Category: General

by Kyle Keesling

Fall Update

What a Weekend!

This year’s USGAA Nationals was one for the books. All codes won their first round of matches, and we had three out of five codes reach Championship Sunday, including our first-ever Ladies’ Gaelic football panel! 

I’m extremely proud of all that were involved. Whether you were on the pitch, in the stands, or organizing from the sidelines you should be very proud of our accomplishments, and the way that we showed the rest of the country what it means to be a part of the Indy GAA.

Thanks to Brittney-Elizabeth Photography we also have an extensive photo library documenting the weekend. Photos are available for purchase if you would like to own a copy for personal uses, they also make a great gift! Please contact Brittney directly for details.

🌎 Global Fest – this Saturday

Think global and fest local at Global Fest 2022 presented by Good Living Indy. Join us to share traditions, honor heritage and learn about cultures through food, music, art and play.

The club will have a booth from noon until 5:30pm to teach people about the great Gaelic games. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Chris Burrows.

📋 End of Year Survey & Award Nominations

Our end-of-year survey is now live. We’ve combined the survey with our annual awards nominations to make it an easy, all-in-one place for you to leave your feedback while it’s still fresh in your mind.

Please note that award nominations will only be live through September 30th, so don’t wait, get it done now!

☘️ Irish Fest – September 23-24

Indy Irish Fest will be held next Friday and Saturday at Garfield Park. We’ll be there as usual to help and hope to see you there! 

We ask any members who are interested in helping out in the booth to please complete this form.

⏱ Fall League has Begun!

Fall League will be on Sundays at Eugene Burns from September 11 – October 30, 9:30-11:30am.

General skill work will be practiced from 9:30-10:15. Matches will start at 10:30 and 11:30. Teams will be picked on the day with those that attend. Please bring a dark and a light shirt for teams. 

We will alternate which sport plays first.  Football will go first on ODD numbered dates and hurling will go first on EVEN numbered dates. Skill work will follow this same schedule.

🏆 Fall Tournaments

There are a number of travel tournaments coming up that we want to be sure you’re aware of. We currently have members interested in attending:

  • Midwest Tournament – Madison, WI – Saturday, September, 17th
  • Al O’Leary Tournament – Akron, OH – Saturday, October 1st

If you are interested in playing please contact Jeremy Pugh or join our travel channels in Slack.

Indoor League

Mark your calendars, Indoor League will run November 15 – January 10th for Hurling/Camogie and January 17 – March 7 for Gaelic Football.

More details coming soon!

by Kyle Keesling

June Updates

Football Nationals Practice Changing Day and Location

After feedback regarding player availability we are moving Gaelic football practice for Nationals to Tuesday evenings at 7:30pm at O’Bannon Soccer Fields.

Premier Night – June 10

The first Premier Night of the season will be next Friday, June 10th at 7pm at Kuntz Memorial Soccer Stadium.

Indy Invitational – June 18

It’s back! The 2022 Indy Invitational will be held Saturday, June 18th at World Sports Park in Indianapolis.

We’ll have beer provided by Bier Brewery as well as food truck(s) with Afters being held in downtown Indy at Kilroy’s on Georgia Street.

We welcome not only competing teams but also all fans, friends, and family members to attend. Spectators get in free.

We are also still in search of volunteers, so please fill out or share this form if you or any friends/family members might be interested in helping!

Indy GAA Gives Back

There is a new opportunity for us to give back to our community as a club! Every Sunday there will be a bin near the Mug Club cooler/shed where you can place a donation. At the end of the month the club will donate the items to a local charity. 

In June, we will collect pet supplies and personal care items in July.  If you have a local charity that is important to you that could benefit from these items please contact Claire Lane.

If you prefer you can also use Venmo. Every cent will be passed along, just send it to @claire-lane-2 with “GAA” in the comments.

Indy GAA Evening at Victory Field – July 23

Join us for an evening at the ballpark!

Be one of the first 2,500 fans through the Victory Field gates and receive a comic. Plus, the Indians will wear Thanos specialty jerseys that will be auctioned off during the game, with all proceeds benefiting Indianapolis Indians Charities.

  • Game Date: Saturday, July 23
  • Game Time: 7:05PM
  • Gates Open: 6:00PM
  • Opponent: St. Paul Saints

Wanted: Player Profiles

we hope you’ve noticed the player profiles on our social media accounts over the last few weeks featuring some of our female players. These were created as a recruitment tool to encourage more ladies to join our club. 

We’d like to go ahead and open things up to highlight all of our membership. If you’d like to be considered for a profile feature, please tell us about yourself and why you love Indy GAA. New players, seasoned pros, coaches, Americans, Irish born, always injured — we want to showcase the diversity in our club! Fill out there form here →

by Kyle Keesling

Event Reminders for the Week of 4/17

Good morning folks! This week is packed with a number of great club events so I wanted to take a quick moment to remind everyone of what’s happening.

Wednesday, April 20th – Practice – Broad Ripple Park

Now that we’ve (hopefully) got the last snow of the spring out of the way let’s cross out fingers for a nice practice this week at Broad Ripple Park. Training starts at 6:30pm with Gaelic Football first, followed by Hurling.

Friday, April 22nd – Indy GAA Ladies Social – Bier Brewery on 65th St.

Let’s get together for an evening of fun before pub league games begin. Meet some current players and learn about Gaelic games & our club. If you have questions please email Claire Lane. The event starts at 7pm.

Saturday, April 23rd – Jersey Release Party – Books & Brews Mothership

Get a chance to meet up with your teammates before your first week of matches and see this year’s jerseys while supporting one of our great sponsors. The event starts at 4:30pm and the venue is family friendly. Also if you can’t make it don’t worry, you can grab your jersey from your captains on game day.

Sunday, April 24th – Pub League Week 1 – Eugene Burns Fields

After 2 years without Indy GAA Pub League matches in April we are back! Games will be at 10am, 11am, and 12pm. If you’re interested in Mug Club, talk to Brian Mathes.

DateTeamsTime/ResultsLeagueVenue
Tappers
Daredevil Brewing
Football Pub League
Bier
Hotel Tango
Football Pub League
Books and Brews
Dugan Wyatt & Czernik
Hurling Pub League
Skyline
Jeptha Creed
Hurling Pub League
Connor's
Centerpoint
Hurling Pub League
Guinness
Hope Plumbing
Hurling Pub League
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 Chris Burrows

O’Neills Apparel Order Coming Soon

We’re working with O’Neills this year to set up a site where you can order your favorite IndyGAA themed merchandise – including the 2022 jerseys.

Very soon we will be sharing a link to a special site that will allow members to order team-branded items like shorts, sweaters, jackets, etc, as well as any other 2022 team jerseys you might want to purchase. While most of these items are available year round on the O’Neills IndyGAA site, by adding it to this order you’ll get bulk pricing and reduced shipping.

Please note that if you’re registered for a team you’re already getting your requested jersey size/number – this would only be for any extra jerseys you may want.

The site will only be open for a few days to make sure we get delivery in time for the season to start, so we wanted to give everyone a heads up before it does. We’ll pass along the website link and closing date once we get them, ideally early next week.

Remember – it doesn’t matter how good you are at something as long as you look good doing it, so be sure to stock up!

by Kyle Keesling

What’s an Indy GAA Draft Party like?

The Indy GAA Draft party has become a tradition over the past 10+ years, but sometimes it’s easy for us old-timers to assume everyone knows what these types of events are, but in reality there are many folks newer to the club, or those who have yet to join us that may be interested in knowing a little bit about it. With that I figured it was worth providing a brief overview for the uninitiated.

The actual draft takes place in a sequestered location. The captains for each team convene to choose their teams using a variety of strategies and methodologies to ensure they translate the perfect team on paper to the championship team on the field.

With that said, we don’t think of this event being held solely for draft, after all, we do call it a party!

This event is really intended to build excitement around the upcoming season and get members both old and new reacquainted and re-energized after a winter away from the pitch. All other members outside of the draft room have a chance to relax, mingle, and pontificate as to what the teams will look like for the upcoming year.

After the teams have been selected the captains emerge to announce their picks and so ensues the strategizing and game-planning for the season to come.

Details for this Year’s Event

If that sounds up your alley we hope you’ll join us for the 2022 Draft Party coming up on Sunday, February 20th at 4pm at Centerpoint Brewing.

All are welcome to attend, even if you’re not registered to play, so we encourage you to bring friends and family. If you intend to play and would like to be entered into the draft please make sure you register no later than February 16th!

Register for the 2022 Season →

Drafts Over the Years

Also, please take a second to check out the photos below as the links to some of the photo albums I was able to pull up from years past. Over the years the event has been held at a number of different places, including the Blarney Stone Pub, Santorini’s Greek Kitchen, Flat 12 Bierworks, the Hard Rock Cafe, Triton Brewing, and as of the last few years Centerpoint Brewing. Flipping though these photos was a definitely a nice little walk down memory lane, and I hope they are for you as well.

by Kyle Keesling

2022 Indy GAA Winter Banquet

Plans have made, details have been set, and tickets are now live for our annual winter banquet. After missing last year we are excited to be back this year on Saturday, January 8th, 2022, 5:00pm at the The Liter House.

The banquet is a time to reflect on the past season and catch up with each other after a few months away from the pitch. We’ll also be presenting awards to recognize members for their accomplishments on and off the field.

Dinner will be catered by Half Liter BBQ, but don’t worry, alternative dietary requirements will be accommodated, just make sure to note your needs in the notes field when purchasing your ticket(s).

The event is open to all, so be sure to invite your friends and family members, and if you have any questions please let us know.

Dress is formal, but please feel free to get as creative or unique as you like!

Due to the rising cases and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 we will be requiring that all attendees provide proof of full vaccination, as defined by the CDC, or a confirmed negative COVID-19 test result performed no greater than 48hrs before the event.

Please email a copy of your vaccination record or test result to covid19@indygaa.com to help us keep everything organized. Your data will be kept private and destroyed once we’ve verified your status.

Click the link below to purchase your tickets.

https://indygaa.wpengine.com/shop/events/2022-indy-gaa-winter-banquet/
by Rachel Keesling

2021 AGM Recap

The 2021 Indy GAA AGM was held this past Sunday morning. Three board members were voted to serve another term in their positions and we also had two new additions. All elected position terms start January 1, 2022 unless otherwise noted.

  • Events – Danny Jorgenson
    • elected to finish out the 2nd year for Paul Jones, who resigned this year
    • term begins effective immediately
  • Membership Relations – Hannah Deguch
    • elected to succeed Nick Wilson
  • PR Officer – Kyle Keesling
    • re-elected for a second term
  • Secretary – Rachel Keesling
    • re-elected for a second term
  • Sponsorship – Brett Mahoney
    • re-elected for a second term

For more detailed information on the discussions that took place, you can review the minutes here.

We thank all that came out and are excited for the 2022 season. If you have any questions please contact secretary@indygaa.com

MINUTES-Indy-GAA-AGM-2021Download
by Rachel Keesling

2021 AGM Details

As promised, here are the updates for the upcoming AGM this Sunday, November 7 at 10 AM at Bier Brewery at 5133 E 65th St, Indianapolis, IN. 

As we have had unprecedented times these past two years, it is a light agenda. All reports that have been submitted are linked below.

The open positions this year are for PRO, Sponsorship Chair, Secretary, and Membership Chair. Kyle, Brett, and myself are interested in running again and continuing our roles.

Nick Wilson will not be running again for Membership Chair. We thank him for his efforts during his term as he was met with the hard task of planning gatherings when gatherings were not allowed. Stupid COVID… In his place, we have had one nomination for this – Hannah Deguch.

In addition to the four standard openings this year, we also have an opening for Events Chair. Paul Jones has recently moved away and is no longer able to fulfill his duties. We thank him for his time, efforts, and enthusiasm for the club. With that in mind we will be taking nominations for someone to complete the last year of his term. If no nominations are received the board will appoint someone to the role, per our bylaws.

If you yourself would like to run for a position on the board, or would like to nominate one of your fellow members, please let me know. Otherwise nominations will be accepted on the floor during the meeting. If you plan to run for a position, please be prepared to say a few words as to why you would like to be considered. 

Agenda and Minutes

2021 Officer Reports

by Rachel Keesling

2021 AGM will be November 7th

This year’s Annual General Meeting, AGM, will be held on the morning of November 7th, with the exact time and venue to be forthcoming soon.

The AGM is the time that our members come together to review the prior year’s events, consider any motions that may have been submitted, as well as discuss any other topics or concerns that the membership has. It is also the time where we vote to install new board members, with this year’s open seats being:

  • Secretary – currently held by Rachel Keesling
  • Sponsorship Chair – currently held by Brett Mahoney
  • Membership Relations Chair – currently held by Nick Wilson
  • PR Officer – currently held by Kyle Keesling

In advance of the meeting we will be accepting nominations for members to fill these open seats, but members may also be nominated during the AGM. Nominations should be submitted to secretary@indygaa.com.

An agenda for this year’s meeting as well as each of the board members’ annual reports will be shared via an update to this post as well as shared to the club’s Slack. The minutes for the 2020 AGM can be reviewed here.

If you have any questions or would like to request a motion for consideration, please submit them to secretary@indygaa.com. All motions for consideration must be received no less than 10 days before the AGM — October 28th.

Also remember that November 7th is the first day after Daylight Savings Time ends, so be sure to set your clock back an hour!