Year two of Gaelic Football with the Kuwait Harps

Joe was very excited about the second year of GAA here in the Middle East.  Following his recognition as Rookie of the Year for the club last season, Joe was named as the Captain of the men's B squad.  This was a great honor from the club and he took it very seriously, continually surprising Lindsay with his dedication as he thought through strategy, lineups, and the best ways to help the coaching team train the lads.  Gaelic football has grown so rapidly in the Middle East and the level of competition from last year had risen quite a bit.  In 2014, the men won the Middle East Championship in the intermediate division and the B squad lost in the final of the junior division.

This year started off great for Joe's B squad, as they brought home a trophy from the first tournament of the year in Bahrain.  It was the first trophy ever for the men's B team and everyone was ecstatic!  That was the only trophy they won this year, but the team improved quite a bit and had a good season overall.  At the Middle East Championship, they actually decimated the Bahrain team that won the title in 2014.  That just shows you how much the competition improved as more and more Irish move to the Arabian Golf region for work and opportunity.  Dubai (UAE), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Doha (Qatar), Al Ain (UAE), and Sharjah (UAE) are all growing rapidly and they all have many more players to choose from when it comes time for tournaments. Because of this, Joe is very proud with how well his men did throughout the year.  The Kuwait Harps are the only club in the Middle East who don't have a full-sized field to train on.  We also have the fewest members, so when you consider these points, along with the fact that the B team is mostly non-Irish competing against teams comprised of mostly Irish, it is amazing the success we do have.  Everyone is happy with the performance of the team this year.

The men's A team saw a couple of key players, including the club Player of the Year, move out of Kuwait.  They also had a tough run of injuries throughout the season and did not make it to a single tournament with the top 12 men able to play.  This was the Harps' first year as a member of the Middle East League and the men finished fourth (of ten) in the intermediate division.  They did win trophies at two of the tournaments, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and played well considering the injuries and the losses of some key players.  Joe played with the A team in Al Ain.  We are very proud of how he and the team performed.  En route to winning the plate final, the boys played Abu Dhabi, who ended the season as intermediate champions, to a draw.  It was a fine performance that they honestly should have won.  Joe enjoyed the step up in competition and is very appreciative to have had the chance to play with the top squad at least once while here in Kuwait.

The women, who had not lost a tournament in two years heading into this season, saw some stiff competition from Al Ain for the league title.  They developed a fierce rivalry as each team won two rounds of the league tournaments and they actually had to play a deciding match immediately after the final one of the fourth tournament.  Exhausted and worn out, our lady Harps took control and won the league title!  They followed that up with a victory at the Middle East Championship to bring home their fourth trophy of the season and the two that mattered the most!  The girls will be promoted to the senior division for next season, an impressive feat considering most of the team is from the US and Canada!

At the end of the year, Joe was honored as the club's Person of the Year by his fellow Harps.  This is one of the greatest honors Joe has received and an even nicer acknowledgement than his Rookie of the Year award previously.  The Harps have become our Kuwaiti family and they could not have honored Joe in a greater way. Joe has truly fallen in love with Gaelic football and wishes he had found this sport a decade earlier!  Other than baseball, Gaelic is his favorite sport and he would have loved to have started playing while younger.  The time with the Kuwait Harps has easily been the highlight of our two years here and we have made many lifelong friends.  They are our Kuwait family and will be brothers and sisters forever.  Here are a few of the many shots from this season's tournaments.

The first ever GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) World Games took place
 in Abu Dhabi with teams from as far as Spain and South Africa!

Omaha!

Since Joe was a small child he has wanted to visit Omaha for the College World Series.  Because he has spent most of his summers playing or coaching, he has never been able to go and recently we have been waiting for a good reason to make the trip. That finally happened in 2015!  Joe currently has three former players that play prominent roles on the TCU (Texas Christian University) baseball team.  He had been hoping all season that they would make it back to Omaha as they did in 2014 so that we could go and watch them.

A couple of days before we made the drive to Nebraska, Joe got a message from his former ace and team captain, Mitchell Traver, that he had been picked to start the game we would be attending against LSU.  This was an elimination game against one of the top programs in college baseball history.  Mitchell would be toeing the rubber against the Tigers and a hostile crowd of over 25,000 fans.  LSU has been to Omaha so many times over the past couple of decades that they have converted many of the locals to cheer for them.

The boys set us up with tickets to sit with the TCU families and the entire experience was amazing.  Mitchell threw well and kept the Horned Frogs in the game long enough to hand it over to TCU's dominant bullpen.  Another of Joe's former players, Dane Steinhagen, the TCU left fielder, had been slumping a bit and Joe had a nice talk with him about his hitting approach before the game.  Dane promptly went out and was the star of the night offensively leading TCU to a big victory with three huge hits and three RBI!  Before the game, Joe also got to have a nice chat with Brian Trieglaff, another of Joe's former players and captains and one of TCU's outstanding relief pitchers.

Dane and Joe before the LSU game talking hitting.  Joe loved it!

Field level with Brian before the game.  This was a happy reunion that brought tears to Lindsay's eyes!

On the field with Mitchell after his strong start to eliminate LSU. 

Winning the game set up a rematch with Vanderbilt, who defeated TCU 1-0 earlier in the World Series, so we decided to stay in Omaha longer than originally planned to watch the game.  The day between games we explored Omaha.  It is a wonderful and underrated city.  The entire community does an outstanding job hosting the College World Series and it is a trip every baseball fan should make!  Dane's family took us out for an amazing chicken fried steak at the favorite restaurant of Warren Buffet.  We also had the chance to catch up with the other boys' families.

During the game Dane was used on the television broadcast graphic above

Brian is always one of the most positive and supportive team members on the team.

Mitchell continues to dominate as he did at Houston Christian.

TCU lost to Vandy in the next game to end their season, but they were one of the final four teams standing in the nation, and losing to the Commodores is nothing to be ashamed of.  Dane had another big hit for the Frogs as the stable middle of the lineup force he is, and we got to see Brian throw two innings in relief.  The trip was one of the highlights of Joe's baseball career (as a player or coach) and he has never been prouder!

Brian Trieglaff and Mitchell Traver, two of the best players and young men Joe has ever coached!

The TCU Head Coach is one of the best in the nation!