How has lacrosse become UCD’s fastest-growing sport. What makes the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club unique. Why are students from diverse backgrounds drawn to this Native American game. How does participation in lacrosse enhance the overall university experience.
The Rise of Lacrosse at University College Dublin
Lacrosse has taken University College Dublin (UCD) by storm, emerging as one of the fastest-growing sports on campus. The Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club has become a cornerstone of UCD’s vibrant sports community, attracting students from diverse backgrounds and fostering a sense of camaraderie both on and off the field.
With its unique blend of skill, strategy, and athleticism, lacrosse has captured the hearts of UCD students, many of whom have never played the sport before arriving on campus. The club’s success in recruiting new members and developing talent has been nothing short of remarkable, with a 60-70% increase in membership over the past few years.
What is Lacrosse?
Lacrosse is a fast-paced team sport with Native American origins. Players use long-handled sticks with mesh pockets to catch, carry, and pass a small rubber ball, aiming to score goals by shooting the ball into the opponent’s net. The sport combines elements of basketball, soccer, and hockey, making it accessible to athletes from various sporting backgrounds.
The Unique Appeal of the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club
The Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club stands out among UCD’s 50+ sports clubs for several reasons:
- Inclusivity: The club welcomes players of all skill levels, from complete beginners to experienced athletes.
- International community: With members hailing from countries such as Ireland, the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Norway, Australia, France, and the Czech Republic, the club offers a truly global experience.
- Rapid skill development: Many players who join with no prior lacrosse experience find themselves competing at national levels within months.
- Travel opportunities: The club regularly participates in tournaments and matches across Ireland and Europe, providing members with unique travel experiences.
From Novice to National: The UCD Lacrosse Journey
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club is the rapid progression of its players. Many students who join the club as complete beginners find themselves competing for spots on the Irish national teams within a year. This exceptional development pipeline has led to consistent UCD representation on Ireland’s national lacrosse teams, with both current players and alumni competing in world championships.
How does the club facilitate such rapid player development?
The club’s success in developing players can be attributed to several factors:
- High-quality training programs tailored to both beginners and advanced players
- Regular competitive opportunities against other Irish and international teams
- A supportive and encouraging team environment that fosters growth
- Access to experienced coaches and mentors within the UCD and Irish lacrosse communities
Building Bridges: UCD’s Role in Growing Irish Lacrosse
The Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club has played a pivotal role in the expansion of lacrosse across Ireland. UCD has been at the forefront of recruitment and high-quality training, contributing significantly to the sport’s growth nationwide. The club’s efforts extend beyond its own campus, as it actively supports the development of lacrosse programs at other Irish universities.
UCD’s Lacrosse Outreach Initiatives
The club is currently supporting the establishment of lacrosse programs at:
- Queens University Belfast
- Waterford Institute of Technology
These efforts aim to create a robust inter-university lacrosse community in Ireland, with hopes of establishing a Lacrosse Intervarsity cup involving UCD, NUIG, WIT, Queens, and potentially Trinity College Dublin.
The Global Reach of UCD Lacrosse
The Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club’s influence extends far beyond the borders of Ireland. The club’s international connections provide members with unique opportunities for global engagement and personal growth.
International Tournaments and Travel
UCD lacrosse players regularly participate in tournaments and matches across Europe, including:
- Amsterdam
- Rome
- Berlin
- Ghent
- York
These international experiences not only enhance players’ skills but also foster cross-cultural connections and provide potential pathways for students considering studying or working abroad after graduation.
The Impact of Lacrosse on Student Life at UCD
Participation in the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club offers UCD students more than just athletic opportunities. The club has created a tight-knit community that enhances the overall university experience for its members.
How does lacrosse contribute to student well-being?
Students involved in the lacrosse club report numerous benefits:
- Stress relief: Lacrosse provides a physical and mental outlet for students dealing with academic pressures.
- Social connections: The club organizes regular formal and informal events, fostering friendships across diverse backgrounds.
- Time management skills: Balancing lacrosse commitments with academic responsibilities helps students develop crucial organizational abilities.
- Leadership opportunities: Roles such as team captain allow students to cultivate valuable leadership skills.
The Future of Lacrosse at UCD and Beyond
As the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club continues to grow and thrive, its impact on UCD and the broader Irish lacrosse community is set to expand. The club’s success in attracting and developing players bodes well for the future of the sport in Ireland.
What are the long-term goals for UCD lacrosse?
The club aims to:
- Further increase membership and field additional competitive teams
- Establish UCD as a powerhouse in European university lacrosse
- Continue supporting the growth of lacrosse at other Irish universities
- Maintain a strong presence on Irish national teams
- Expand international connections and travel opportunities for members
As UCD lacrosse alumni spread across the globe, they carry with them the skills, friendships, and experiences gained through their involvement with the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club. This growing network of passionate lacrosse players and advocates ensures that the sport’s influence will continue to expand, both in Ireland and internationally.
Joining the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club: A Gateway to Adventure
For students considering joining the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club, the opportunities for personal growth, athletic development, and international experiences are unparalleled. Whether you’re a seasoned lacrosse player or have never picked up a stick before, the club offers a welcoming environment for all skill levels.
How can interested students get involved?
To join the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club:
- Attend the UCD Sports Exposition at the beginning of the academic year
- Follow the club’s social media accounts for updates on tryouts and open practices
- Reach out to current club members or officers for more information
- Attend a beginner’s clinic or open practice to get a feel for the sport
By joining the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club, students open themselves up to a world of opportunities both on and off the field. From developing new athletic skills to forging lifelong friendships and exploring international destinations, the club offers a truly enriching university experience.
As the sport of lacrosse continues to grow in popularity at UCD and across Ireland, the Shooting Irish Lacrosse Club stands as a shining example of how a passionate community can foster athletic excellence, personal growth, and international connections. Whether you’re looking to compete at the highest levels or simply want to try something new, the club’s doors are open, ready to welcome the next generation of lacrosse enthusiasts into its ranks.
Sports Clubs in UCD: Loving Life With Lacrosse
One thing that really makes my experience at UCD is my participation in sports clubs. I have played for the lacrosse club ever since my first week in college and in this, my final year, I was lucky enough to be voted in as Women’s Captain. Whenever I’m stressed or bogged down with lectures, assignments and career decisions, lacrosse is the only thing that truly allows me to switch off and get my head in the game. Off the field, as a club we have formed our own little community with formal and informal events organised every week. It has allowed me to meet people from different countries and different courses but who are great fun on and off the field.
Before I go any further, let me explain what lacrosse is. Lacrosse is originally a Native American sport; using a long-handled stick with a mesh strung head, players pass a small, airborne rubber ball between them with the aim of shooting the ball into their opponent’s goal. The primary difference between the men’s and women’s game is the use of contact. Many of our players used to play hurling, camogie, hockey and basketball because of the crossover of skills and similarities in tactics and plays so even though it’s only taught at college level in Ireland, those who start playing pick it up pretty fast.
At the beginning of September, UCD Sport holds an exposition where all the clubs set up a stand to recruit both freshers and existing students. This year it was sponsored by Bank of Ireland and they held a competition to see who could put as many small balls into a box within a large glass box on top of it. Our men’s captain, Eoin Parsons gave it a shot but was unfortunately beaten to the highest score by a rival club captain. There are over 50 sports club in UCD that range from Rugby to Surfing to Ultimate Frisbee; each with their own personally designed stand and the unofficial competition for best stand is always very…competitive. This year, the lacrosse club beat its record in terms of recruitment numbers at the expo and set the bar pretty high for next year with over 200 new recruits.
A few weeks ago we hosted a game day where the majority of teams in the country headed to our leafy campus for a sunny day of games. UCD contributed 2 full men’s and women’s teams alongside NUIG lacrosse club, Dublin Avengers Lacrosse Club and Dublin Bay Prawns. The UCD 1st teams were successful in winning their matches with the 2nd teams losing out by a few goals against their competitors. This year, UCD are supporting the development of lacrosse in Queens University Belfast and Waterford Institute of Technology. Hopefully there will be a Lacrosse Intervarsity cup between UCD, NUIG, WIT, Queens and potentially Trinity in the future. From when I joined in first year, it’s amazing to see how fast the sport is growing in Ireland.
Ireland Lacrosse has expanded hugely in the last few years with UCD being at the heart of recruitment and high quality training. The club has seen a 60-70% increase in numbers in the last few years which means more teams in the club, more trips and more diversity! Currently my team mates come from not only Ireland and the US but also Canada, UK, Germany, Norway, Australia, France, Czech Republic and many more! However, for our home players, they can rise to national representation within a matter of months.
There has always been UCD representation on the Irish national teams, both current players and alumni competed in the World Championships over the last year. Next weekend a large number of UCD hopefuls, the majority of whom have only been playing the sport a year, will be competing for a spot on the national teams. The Irish Women’s team will be playing in the European Championships in the Czech Republic in summer 2015 and the Irish Men’s Indoor Lacrosse team will be competing in the World Indoor Championships in Buffalo, New York in September 2015. Unfortunately for me, I lack Irish citizenship so my spot will be in the stands, decked out in green, cheering them on!
Along with travelling to support UCD players and the national team, the UCD team indulges in a lot of national and international trips. This semester we will be playing in both Galway and Belfast and next semester we will be competing against teams in Amsterdam. In the past we have played against teams in Rome, Berlin, Ghent and York, building relationships with other teams in the European community and providing destinations for our alumni to emigrate to – two graduates from last year are now playing in Vancouver! I’m excited to travel and live abroad after I graduate and play for a foreign team.
Hopefully the future UCD team can come and visit me wherever I end up!
Home – Burning River Lacrosse
“Our son is living his dream. It was unimaginable to us a few years ago that a kid from Northeast Ohio would be noticed, recruited and then play lacrosse at a school like University of Virginia. Yet that is what James is doing. We just returned from watching James play against Princeton and it was…
“Burning River continues to be, without a doubt, the preeminent LAX club in Northeast Ohio. Our son benefited from top notch coaching, competition, exposure and all-around on and off-field assistance. As a parent – I appreciate the great organization and communication – we know the lacrosse plan well in advance, allowing us to plan the…
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“We want to express to you our appreciation for your Burning River Lacrosse program. The personal attention and individual coaching that you and your assistant coaches provide to ALL your players is truly a witness to your commitment to share your LAX knowledge with others. Josh has played for other club/tournament teams in the past…
“As a family we found that it was not so easy to wind our way through the landscape of travel lacrosse. Our son Jeffrey played for a city sponsored team as well as numerous regional travel teams. During this time we heard stories surrounding which programs were best- but it was difficult to assess the…
“…What my sons learned at Burning River is priceless. From the demands of commitment and dedication they gained the understanding of what was necessary to play for a top lacrosse team and at levels comparable to the best there is available. They weren’t perfect but through their trials, they learned to play the game but…
“We have been a part of the Burning River family for 7 years.
I say family, because Woody and the coaches treat my boys like there own. From the youngest teams to the oldest teams, the organization, commitment and teamwork is above and beyond. There is something to be said about just having your son…
“… Coach Calleri and his staff give honest feedback, guidance, and persistent support and energy whether your son wants to play at the next level or just contribute more for his school team. Coach Calleri’s guidance during the recruiting process was invaluable. His experience, relationships, and professionalism give Northeast Ohio lacrosse legitimacy…”
“I really need to let you know what a positive experience BR was for Sam. He absolutely loved his coach, his team, the lacrosse. Absolutely the best experience Sam has ever had with any team. We are so impressed with how well run this organization is. You are a great role model for these boys. …
“As a college coach, I have always been impressed with the sportsmanship and competitive spirit shown by the players and coaches in the Burning River Lacrosse program.
The players play at a high level and are prepared for top level college lacrosse from the coaching they receive and the tournaments they participate in. Coach Calleri…
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“Coach Calleri has been a great lacrosse resource all throughout high school for Connor. Connor has battled 3 different injuries during summer lacrosse, but Coach Calleri never forgot about him. He made just as many phone calls (if not more) to college coaches for Connor. Coach Calleri truly cares about his players and is running Burning River for the…
“Burning River Lax has made all the difference in our son’s lacrosse experience. I can’t speak highly enough of what Coach Calleri and his program has done for the success of our son Colin…./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63234318/nd_lacrosse_20.0.jpg)
Burning River is THE premier club in the Midwest. In addition, Coach Calleri is plugged in to the coaching staff of…
“…with hard work and expert feedback and coaching, Liam and his team each year realized many successes, and even when not successful, the team learned from its mistakes. They were taught professionalism in success and defeat, and how to demonstrate great sportsmanship… I as a parent have always been impressed with the way each boy…
Our son Michael has had a great experience playing for the Burning River Lacrosse Club. His lacrosse skills and understanding have increased markedly and are a direct result of playing in the BR program for five years. … The BR coaches have made a significant contribution to Michael reaching this goal by teaching the basics…
“Thank you for all the support over the past few years and helping Grayson become the player he is today. He was elected as a team captain for Hoover this year and is very excited about that. I believe he gained the confidence and leadership abilities from being in your program.
You and your staff…
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“….With Hogan we chased the “best” opportunities for college exposure through ‘a Columbus/Indiana based program’ and ‘a Cleveland based program’.
Although ‘good’ lacrosse programs, neither of these organizations provided the honest feedback, the college recruiting guidance or the attention to our son in developing his game to hone his skills. Although Hogan was an Academic…
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15 things you need to know about hurling – Sports Oddity – Blogs
yorling ([ˈhɜːlɪŋ]), Russian eye a person will always be hooked on a sport whose name includes the morpheme “dick”.
2. Thousand-year history
The inhabitants of Ireland began to play hurling before they believed in Jesus: there is evidence that the game existed on the island even before the arrival of the Celts, that is, about two thousand years ago. There is a version that the history of hurling has all three thousand years.
The formalization of the sports rules of hurling occurred in 1879, at about the same time as the formalization of the rules of football in England.
3. Crazy rules
The general mechanics of hurling is traditional: on a rectangular lawn, teams try to score a small ball into the opponent’s goal and protect their own.
The madness is that for this they can use clubs, hands, feet and other parts of the body, but they can carry the ball in their hands no more than four steps, they cannot pass with a throw (only by hitting a hand or stick), but they can run with the ball while holding it on the club itself. And these are the simplest, most basic things.
4. Two gates
Yes, yes. In hurling there are “traditional” rectangular collars with a net in which the goalkeeper stands, and there are “rugby” ones – two sticks that continue the bars of the lower gate upwards. The ball can be thrown both through them and into the net behind the goalkeeper.
5. Double count
This is logical if you take into account the number of gates. The hurley score is as follows: “number of goals” (balls scored in the lower gate) – “number of points” (balls thrown between the posts from above), and looks like this: Clare 0–20 Tipperary 2–13. In this case, the winner is determined by the sum – one goal is worth three points, so in the above example Clare won, they have 20 total points, and the opponents have 19.
Yes, writing the sum of points at once is for wimps and will kill the spirit of the sport, Blatter approves.
6. Speed
Hurling is considered the fastest game sport in the world, in any case, when compared with other types of football and hockey, this is true, look at the pace at which attacks unfold:
7. Scale
During the game, each of the teams has 15 people, counting the goalkeeper, and the field itself is about 20 meters longer than the football field (that is, up to 145) and the width is the same – up to 90 meters. The hurling goal is a meter narrower than a football goal, but the ball itself is eight times smaller than a football goal, and quite a bit less than a baseball one, and weighs about 120 grams.
8. The Irish
Hurling is played in different countries of the world, but only one has been doing it for thousands of years, and, more importantly, thousands of spectators are still ready to watch it.
The 2011 Irish Championship final drew over 80,000 spectators in Dublin. Semi-finals attended by 30-40 thousand. There are 4 divisions in the Irish Championship, in which all the provinces of the country and two clubs from England are represented (London was even once the champion, at 1901, but has since been relegated from the top flight).
It’s hard to find something more Irish than hurling, even other Gaelic sports, St. Patrick and clover, are rooted in antiquity, roots in Irish culture and true Irish love.
And what can I say if the best hurley player right now (and according to some sources in the history of the sport) looks like this:
, which is artificially maintained in one country for the sake of preserving traditions, this is not entirely true. Hurling is unlikely to ever gain the popularity of football, if only because of the greater complexity of the rules and specific equipment, but he is definitely not inferior to lacrosse, bandy, and field hockey in terms of entertainment.
Right now in America, where hurling has existed for many years as a sport for Irish immigrants, there is a process going on that has gone through all the major sports popular in the US – the development of the college system. The first college game in the USA was held in 2009 (between Berkeley and Stanford), and already in 2011 the first national college championship was held, in which 8 universities were represented.
10. Rigidity
If you haven’t watched the video from the 6th fact, you may have an idea of hurling as a pastoral game of Irish peasants and American students, reminiscent of the process of croquet from Alice in Wonderland . This is not the case at all: only shoulder contact is officially allowed in hurling, but in practice there is a lot of contact and only direct pushes and delays are punished. And now add here the need to fight for a ball flying at a speed of over 100 km / h, the presence of each in the hands of a meter-long piece of wood resembling an ax, and 30 people on a football field.
There is a joke in Ireland: a group of young people got together to fight, but suddenly a hurley game started.
And at decisive moments, all methods are used, up to throwing clubs at opponents:
Please note that for throwing a club at the opponent’s head, the player received … a yellow card!
11. Names
Hurling caresses the ear. Just try pronouncing: hurley, k’emen (as the Irish themselves call the stick), slater ([ˈʃlɪtər] is the name of the ball), or club names: Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick. Or division names: Liam McCarthy Cup (first), Christy Ring Cup (second), Nicky Rackard Cup (third), Lory Meagher Cup (fourth).
12. Grandees and Challengers
In the last 10 years, only three clubs have been Irish champions, 7 of them being Kilkenny. But not the same teams play in the final, 8 different teams fought for the Liam McCarthy Cup in 10 years (there are 15 of them in the top division).
