The Irish Sports Youth League had over 150 players and parents travel to New York this past weekend to compete in the Continental Youth Championships held on Randall’s Island. Players in all age groups competed in football, ladies football, hurling and camogie matches.

Over 700 games were played on the weekend and 230 teams from North America attended the four day event. Our players have been practicing and competing in local competition since April to prepare for this event. The CYC is the biggest Gaelic youth tournament held outside of Ireland each year.

We would like to recognize all the teams and players who made it to the club finals at the CYC. We had a number of very close games in the end and showed the other cities what Boston and the ISYL are made of.

Congratulations to our U8A Football, U8A Hurling, U8 Ladies Football, U10B Camogie, U12B Football and U16 Camogie North America Team for bringing home the championship cups. Our U8 Camogie, U10 Ladies Football, U12 Hurling, U12 Camogie, U14 Camogie and U14B Football teams were shield winners. All of our coaches did a fantastic job against some very tough teams and we congratulate them on all their hard work.

Many of the ISYL U16 and U18 boys and girls were selected to participate in the North American County Youth Board Teams. These players have the opportunity to train under the direction of the North American Games Development Administrators including our Boston GDA Kieran Cox. Four teams were selected this year U16 Football, U16 Ladies Football, U18 Hurling and U18 Football. Each of these groups put up a good fight against very strong New York select teams. The U18 Football beat New York in the final. This was a great accomplishment. We would like to congratulate our players who were selected for this year’s North American County Youth Board Teams: U16 Ladies Danielle O’Driscoll, Captain, U16 Football Ciaran Rush, U18 Football Ciaran McDevitt , Mark Dunphy, Declan Harrington and Jack Martyn, U18 Hurling Liam Duffy, Bryan Kennedy and Aiden Davoren.

We would like to thank all the ISYL players and families who traveled to New York. We were had a great presence at the CYC and next year it’s on to San Francisco.

If you are interested in Gaelic Sports in the Boston area please visit our website www.isylboston.org or contact Ellen Joyce at epbsajoyce@aol.com. For more information on the CYC go to cycgaa.org.