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With the 2008 championships just under way in most of the major cities, the North American County Board of the GAA held its annual pre-playoff meeting recently at Boston's Irish Cultural Center, the venue for this years finals. The main focus of the meeting was for the National Board to meet the local host playoff committee to review the plans already in place for the 2008 playoffs and make the draws for the tournament. Besides the North American County Board officers, all divisional boards around the country were represented at the meeting with the exception of the Midwest division. Based on team affiliations from the various divisions at least 18 cities, some with several teams, are expected to be represented at the finals. Consequently, it is anticipated that over a thousand people from out-of-town will be attending the games over the Labor Day weekend, August 29th thru. September 1st. Given the huge success of youth programs around the country it is expected that under age teams from some of these cities will participate in the NACB Youth championships. As part of the nationwide campaign to promote Gaelic games among American born players, two all-American championships, comprising of American born players in hurling and football will been added to this years tournament (an all-American camogie championship is also being considered) . In ladies football, an intermediate football championship will be part of the schedule for the first time, while the junior B shield competition, introduced last year, has been discontinued. With a record 18 championships on the agenda, the 2008 playoffs may well emerge as the biggest NACB playoffs in the history of the board, potentially presenting a serious facilities challenge to the host playoff committee in Boston. Before the playoffs draws were made, there was the usual discussion on how to avoid teams getting a bye to the finals where only three cities were involved in competition such as senior hurling and football. The hosting Northeast division volunteered to enter second teams (divisional championship runner-up) to fill the void in these competitions. Typically, the winners of each divisional championship will represent their division in the playoffs but there will be cases where two teams from the same division will be entered in the same grade. In some cases, the defeated divisional finalists will represent their divisions in a lower grade in the playoffs. Since there are teams from several cities competing for divisional championships in various grades it may not be know until mid-August what clubs or cities will be participating in the playoffs in any a particular grade. Since there is only one senior camogie club and several junior grade clubs in the NACB the camogie draw was tabled pending recommendations from a camogie committee. Following is a list of the divisions and the cities that were entered into the 2008 NACB Playoff draw: NORTHEAST:
Boston metropolitan area, Hartford CN, Concord Following is the draw for the 2008 NACB playoffs: Senior
Hurling: Junior
A Hurling: Junior
B Hurling: Junior
C Hurling: Quarter-finals
All-American
Hurling Semi-final Men's
Senior Football: Men's
Intermediate Football Men's
Junior A Football Men's
Junior B Football Men's
Junior C Football Men's
Junior D Football All-American
Football Ladies
Senior Football Ladies
Intermediate Football Ladies
Junior A Football Ladies
Junior B Football: Quarter-finals
Senior
Camogie Junior
Camogie Semi-finals The Continental Youth Championship (CYC) Tournament which was a huge success when staged in Chicago Gaelic Park last year will be held in Philadelphia this year. The big event is scheduled for the weekend of July 25, 26 & 27 at the Greater Chester Valley Soccer Association Fields. A total of 205 games were played at last years tournament and it is anticipated that that number will be exceeded at this years event. Over 100 teams from cities across the US and Canada and London, England will be competing in the tournament. Various hurling and Gaelic football championships at under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 17 age groups will be staged. A special attraction this year will the participation of a U16 hurling team from Belfast, comprising of players from both catholic and protestant neighborhoods. The tournament will get underway with the staging of a gala welcoming parade by the host city on the Thursday night. Several GAA officials from Ireland have committed to attending the tournament including President Nickey Brennan and International Committee Chairman Sheamus Howlin as well as officials from O'Neill's Sporting Company, the tournament sponsor. |