While waiting to step off in Sunday's South Side Irish Parade, members of the back-to-back IHSA Track Championship Leo High School team were instructed in the ancient Irish game of Camogie.
The Leo Lions With Annie Redmond of the GAA Champion Camogie (camógaíocht in Irish) Squad - St. Mary's Camogie. Camogie is the Woman's Hurling Sport sanctioned by the Gaelic Athletic Association. St. Mary's play at Gaelic Park through the post-Memorial Day sweltering Chicago Heat.
Camogie like hurling is played with what looks like a sawed-off hockey stick and a leather ball called the sliotar
Matches are contested by two teams of 15 a side, using a field 130m to 145m long and 80m to 90m wide. H-shape goals are used, a goal (scored when the ball goes between the posts and under the bar) is equal to three points and a point (scored when the ball goes over the bar) is equal to one point.The rules are almost identical tohurling, with a few exceptions.[6]
Goalkeepers wear the same colours as outfield players. This is because no special rules apply to the goalkeeper and so there is no need for officials to differentiate between goalkeeper and outfielders.
A camogie player can handpass a score (forbidden in hurling since 1980)
Camogie games last 60 minutes (senior inter-county hurling games last 70)
Dropping the camogie stick to handpass the ball is permitted.
A smaller sliotar (ball) is used in camogie - commonly known as a size 4 sliotar - whereas hurlers play with a size 5 sliotar.
If a defending player hits the sliotar wide, a 45-metre puck is awarded to the opposition (in hurling, it is a 65-metre puck)
After a score, the goalkeeper pucks out from the 13-metre line. (in hurling, he must puck from the end line)
The metal band on the camogie stick must be covered with tape. (not necessary in hurling)
Side–to-side charges are forbidden. (permitted in hurling)
Two points are awarded for a score direct from a sideline cut (since March 2012)[7]
It is brutal! The Leo Lions, gentlemen athletes all, were astounded by the skill and athleticism required of this ancient Irish sport.
St. Mary's Camogie: R. Callnan, A. Byrne, A. Redmond, N. O’Keefe, C. Murray, L. Mitchell, A. Wall, E. Hennessey, Colette Gill (1-2), E. McQuaid, N. Kerlin, Miriam O’Keefe (2-0), Grainne McCrickland (1-2). Thanks Annie!
Every parent knows the agony and ecstasy of watching a child perform.
Whether it’s a concert, a school play, or an athletic competition, it’s always fun, in that it evokes a real sense of pride in what little Millie or Billy has learned to do.
It’s also torture because you want your child to perform well—perfectly, if possible—for the child’s sake, of course. And it’s totally out of your hands.
My kids are well beyond their child-star years, but I have great memories of the hundreds of events I sat through…well, most of them.
Enthusiastic but staunchly objective: That was how I rolled. I was there to lend support to all the kids, not just my own, and wouldn’t think of criticizing an opposing player or belaboring an official or lobbying a coach for more playing time. No, sir.
Well, there was this one ref who somehow missed it when that beefy girl from Burbank blatantly went over my daughter’s back going for a rebound and a put-back basket at St. Francis one evening. What game was he watching?
And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an umpire squeeze a pitcher any worse than my son got it from that nearsighted dweeb at Dooley Field one Saturday morning.
Hawk, I hear you.
But I’m over it now.
Or at least I thought I was until a recent Saturday when I found myself at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for the Illinois High School Association state track finals. The state championship in Class 1-A would be decided in the final event of the two-day meet: the 4-by-400-meter relay. Newton High, from the tiny, Central Illinois town of Newton, needed to finish fourth or better to claim its first state title.
Newton’s anchor-leg runner was a gritty young man who had helped his team accumulate its 30 points by competing in three events in two days of blistering heat. Newton’s relay team was in third place as he took the baton from the No. 3 runner, and if he could hold that position for his grueling lap around the track, the Eagles would be state champions.
I was hoping he’d take a wrong turn. Or worse, fall. I was ashamed of myself for thinking that, and I tried to suppress the smile that came to my face and grew wider as each of three runners passed the game-but-spent Newton youngster, relegating the Eagles to sixth place in the event and a runner-up finish in the meet, with 34 points.
The Lions from Chicago’s Leo High School were first-place finishers, with 35 points, and state champions for the second year in a row.
I couldn’t have been happier if those were my own kids out there running for Leo. And, in a sense, they were. I went to Leo, more than a few years ago, and I work there now, as the school president, a surprising destination for me after a long career in journalism. I think of Leo’s students as “my kids,” and I’m proud to.
Leo is a small, all-boys, inner-city school of about 150 students in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. We’re a Catholic school, so we have to charge tuition, and we serve some of the most disadvantaged areas of the city. Nearly all of our kids receive financial aid, most of it provided by a predominantly white, unfailingly generous alumni network.
Our kids are polite, friendly, motivated and well-behaved. They understand that someone is making a sacrifice for them to be at Leo—their parents, their grandparents, a guardian or an alum—so they work hard in school and they try to do the right things as people.
Being around “my kids” every day, I pick up on their likes and dislikes, on what’s important to them—for many, sports is the currency of the culture. I realized this shortly after I was introduced at my very first assembly. A well-meaning but windy speech was drifting right over their heads, going nowhere and drawing yawns until the vice-principal who had introduced me bailed me out.
“Before Mr. McGrath came to Leo,” he told the students, “he was a sportswriter.”
Well, it wasn’t like Derrick Rose had walked through the door, but it gave me a smidgen of credibility in the kids’ world. Sure enough, a little guy seated near the front immediately jumped to his feet. “Kobe or LeBron?” he demanded, and a lively discussion followed.
Darnell, the little guy, is now part of a group that comes by my office every Monday morning to recap the weekend in sports. They want me to know what they know.
We’re an academic school first and foremost, and we’re proud of our scholastic achievements. The week before the state track meet we graduated 100 percent of our seniors, for the third year in a row. (ESPN’s Stephen Bardo, co-captain of the 1989 “Flyin’ Illini”, did a terrific job as our commencement speaker). Each graduate has been accepted to at least one college, and they have earned more than $700,000 in scholarship assistance.
But sports is important at Leo. We believe that the hard work, dedication, and commitment necessary for success on the playing field will help a youngster get ahead in life.
The track team embodies that lesson. We don’t have anything resembling a track, indoor or out, on our 87-year-old, one-building campus; the kids get ready for the season by running the halls and stairways. The marble floors are murder on the shins, too, but I’ve yet to hear anyone complain. It’s a point of pride among our kids that our meager facilities don’t hold them back when they compete against more affluent opponents.
A big hurdle: track practice is relegated to school hallways at Leo High.
We had an all-school assembly to honor the track team a few days after the state meet, and the pride in the room was palpable when the captains walked in carrying the state championship trophy. It was our seventh one for track and field. The team has also received seven IHSA academic citations for carrying a GPA above 3.0
Senior Keith Harris Jr., a track co-captain, is an All-State running back who has a football scholarship to Northern Illinois University. He’s also the Class of 2012 valedictorian, a sharp, talented, dedicated young man. One of our best.
Winning state was especially meaningful for Keith because he was injured and missed last year’s meet. He scored points in each of his three events this season, so he’s leaving Leo a state champion, and when he addressed the assembly he thanked his coaches and teammates for making that possible.
“I love you guys,” he said.
That’s how we roll.
* * * * *
DAN McGRATH is the former sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and the current president of Leo High School.
STORY ART: Main image made in-house with photo courtesy Dan McGrath.
With the blessing of Francis Cardinal George on May 11th and Leo High School's All-Weather Indoor Track, the Lions roared at Charleston's Eastern Illinois University 2012 IHSA Class 1-A meet and takes home it seventh (7th) State Track Championship Trophy. Well done President Dan McGrath, Coaches Ed Adams, Pete Doyle and Marcus Pass and the Leo Lion Track Champions!
Facta Non Verba!
Update:
CHARLESTON, Ill. — Leo senior Keith Harris Jr. was somber.
He and sophomore Theodore Hopkins didn't finish where they had hoped Saturday in the 200-meter dash at the Class 1A boys track and field state finals, and Harris thought Leo's chances at a second consecutive team championship were finished.
Minutes later, Eureka helped lift Leo's spirits and its state title count.
Eureka finished fifth, ahead of Newton, in the 1,600 relay, the final race at O'Brien Stadium. That left Newton one point short of Leo's 35 in the team race. The Lions won by one point for the second straight season. Monticello (31) was third.
Leo's only event title came in the 400 relay, when Harris and Hopkins teamed with Corey Pryor and Marlon Britton to win in 42.76 seconds. Britton was second in the 110 hurdles to help the Lions to their seventh team title.
"We knew we had to score high in the relay to get a chance to win state, so that's what we did," said Harris, who finished fourth in the 100 and seventh in the 200. Chicago Tribune Sports
CLASS 1A TEAM SCORES Leo 35, Newton 34, Monticello 31, St. Joseph-Ogden 30, Villa Grove 28, Casey-Westfield 28, Kewanee 27, Manlius Bureau Valley 26, Chester 24, Johnston City 22, Mooseheart 22 CLASS 1A WINNERS Long jump -- Dontae Pryor, Kewanee, 23-3.75; Pole vault -- Mitch Mammoser, Newton, 15-11; High jump -- Kyle Landon, Chester, 6-10; Shot put -- Adam Weidner, Manlius Bureau Valley, 57-10.75; Triple jump -- Heath Byom, Knoxville, 43-10.75; Discus -- Ryan Pearce, Villa Grove, 166-11; 3,200 relay -- Monticello, 8:01.08; 400 relay -- Leo, 42.76; 3,200 -- Steve Schroeder, Monticello, 9:39.10; 110 hurdles -- Colin Carver, Casey-Westfield, 14.65; 100 -- Dontae Pryor, Kewanee, 10.61; 800 -- Eric Leonard, Niantic Sangamon Valley, 1:54.61; 800 relay -- Tuscola, 1:28.79; 400 -- Dan Farmer, Johnston City, 49.25; 300 hurdles -- Colin Carver, Casey-Westfield, 38.71; 1,600 -- Grant Nykaza, Beecher, 4:18.34; 200 -- Dan Farmer, Johnston City, 22.37; 1,600 relay -- Aurora Christian, 3:24.15
Dad always said that I couldn't find my butt with both hands. I can. Allow me to add this imperative -“Defend the unborn against abortion even if they persecute you, calumniate you, set traps for you, take you to court or kill you." - Pope Francis to celebrate Pro-life Mass, Vatican
"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War
While waiting to step off in Sunday's South Side Irish Parade, members of the back-to-back IHSA Track Championship Leo High School team were instructed in the ancient Irish game of Camogie.
