When Americans think of sports, they think of baseball, basketball, soccer, and of course the most popular sport of all, football. One sport that will probably not appear on many people’s list, hurling.
A Gaelic Irish sport, hurling has been around for centuries and has made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to America.
Hurling can also be found all over the world sporadically but is mostly played in its home country of Ireland. That being said, the game has found its way to Augusta, thanks to the help of curiosity, adventure, and good family fun.
Kristopher Wells, a native from McDuffie county, visited Ireland in 2004. He had heard about the sport before arriving but didn’t learn about its until he arrived.
“So, when I got there, I asked around to see what it was about,” said Wells. “So, someone said to go to Croke Park (in Dublin), and I thought how big can this sport be if only the Irish play it. The stadium holds 82,000 people, and I went to a match, saw it played for the first time. The atmosphere was great and rivals anything you see in the states or anywhere in the world.”
For perspective, the average National Football League stadium here in the United States holds sixty-nine thousand patrons. The average for Major League Baseball stadium holds forty-two thousand.
“After watching it, I decided right then and there I had to play it,” said Wells. “I went downstairs in the stadium and bought a hurley.”
A hurley is a stick like object that is used to play the sport. The objective is to get the sliotar, a small ball about the size of a baseball, either in or over a goal post. The game is played in two, 35-minute halves (for senior male rules).
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After coming home, Wells didn’t know where to start finding others who played the sport. He spent a majority of his playing time just practicing hitting balls to himself to get the hang of it. Then, he struck gold when he met others who shared his interest.
“A few years later, I found the Atlanta Club,” said Wells. “I would drive to Atlanta and learned how to play with them. Once I started playing with them, I thought, well, if they can play it in Atlanta, then why can’t I do it in Augusta? So, I didn’t have any Irish people like they did, of course, but I brought all the knowledge I had brought back and got a handful of friends who will do anything with you…. And I said instead of playing football together, we are going to try hurling.”
Wells started trying to play more locally in 2009. After struggling for a few years to find people with interest, in 2016 is when they began to find more people who had interest. They were finally were able to reach the player base, they have today.
“Most of the way people hear about us is just word to mouth and people inviting their friends,” Said Wells. “We tried the route of putting up flyers and we still do some advertisement on social media. But we will also do recruiting events like hit around at a park and people will walk around and ask what we are doing. The main way though is just inviting friends to come and play.”
This past Sunday, the group was able to pull together 36 people to come out and compete in the first matches of the spring season. Three teams of 12 each of the Augusta Club members.
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Wells said that there are about 20 clubs here in the southeast. In the United States in total, there are almost 150 clubs. Other cities have more than one club due to a high Irish population. In Georgia, there are the Augusta Club, Atlanta, Savannah clubs. Attempts have been made to start one in Athens.
All in all, the Augusta hurling club has created an opportunity for people in a community to come together for a common purpose.
“Just a great atmosphere for a community,” said Wells. “A lot of these people who would never meet in the real world will come here and get to be great friends. We get great exercise, we get to compete, learn something new and have a great community of friends.”
If anyone wanted to get involved, they can find the Augusta club on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @AugustaGaelicSportsClub.
RiverGracey is a contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at River.Gracey@TheAugustaPRESS.com
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