GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 19 – February 7, 2015 | Page 10

“You know it’s such a great sport and it combines so many
sports that Canadians are familiar with like volleyball, basketball and soccer, and all those skills are so transferable, so
once people go out and play they get hooked.

YOUTH REVOLUTION

“We know that to grow our clubs we have to keep getting
Canadians involved in the sport,” Mortimer stated.

Despite the on- field achievements of the ladies teams especially, the real winner at the Ottawa Gaels Club is the success of
the youth program. After the ladies team was founded in the 80s
the next big step arrived in the new millennium when in 2000 a
youth program began. The club had links with schools as there
were several teachers involved with the Gaels and one of those
was the Youth Development Officer, Robbie Chaisson. Along
with other club members they introduced themselves to the Ottawa Catholic School Board and in the process struck a chord.

Mortimer, whose own children now play as well, celebrates her Irish heritage and that link to Irish culture as
her cousins play Hurling and Gaelic Football in Cushendall in County Antrim.

“They introduced the sport to the technical director of the Physical Education of the schools, Bob Thomas, and he got hooked. He
loved the technical aspects of the game; he loved all aspects of it
and he was a real champion of the sport,” explained the club PRO.

“I mean I got hooked 15 years ago when I first played. So
anyone who is not familiar with the game, once we get them
out they really do get hooked on the sport quite easily.

“My cousin’s son plays at the
county level in hurling and so it’s
very nice for me to have that connection to all of my cousins who
still live there and to the sports
that they play and for our kids
to have that connection. I took
them to Antrim three years ago
and they were able to play Gaelic
football with their cousins,” the
club PRO said.
Connections were also being
made back home in Ottawa as
generations of new players were
literally born.
“Through having kids – three of
us on the team one year in 2003
had kids in the same week and
now all those kids are playing.”

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Photo: Ottawa Gaels GAA