GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 38 – November 16, 2015 | Page 11

The league competitions are co-ed, but when
the club travels they field separate hurling and
camogie squads. Gaelic football is not played at
the moment, but it is understood that interest
is building with the anticipation of introducing
football in the next year or so.
The league has been a huge success. One
thing I learned from my time in St. Louis is
that what we do at the club level within the city
is critical to our success as a club. Traveling to
other cities is great, but in order to grow the
sport locally, we need local competition. The
nearest hurling clubs to ours are about 4 hours
away: Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Atlanta, so if
we want to play regularly and develop interest
in the game, the local league is important.

Spring League Champions ‘Ports’ win the Iron Hurley. Photo courtesy of Nashville GAC.

Our first league took place in the summer of 2014. We
shifted to a “spring league” and an “autumn league,” reserving
summer for travel. We’ve now played that first summer, fall
of 2014, spring of 2015, and fall of 2015. We play 7-per-side,
co-ed matches, with each team playing each other team in a
30 minute match each Sunday. This means each team plays
a total of 60 minutes each weekend. Each season, new teams
are drafted by the captains.
The club has no issues with field space as they sublease
fields from the Nashville Youth Soccer Association who do
not use the fields on Sundays, so they do not have to compete with other sports for field-time.
HOT
Tennessee’s favourable climate where winter does not get
too cold, allows for practice time from December through
February. They are able to start their leagues in March and
can play their autumn league in November. The summer
months however are a different matter with very hot and
humid conditions.

“The summer months can be brutal with temps near 100 f./
38 c. with very high humidity. When we play in the summer,
we typically take water breaks every 10 minutes. We also try
to play and practice early or late in the day to avoid the severe
heat,” Watson explained.
IRON HURLEY
The league play has consistently gotten better each season.
This past fall was the most competitive season to date. The
Nashville club is not only innovative but shows its passion
for the sport when handing out trophies. The winning team
of the leagues gets what is called the ‘Iron Hurley’ for its rewards during the season. Club member, Caleb Harper, is a
Ferrier and blacksmith by trade, and fabricated the piece to
be Nashville GAC’s perpetual league championship trophy.
NEW HORIZONS
Over the past two summers the club has been able to
broaden its horizons and experience when fielding competitive teams at Junior C grade tournaments in St. Louis,
Indianapolis, and Atlanta.

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