Dec. 4, 2019 • Caitlyn Lees

To be honest, I knew nothing about the inner workings of the USGAA, GAA, or anything about the world of organized Gaelic sports just a few months ago. All I really understood was that there was an antiquated rule on the books about keeping men and women who want to play, separate.  The Charleston Hurling Club has become a second family to me and I did not want to lose my ability to play.

Dec. 3, 2019 • Andrew Maron

On November 22, the Charleston GAA met for it’s annual End of the Year party at McCann’s Irish Pub in Mt Pleasant. The night started off with a slide show of pictures from the past year while food was supplied to all who came for this special occasion. Everyone enjoyed their time reminiscing a great year and eating delicious food prepared by McCann's. After a few moments of glaring confusion as to how to get the computer to sync up to the projector, the club’s chair started the awards presentation.

Nov. 19, 2019 • Andrew Maron

Our Fall Pub League Final was the first game where it would truly feel like fall. After a cold front that gave us several days of rain, field conditions were water logged and the cold wind was strong enough to knock over one of the goals. The stakes of the game were high. Between Team Daps accruing a number of bonus points through attendance and recruiting, and Team Johnson & Wilson forfeiting a game a few weeks prior, the season tally was close enough that the winning team would win the season. Both teams had very strong showings. With the addition of a few new recruits, we were able to play 10v10. The match began strongly in J&W’s favor. J&W had the wind, so they were able to score points over the bar with relative ease. However, with a pair of strong goals from Chris Stratton and Ryan Barrs, Daps was able to stay in it and were trailing by only 5 points at the half. In the second half, it was clear the J&W had grown to rely on the wind, and came up short on a number of shots from midfield. This gave Daps the opportunity they needed close the deficit and take the lead by 1 point! With 10 minutes to go, Daps made a hard press for a goal but was stopped just short by a critical save in the box. After that play, the match shifted back in favor of J&W, led by Brendan Dagg. After a quick series of scores, J&W was able to hold off Daps until the time expired:

Nov. 12, 2019 • Andrew Maron

For our final tournament of the year, we made the trip to Augusta for the Azalea Cup. We tried a new experiment as a club, where we pooled our cash and rented a passenger van for the majority of the players to ride in for the daytrip. While it meant having to wake up earlier than usual for the drive, it turned into a great team building experience for those of us in the van. Once we arrived, we saw a number of familiar faces, as we had played most of the attending teams at least once this year. Those of us who made the trip to Knoxville were also happy to see the Augusta players who were our teammates for a day. Augusta greeted us with a welcome package full of bottled water, protein snacks, and koozies. While the temperature was much, much cooler than average, we were excited for the otherwise perfect weather for a full day of hurling.

Nov. 5, 2019 • Andrew Maron

The penultimate game of the season followed a busy day for Charleston Hurling. Saturday November 2^nd saw a number of our members volunteering to promote the club and hurling as a whole. First, we had members taking the time to help the Citadel with their first time hosting the NCGAA Southeast regionals, with UNC and Virginia Tech in attendance. We also had our members represent the club at the Charleston Scottish Highland games, and managed to recruit a few people to come out and play the next day! Both J&W and Daps had strong showings for the Pub League matchup, with Daps having only a slight advantage in numbers. The first half had a few back and forth scores, with Brandon Callahan putting Daps on his back and scoring 7 of their 9 points in the first half. However, J&W held the advantage at 3-3 (12) to 2-3 (9) at halftime. The second half showed a stark difference in play. Daps managed an impressive defensive performance, locking down J&W’s offense completely and holding them to only 1 point for the majority of the half. The final play of the game gave J&W an opportunity to send it to extra time, with the offense making a final push for a goal. After a quick give and go, Brendan Dagg hit the ball just a little too high, and sent it over the bar for only 1 point: