North American Youth Championships "A Great Success"

Denis O'Brien Reports From A Busy Weekend In Boston

It was thrills and spills a minute again for the third straight day on Sunday for the final day of the very successful annual O'Neill's Continental Youth Championships at the Boston GAA grounds at the Irish Cultural Center at Canton, MA.

On Friday teams from all across North America, including one from Ottawa, Canada, and a minor football side from London, did battle with 87 games played in hot and very humid conditions with thunder and lighting curtailing the last few games.

On Saturday it was more of the same, a plethora of games exceeding 85 were held on 7 fields at Canton, with patchy rain throughout the day causing the heroic hosting committee schedule headaches.

However, the organizers rose to the occasion very well as things ran smoothly throughout the weekend.

Hosting this youth championships is no small feat. The sheer size of the competition is breath taking with 201 games held over the three days, with 1500 players from ages 8-18 playing in 95 teams from 26 clubs across North America.

GAA President, Nicky Brennan on his first official visit to the US, was on hand Sunday to present the winning and runners up teams medals and was genuinely taken back at the overall scope of the youth championships, "I don't think people at home would understand how magnificent this competition is," he said, when addressing the large gathering before the awards ceremony which went on for hours such is the enormity of this North American Gaelic games event.

Brennan thanked all concerned for their efforts in running this huge event, "It is an honor to be here and I thank the organizations involved and I'm very very proud of the hosting committee who rose to the challenge, you deserve enormous credit," said the GAA President.

He also was pleased to see young Americans playing hurling and complimented the people behind the effort.

He spoke well of this CYC event and said it has a bright future, "The competition goes from strength to strength and we will continue to give it support. All participants here today are winners," he said, to which the good sized gathering of parents, mentors, and players of all ages responded enthusiastically.

Teams from NY Rockland did very well as their names were called out on numerous occasion as winners, and their edging out of Boston in the U14 hurling final was a thriller.

As hurling is at the initial stages of development at youth levels across the US, the Boston and New York teams were the only two involved at U14 level, but that didn't take from a great game on Saturday that saw Boston sweep past NY with some ease. But that changed in the final on Sunday as an overtime goal by Rockland, that was waved wide by an umpire but overruled by the ref as an angled rocket, was adjudicated to have gone through the top corner of the net for a crucial goal.

Boston in this final behind by two points in normal time, brought on the heroic 11 year old U12 midfielder Jack Lynch - what a name for a midfielder with Cork parents from Newmarket, and who is related, wait for it, to Cork hurling stars, Ben and Jerry O'Connor, who also happen to be his hurling heroes.

Lynch stylishly turned the game around in Boston's favor and they nearly pulled off a win when pulling back three points after that controversial Rockland goal to tie up the scores with the 10 minutes of overtime nearly up.

That was when New York surged again with a late point and the win and the young U14 hurlers from Rockland went wild and heartbreak for Boston where their excellent manger, Larry McCann, a former Antrin hurler, and developer of hurling among the youth of Boston, could only smile with thoughts of 'so close'.

But the heroic Boston U12 hurlers (5 teams in that competition) would come to hosts Boston's rescue as they out- hurled rivals NY St.Barnabas in the final to become the only Boston team to win a championship throughout the weekend.

I had been following their efforts from the semi final stage earlier in the day when they beat San Francisco in a thrilling 4-03 to 2-04 game, with young Jack Lynch playing a stormer at midfield and taking all of Boston's scores except for one goal.

The standard was high in this one with great passion displayed by each player and after San Fran had fallen behind at the break of this 20 minutes a side semi final, they hit back with an unanswered 1-03 and went into a two point lead within five minutes.

Mothers, fathers and mentors were roaring their hearts out for each side with Boston pressing and in a space of a few minutes a Lynch blitz of 2-01 edged past the Californians for an epic win. The young Bostonians reacted with a mad dash into each others arms as all and sundry tossed themselves into a pile of joy. Heartbreak though for the gallant San Fran young ones.

Owing to the overtime in the U14 hurling final, my arrival at the U16 football final between Boston and favorites San Francisco was on the late-ish side and the game was just at an end.

Unfortunately, it was not good news for Boston at the time as they were being well beaten by a good San Fran side who were up by 12 points with time almost up.

Boston, much to the delight of the local following, did manage a late goal and a point but San Fran hit back immediately with a well taken point before the final whistle was blown soon after.

San Francisco looked the part with good flowing movements and had a lot of confidence while on the ball.

With all of Boston's football grades out of contention for a trophy, it was up to the hurlers once more to reverse things by mid afternoon.

This brought on the arrival of the Boston U10 hurlers to play rivals New York Rockland in the final and it was another thriller.

Boston, after a lively start that saw them take a goal lead, fell behind before the interval when New York hit an unanswered two goals with green flags from the small but very handy Shane Slattery and excellent Sean Lawless.

Boston came flying back within two minutes of the restart with 1-1, to reduce the gap to two points with 18 minutes left to play. Rockland responded well and within minutes hit hard when the net bulged twice in succession.

Boston though fought on with the excellent 9 year old Chris Smith leading the way with his side piling on the pressure. With time running out Boston heroically got back two goals of their own to leave two points in it with time almost up.

They went pressing for a goal at the death with cries from the crowd at deafening proportions, but alas, time beat them in the end as the ref blew the last whistle and the win for New York in another thriller.

But it was to be the heroic U12 hurlers who would be up next and Boston's last chance for glory.

And indeed this they did, with first time hurlers mixed in with one year of experienced old hands, and, led by the best young hurler in America, one Jack Lynch, they emphatically won the final beating New York St.Barnabas by 5-05 to 1-0 with all Boston's crew chipping in throughout the field.

The young footballers of Boston tried hard in each grade with the U8 girls doing very well as runners up and the U10 footballers nearly making the knock out stages but for scoring points difference.

The U16 footballers did well in their runners up spot but the minors were a disappointment and didn't look good at all.

There is more competition in the football grades than hurling as hurling is not as advanced at youth levels but having said that, this does not take away from the heroics of the young and, Boston's fledglings hurlers, if they can stick together, could make waves.