Author: David Littlejohn

by David Littlejohn

March Club Update

I hope you are doing well and are gearing up for a great Indy GAA season. The board and our committees have been working hard to get everything ready for when we all hit the pitch for Pub League in April. The fields have been reserved, our teams have been picked, and the jerseys have been designed and are being produced at O’Neills. It’s already March and we’ll be getting started with practices soon so I wanted to give a quick update on events scheduled for the season.

Thank You Jersey Committee!

Before getting into the updates I want to thank the members who helped with the jersey designs this year. Woody White and his crew did a great job putting together the jerseys and working with the captains and sponsors to make sure everyone agreed on the final designs. They put in a lot of time and effort to make sure we’ll look good on the pitch this season. Next time you see Woody White, Kelsey Alcorn, Joel Dale, Jessica Rhodes, Chris Burrows, Brett Mayoney, and Travis Ryan be sure to tell them thank you for their work on the jerseys. We are working to redesign the travel jerseys as well so if you have any thoughts/ideas/proposals you would like to share jump on the #jersey-design channel on Slack or send them to Woody.

Member Relations Officer Vacancy

Our membership relations officer position is vacant and we are in search of interested members who are willing and able to take over the position. The role of the Membership Relations Officer is to be a point of contact for all of our members, to introduce new members to the club, and keep all of our members engaged in the club’s activities/efforts. The new membership relations officer’s term would start as soon as possible and would end on December 31, 2023. If you are interested in this position to help our club and our members please contact the board at board@indygaa.com.

Special O’Neills Apparel Order

This year we are doing a special O’Neills Apparel Order in conjunction with our jersey order so that our members can purchase new Indy GAA jerseys, shorts, windcheaters, etc. so you can update your kitbag/wardrobe.

Visit the Club Hub site here →

USGAA Registration

If you haven’t registered with the USGAA already you will also be required to register for the USGAA before our season starts and/or you play in any tournaments. More information on that process and requirement can be found here. Please be on the lookout for details with more information on the registration requirements when we get closer to the deadline.

Upcoming Travel Tournaments

We’ve already been invited to play in multiple tournaments coming up this year. There are a few coming up in the next few months:

For more information on the travel tournaments check out the Upcoming Tournament section on the sidebar of the website and the #travelfootball and #travelhurling channels on Slack.

We are looking for a travel competition commissioner to help keep track of the tournaments and interested members who will help set up teams and work on travel plans/details. If you are interested please contact the board at board@indygaa.com.

Practices

We are hoping to get back into action with practices in March this year. This year we are planning to start practices the first Wednesday after St. Patrick’s Day, March 23rd. This will heavily depend on the weather but please mark your calendar so you’re ready to get started this March.

Pub League

The teams have been picked and this year we’re back to eight hurling teams and four football teams. The schedules are posted on our website. This year our Pub League is scheduled to start on April 24th and run through August 7th. This will allow for enough weekends to host full hurling and football seasons from April 24th – July 24th with playoffs for football at the end of June and early July and hurling playoffs at the end of July and early August.

Premier Nights

We are planning to host Premier Nights at Kuntz stadium throughout the season again this year. These are fun nights with good competition and a great opportunity for family members and/or friends to see our games for a cheap Friday night event/activity. Details on our Premier Nights will be provided when we get closer to the season.

Indy Invitational

Planning for the greatest Gaelic Invitational in North America has already started. The date for the Indy Invitational is scheduled for June 18th at the World Sports Park. You will not want to miss this event or its after party so make sure to mark your calendar now.

This event is the best way to showcase our club and it takes a lot of effort to host it so we will need as many volunteers as we can get to set up the fields, run the games, keep everything running smoothly, and tear down. If you are interested in helping please contact our Events Chair, Danny Jorgenson, to let him know and he will add you to his list.

Nationals

This year the USGAA National finals are being hosted in Chicago from August 19th – 21st and we want to make our presence known and bring home some hardware. Please mark your calendar whether you plan to play or be a superfan for the weekend.

We want to send competitive panels to play and win as many trophies as we can take home this year. To get ready, our coaches have set up additional practices throughout the season for more intense practices for players interested in participating in Nationals. We are planning to start hosting these practices in May and more details will be provided when we get closer to the season.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is back on this year!! It will be held on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, on the Mile Square in downtown Indy and we are registered to participate. Please join the club in walking in the parade so we can showcase our great club and sports to all of the parade’s spectators. Bring your gear and wear your jersey because we’ll demonstrate the skills of our sports while walking the parade route. After the parade we’ll take pictures with the group downtown, have a short puck/kick around and then head off for afters. St. Patrick’s Day is always a great time to enjoy our friends in the club, make new friends, recruit new members, kick off our season, and of course celebrate the patron Saint of Ireland. For more info check out the calendar entry or join the #lets-talk-about-events-baby channel in Slack.

March Madness Tournament Challenge

Do you like basketball? Do you like prizes? Join the club’s tournament challenge for your chance to win a free 2023 membership or a gift card to one of our lovely sponsors.

Join the Tournament Challenge here →

by David Littlejohn

July Updates

Pub League Starts Next Weekend!

I hope you are as excited as I am to get back on the pitch for Pub League.  It has been too long since we’ve all been able to get together and play.  Games are scheduled to start on July 11th at Eugene Burns fields and you can check your team’s schedule (here).  One thing you will notice about the schedule this year is that hurling and football will both be played on Sundays. 

Another thing you will notice is that teams will be sharing ref/officiating duties for both sports.  Please do your best to be available for both your game and officiating duties when your team is scheduled to do so.  It makes things run a lot easier when we have enough members ready to play/help on time.  Since we have 7 teams for hurling this season we had to adjust the schedule and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, this will require bye weeks for all teams. 

Before we get started on the 11th it would be best to make sure you have everything ready to go when you get to the fields.  Aside from having your standard playing equipment please make sure you have at least your own water bottle(s) and sunscreen. 

With hurling and football on the same day some days may be long.  A few other items you may consider bringing for game days are snacks, a chair, tent (something for shade), more water, a change of shoes/sandals, etc.  I am looking forward to a fun season and can’t wait to see everyone back on the pitch. 

You can view the entire pub league schedule here, and view each individual team’s schedule by visiting the team pages on our website. Woody White has also created a handy, printable schedule, so be sure to check that out as well!

Referee Training

Our own Brian Mathes will be hosting a virtual referee training course on July 14th at 8:30pm. Since all teams will be required to officiate games through the season and we will need hurlers to help with football and vice versa this is a great opportunity to learn all of the basics and rules for both sports. More details can be found here →

Nationals

With so many unknowns last year and at the beginning of this year the board decided not to officially send any teams to nationals this season.  The plan is to host a full Pub League season for all of our members and to get the family back together.  We are hoping to get things back to normal next year for our schedule and tournaments. 

Before the USGAA’s deadline to submit teams to nationals the board was contacted by members who requested to travel to nationals independently to play for the Indy GAA.  The board accepted this request and submitted it to the Heartland Division and USGAA asking if members from our club at different levels of play could participate at nationals with the stipulation of playing at Junior B or lower.  This was a unique request for this year because the members interested to play come from various levels of play.  The USGAA considered our members’ request for a few weeks and granted them to play this year at the Junior B level since there will be Junior A and Junior C players playing together. 

This is a one-time situation that was led by our members and we wish them the best in Boston.  If you are interested in playing in Boston or want to get more touches on the ball at their practices this summer contact Brogan Sheedy for more information.

We have received questions asking if the club has paid any fees/dues/money to send the team to Boston this year and the answer is no.  Each player is covering their own expenses for travel and the tournament (as any normal year) and there are no registration fees directly affiliated with sending teams to Nationals so the club did not pay any additional fees/dues for these members to attend the tournament.    

I hope everyone has a fun, and safe 4th of July, and I’ll see you on the pitch!

Download Our Printable Schedule →
by David Littlejohn

An Update On Practices and Pub League

With the end of March approaching the days are getting longer and the light at the end of the COVID tunnel is brighter than ever. We are not out of the woods yet, but all of our adult members will be eligible for vaccinations starting  March 31st which is a great first step back to normalcy. This year will (obviously) be different than a normal year, with our focus being solely on the club, and with the weather getting warmer we want to get started with COVID-sensitive practices as soon as we are able to do so. 

What Are We Waiting For?
Getting back on the pitch requires a space to do so, and in order to reserve fields this year we are required to have a COVID-19 event plan approved by the Marion County Health Department.  We submitted our event plan in February and are still waiting on their response.  With COVID-19 tracking, the NCAA tournament, vaccine distribution, and our planned start date, the health department has not been able to review/approve our plan yet, but they anticipate that they will be able to shortly. 

Practice
After our plan is approved we plan to host socially distanced practices until it is safe to introduce contact, with a target start date of some time in April. Prior to the first practice we will be sending out information outlining our safety policies/protocols.  Keep in mind that there will likely be some minor procedures/pre-checks that we’ll need to adhere to (temperature checks, questionnaires, etc.) when attending practices, but it’s a minor inconvenience that’s necessary to help ensure that we provide the safest environment as possible for all of our participants and their friends and loved-ones.

Pub League
We are optimistic at this point that we’ll be able to return to normal play later this summer with Pub League starting in July. The July start to our leagues should provide us enough time to offer a full season, while also giving us some wiggle room for any adjustments that may need to take place.  The delay also allows everyone time to get fully vaccinated, gives players a chance to get back into “game shape” to reduce injuries, and also provides enough time for health recommendations to hopefully allow for more contact. 

Notable Changes
One of the biggest differences to note this year is that we are not planning to participate in Nationals. This decision allows us to concentrate on our pub league games without requiring us to pause our season to practice and travel for nationals. Another change will be that hurling and Gaelic football will both be played on Sundays. This is because the youth American football season will be taking place at Eugene Burns on weekdays in the summer so Sunday is the only available day for us to reserve the fields.

We are doing our best to host practices and games in a safe way this year.  I hope you are excited to get back on the pitch and I look forward to seeing everyone out there. Let’s take this opportunity to focus on our club, our safety, and our camaraderie to keep our club strong and successful for years to come. 

Register for the 2021 Season Now →

by David Littlejohn

☘️ Spring Update

🦠 The Latest Regarding COVID

I hope your 2021 is off to as good of a start as it can be given the current situation.  Hopefully this year we’ll be able to gather and play again, but we are still in a holding pattern as we wait for things to get better.  If this were a normal season we would have already had our draft events, our second round of indoor would be complete and we’d be gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day. 

Unfortunately COVID is hanging around into 2021, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  So far this year our board has been able to hold two meetings to discuss plans for the upcoming year.  At this point we still don’t know when health professionals will recommend that it is safe to play contact sports, but we will keep a very close eye on their recommendations and guidance and we’ll do our best to keep the Club informed of any updates and/or plans for our events and season. 

📋 2021 League Registration

Josh Lane has created potential schedules with varying start dates so we can hit the ground running when the time comes.  We’ve submitted our COVID plan to the Marion County Health Department in order to reserve the fields at Eugene Burns. 

Our main goal is to keep our members and their families safe and healthy which is why we will not host games if there are still restrictions that recommend against it.  With that in mind, our board has also chosen to focus on our local events and season this year and as part of that adjustment we will not be hosting our invitational.

Not knowing when we will be able to start our season makes it a little tricky to ask our members to register for the season.  To help us get a better understanding of who all is interested in playing this year we are asking members to register here at no cost (for now).  When we are able to play we will ask for all members to pay before playing our first games. 

This week, the USGAA has also announced that they will be requiring registration, including the same fee structure as in past years ($63 males/$42 females). Be on the lookout for an email from Rachel soon on how to complete that process.

Having this early registration helps us plan for the upcoming season.  We hope that all of our members will return to play but we understand that each person has their own level of comfort regarding this situation and may choose to put more time between the pandemic and playing.

🏆 February Skills Challenge

Last month we launched our virtual challenge program and are working to continue it to encourage our members to stay active and engaged.  February’s Frigid Digits Challenge has wrapped up and Hope Plumbing won the first round of hurling and Bier Brewery took the win for football. 

We are planning to continue the virtual challenge program and would like to see all of our members submit their challenge videos.  If you have any thoughts or ideas on challenges or how we can improve this program please feel free to send them to the board.

Stay tuned as we will be announcing the March challenge soon.

✏️ March Board Meeting

This month’s board meeting will be held next week, on Wednesday, March 10th at 7:30pm. If you care to join us you can use this meeting link. If you have any issues joining the call please contact Kyle.

📰 Member News & Updates

A by-no-means-exhaustive list of things that have happened over the preceding months. If I missed something big of yours, forgive me and please don’t take it personally, I barely know what’s going on outside of the four walls of my house these days 😆.
If you have updates/news to share with the club about yourself or a fellow member please email pro@indygaa.com to have it included in a future update. – Kyle

  • Aaron Wilder received his MA in English, word on the street is he’s also one helluva bread baker…
  • Break out the tweed and leather-bound books, Chris Bungard was promoted from Associate to Full Professor at Butler University
  • Brogan Sheedy became engaged to this fiancée Erin
  • Mike Monaghan and family welcomed their second child Jackson Patrick
  • Reid Smith and family welcomed their daughter Harper Jo
  • Phil Bar…something and family welcomed their second son Clayton
  • Andretta Erickson, after many rounds of fostering cats with Indy Humane, finally found her forever-cat Ledger, beginning her slow descension to crazy cat lady status
by David Littlejohn

August Club Update

2020 Pub League is Cancelled

I hope you’re doing well.  If this year was a normal year we’d be done with our Pub League season and many of our athletes would be training for Nationals at this time. Unfortunately this hasn’t been a normal year and it looks like we are going to have to sit tight for a while until things get closer to normal.  Last week our board “met” to discuss the plans for the rest of the year and we determined that it is best to pull the cord and cancel Pub League.  If things change and we are able to comfortably host any games in the fall we will try to do so, but at this time we do not anticipate any games for 2020. 

The Annual Awards Banquet is Cancelled

The board also made the tough call of cancelling our annual banquet. We would love to host an event to get everyone together but we don’t know what things will be like in the months to come.  We also won’t have a season to reflect on and acknowledge outstanding efforts on and off the field, so we determined it was best to preserve our resources and cancel the event.  I would still like to nominate Tim Cabeen for the broken hurley award. I know he looks forward to that every year. I also think we can agree that Liam Bonner takes the cake for this year’s “fastest to respond on Slack” award.   

On the bright side we have received our O’Neills jerseys!  I am 100% sure that these are the cleanest Pub League jerseys in an August of all time.  To get yours we are hosting a jersey pick booth at Hotel Tango on August 22nd starting at 4:30 (more details to come).  Depending on the turnout we will host additional jersey pick up events to ensure that everyone gets their jersey to social distance in style. 

An Update on Dues

We understand that Indy GAA was not able to provide the season and the competition that you expected this year.  For this reason we are offering the opportunity to refund your membership if you would like one. If you are not interested in a refund and would like to donate your membership to the club the Indy GAA would greatly appreciate it.  Any donations will help ensure that our club will be around for years to come and that we can cover any costs later this year and early next year.  We hope to be back up and running as soon as we are able to do so safely and comfortably. 

Please understand that the club incurred some costs that need to be paid so we are taking that into consideration for the refunds.  The biggest cost was the jerseys that we purchased for the season in February.  In a typical year our jerseys are funded through sponsorships.  Since our sponsors have been impacted so hard by the COVID pandemic we will not be requesting sponsorship money from most of our sponsors.  To cover the cost of the jerseys the board determined that the best and most fair way to refund our members is to take out the cost of jerseys in each member’s refund. 

For example if a recurring member requests a refund they would be reimbursed $150 minus the cost of a jersey. If a member signed up late and was not included in the initial jersey order they may be reimbursed in full.  The board also agreed that any new members that paid the new membership fees for this year would be able register again next year as a new member.  

To let us know if you’d like to donate your dues, or request a refund, please complete this form.

 If we have not heard from you by September 25th we will consider your dues as a donation.

Wrapping Up

This year has been filled with tough decisions and our board has been doing what we feel is best for our club and community.  I want to thank the board for their hard work this year and all of our club members for working with us as we navigated through these unprecedented times.

The AGM will still take place in November, and we will share more info about that when we have it.

by David Littlejohn

Club Activities Postponed Until Further Notice

Tomorrow’s planned competitions are cancelled and we will be cancelling Sunday events until further notice.

On Thursday, Mayor Hogsett addressed the city with new policies and the Marion County Health Department issued new guidelines in a Public Health Order to combat the current COVID-19 situation in our city.  The new regulations do allow for non-contact exercising in groups and the policies we’ve implemented for our practices comply with the City’s/County’s policies and CDC’s recommendations.  Unfortunately the reality is that things this week are worse than they were last week.  

This Thursday and Friday had the most positive COVID cases issued in Indiana since the pandemic started.  On top of that the numbers look like they are continuing to trend upward.  After hearing the Mayor’s and Health Department’s new policies and seeing the recent COVID positive numbers the board had an internal discussion and then a vote on whether or not we should continue to host events in the midst of this. 

The board determined that at this time it would be best to postpone all activities and we will do our best to gauge when we can get back out there to have some non-contact fun. 

If there is a silver lining with this it is that our competition committee will use this extra time to put together a lot of fun and engaging competitions for the club. This week Coach Shoe and his group put together a great day of fun and safe games.  The group has a lot of other ideas in the works so when we’re able to get back on the pitch we will have a good lineup of games to play. 

I hope you understand that the board made this decision because we think it is what’s best for our club members and our community at this time. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at chair@indygaa.com or the board at board@indygaa.com.

by David Littlejohn

An Update Regarding the 2020 Season

I hope you’re doing well. Despite all that is happening around us with COVID-19, the Indy GAA board truly wants to make this season as best as possible for our members. We are taking our club members’ health and concerns into consideration in every decision we make. 

Please know that the board and myself have had to make some pretty tough calls these past few months. We love showing off how great our club is and representing Indianapolis both on and off of the pitch at the various tournaments and events throughout the year. With all of the unknowns and various factors that play into participating in these events, it seems that this year, it may be best to pull back and focus on our own club and community.

At the beginning of the year we decided to combine our football and hurling practices with the motto of “One Club.”  I think this motto has more meaning now than ever. Let’s make this an opportunity to focus on our club and our members to make us stronger for years to come. When all of this is over, we will show the other clubs just how great we are.

With that said I’ve complied a list of important updates below, so let’s get to it.

Pub League – our season is on hold and will be altered to make the most of this situation. We are going to do our best to reschedule the season and will likely extend it into the fall. With so many unknowns at the moment, we have not set any new dates in stone. We will do our best to keep the Club informed as details develop.

Golf Outing – Initially scheduled for May 30th is now postponed.  We will look to reschedule this event in September or October, if possible.

Indy Invitational – Our largest local event initially scheduled for June 20th is now postponed. We are looking into potential dates in September or October for rescheduling. However, with so many unknowns, it is a real possibility we might not be able to host our Invitational this year. There are many external factors that play into this event this year. We anticipate that EVERYONE will be postponing their events and also looking to reschedule for September or October of this year. We will most likely be competing with many other local/regional/national events. We don’t know what other clubs’ availability and/or capability to travel for our tournament will be in the fall. There may still be health recommendations against amateur sport games/tournaments and/or large gatherings. In addition, we will be operating on a limited budget this year. We will have to evaluate the high cost of the event with the club’s actual 2020 budget. Many of our sponsors have been impacted by this situation so we will not be collecting our typical sponsorship funds this year (see more on our sponsor update below). We just want everyone to be prepared for the possibility it may not happen. 

Spark!Fishers – Initially scheduled for June 27th is cancelled.

Nationals – We do not know yet if the USGAA will be able to host the Nationals tournament this year.  We also do not know what travel recommendations will be in August and/or if our club members will be willing to travel to Boston this year. Similar to our Invitational, we do not know if large gatherings will be allowed or if amateur sports will be back in full swing by August. This is a big unknown at the moment. 

Sponsors – As we all know, many of our sponsors were greatly impacted by this COVID-19 pandemic.  Some were impacted much more than others. That is why we are planning to work with our sponsors on a case by case basis to have them contribute what they feel comfortable contributing, if anything at all. The board is looking into ways that we can help our sponsors in their time in need. If you have any thoughts or ideas please don’t hesitate to share them with the board and/or the club. If anything, please consider supporting them when/if you can buy purchasing their products or promoting their events/specials on social media.  

Mise le meas,

David Littlejohn
Indy GAA Board Chair
chair@indygaa.com

by David Littlejohn

A COVID-19 Update

The Indy GAA Board and I know everyone is attempting to find their new normal right now, but we wanted to take a brief moment to share a few decisions we’ve made regarding the 2020 season.

Following the guidance of the CDC, the federal, state, and local levels we are suspending all club activities until Friday, April 17.  This will still allow us to tentatively host our Pub League Kickoff & Jersey Party at Hotel Tango, but this is all subject to change as we learn more and more health recommendations are developed. Important dates that follow shortly after our current start date include:

  • April 18 – Annual Referee Training/Refresher Course
  • April 19 – Week 1 of Hurling Pub League
  • April 21 – Weekly Practices Start
  • April 23 – Week 1 of Gaelic Football Pub League 

We are also in constant communication with the USGAA regarding their league play recommendations and their registration deadline. The original March 31st deadline was chosen by the Indy GAA board to help ensure we were registered prior to the USGAA’s official deadline of the end of April. For now we still ask that all members register with the USGAA by the end of the month, barring any changes.

We did get word that this year’s Continental Youth Championships in San Francisco have been canceled, but as of now USGAA Nationals in Boston (Aug 21st-23rd) are still on.

Again, all of these dates are subject to change as we continue to follow the government’s guidance, but as of now we are keeping an optimistic view as to how we will proceed this year. Rest assured that we are continuing to plan for contingencies if the need be, and we will do our best to continue to keep an open line of communication with our members as things proceed/develop.  Our coaches are working on some virtual training opportunities and we are hoping to put together some virtual social opportunities in the near future. Please keep your eye out of these events.

We will continue to send out communications via email, our social media, and our website, but if you are a current member you may want to keep an eye on our Slack workspace.  If you do not yet have access to Slack please email Kyle Keesling (pro@indygaa.com) to get setup.

There are a lot of unknowns right now but we will work to keep everyone as informed as we can.  If you have any questions or thoughts regarding this whole situation, please feel free to contact me. 

In the meantime, please think about supporting our sponsors during these uncertain times. Many of them are in the hospitality sector, which is being especially affected by all of this. Be on the look-out for some fundraising events we have in the works to help support the businesses that have so graciously chosen to support us. On social media we encourage you to tag/share info about our sponsors, tag the club, and/or use the hashtag #indygaacares to show our support.