna say no. Not until I see more out of our team will I say we have a shot at Na Fianna.

Vancouver Games: Seattle
With the series tied at 1-1-1, we go into the Vancouver games looking to separate ourselves from them. We've only been doing better against them everytime we play them. We've gone from losing bad, tying, then last year winning. I think we stay strong, get a mean streak from our lose during our Gaelic Tournament and beat Vancouver/Edmonton/Calgary

Nationals: Not Seattle
Will we win? Possibly. I'm not saying that we can't win, but like I said earlier, I need to see something more from this team before I think we're gonna go in there and win. Last year in the beginning of the year, I thought we would win Junior C. This year, not so much. I need to see some improvements from everybody out there to throw the win on the table.

Make no mistake, we are good enough to win Junior B. But it's not going to be from maintaining where we're at and hoping for a crappy goalie. But until I see it, I can't say Seattle.

Player of the Year: Aaron Phillips
I thought Aaron was a strong player last year in the MVP game. Maybe people didn't vote for him, but I think he crossed some people's mind as a possibility. This year, I think Aaron steps up, starts to get his game together, starts to become more of a leader and provides some quality play out there.

Rookie of the Year: Nate (something)
I've seen Nate once and was pretty impressed with what I saw. He definitely has been doing some training in the off-season and looks like he has picked up the game well.
That can be said about a lot of the rookies too though. It's always a gamble picking this early. Because at this point, it's not who's better now, it's who is going to keep coming out trying to get better. My guess, Nate.

Enjoy the season Gaels, it's going to be fun…
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Month Long Blog April 29th

Sunday, April 29, 2007, 08:43 PM

Alright, a couple new bars have been reviewed for your happiness.

#7b Honey Stinger
This was my one gift from my brother after his trip to Boston. He got me a nutrition bar. Pretty exciting. He claimed it was pretty good. This one is Dark Chocolate Cheery Almond Pro, which usually is not the combo I'm dying to eat. But since it was 'pro' instead of 'semi-pro' or 'amateur', I thought I would give it a try.

Diagnosis, good. Pretty darn good. It goes with the 3 Musketeers filling, that whipped chocolate thing and it tastes pretty good.

Problems though, there are 17g of fat and 6g of saturated fat. Is this really a nutrition bar? It's got 20g of protein, but couldn't I just have a Reese's Nutrageous bar and get the same amount of nutrition?

390 calories too! Maybe this is for the guys who are trying to gain muscle and weight, but from the whole "Honey Stinger" name and packaging, it doesn't seem like it.

#12b Twisted Bars
These caught my eye because they have a couple pretzels in the bar. Maybe that could be a good combo. Those chocolate covered pretzels are decent and have a very strong pretzel taste, so maybe that'll over-take the gross nutrition chalky taste. Which it...kind of does, but it's still pretty disgusting.

It seemed like they took something that was really crappy and said, "Ehhh, lets add a pretzel on it and call it a day".

And that's why you have me. To be your guinea pig and try out this crap. Don't bother with this.

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That's all I got for you today. A long weekend of work took up much of my time, but I'll be back for the final installment of Month Long Blog tomorrow with a pretty decent size one. It'll be about hurling too!
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