Last week’s four day American GAA youth extravaganza – other wise known as the Continental Youth Championships (CYC) – was a resounding success with competitive games and high skill levels in hurling, Gaelic football, ladies football and camogie on view at the Irish Cultural Centre, Canton, Boston.
The 8th annual CYC saw some 100 teams in action at U8 through U18 from all across America, Canada, England and Ireland.
The first three days saw sunshine but finals day on Sunday saw rain yet it didn’t dampen spirits.
A significant development was the prominence of hurling and camogie during this championship with noticeable high skill levels and a good spread of winners.
New York hurling won titles at U8 and U14, with Boston winning at U10, San Francisco tops in U12 and St Jarlaith’s from Cleveland impressing with the U16 title.
In Camogie we had wins for Rockland, NY (U8), Boston U10 and San Francisco at U12 and U14.
The main events of the championship saw Premier football and hurling action with visitors Lancashire (UK) taking the Minor football title when beating New York by a point, while the Premier Minor ladies championship went to North America (NACB) who beat NY, also by the minimum.
In the Premier Football U16 final, New York had a comfortable win over NACB, however, N. America got their revenge with an impressive display in the Premier U16 hurling decider when ousting NY.
Elsewhere, regular football action saw good wins for Rockland at U8, U10, U12 in both boys and girls. In the U16 and U18 girls football finals, St Brigid’s of Chicago got the better of Boston.
Meanwhile, the Delco Gaels from Delaware impressed in winning the football U14 Boys A title; New York club St. Barnabas won U16 A, and Rockland took the U18 A championship.
There was tremendous atmosphere at all age level games for the four days with parents and relatives cheering on their teams and very much into the spirit of this growing North American GAA youth championship.
Northeast GAA PRO, Rory O’Donnell contributed to report.
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