The Gaelico Escolas Project has coached thousands of Galician children how to play football in the last three years.
By John Harrington
Over the last three years, around 10,000 children have been coached how to play Gaelic football in Galician schools in the north of Spain.
This incredible achievement is down to the success of the Gaelico Escolas project which has seen GAA clubs in Galica promote the growth of Gaelic games by focusing on schools.
The idea is that you have a captive audience for the sport in a school setting that enables you to target large numbers and then make the playing of the sport sustainable by upskilling the teachers so they can organise the games themselves after being shown the ropes by the club coaches who visit the school.
There are currently 12 GAA clubs in Galica with the numbers of those participating growing all the time, and the hope is that the Gaelic Escolas project will supercharge that growth.
Club-school links are being developed so that if a child enjoys playing Gaelic football in school they then have the opportunity to join a club and further pursue their love of the game.
Miguel Ángel Otero Soliño is the Chairperson of the Keltoi Vigo club in Vigo, and one of the driving forces behind the Gaelico Escolas project.
A focus on upskilling coaches is having a very positive impact on the growth of Gaelic games in Galicia.
Necessity is often the mother of invention and according to him it was it was the body-blow of the Covid-19 pandemic that persuaded the Gaelic games community in Galicia to prioritise youth development.
“After Covid we had to start again, it was a real tipping point for us. We felt we had to move as quickly as we could because we were in danger of disappearing," he told GAA.ie.
“Suddenly a lot of players retired and weren't involved in Gaelic football anymore so we needed to think of something and we decided to create a brand called Gaelico Escolas, which translates as Gaelic Schools.
“The point if it was that it was a common project for all of the clubs that they could join and the idea was to create a recognisable brand which would help us get sponsors and especially having a common point for schools who might be interested in introducing Gaelic football.
“So we created a website which gave schools all the information they needed and we offered them a strategy for creating a Gaelic football academy in the school.
“Previously some of the clubs had their own small academies but they could only play one or two games with one another and that got a bit boring for them so the idea was to create a bigger brand and start all the players at the same time so that they could play lots of matches.
"The first project was a Cúl Camp which we did in Gondomar in the schools and in that first year we reached 5,000 kids.”
Gaelic football has proven to be a big hit with Galician children.
Since then the Gaelico Escolas project has visited schools in Vigo, Mazaricos, Gondomar, Santiago, A Coruña Ourense, and A Guarda and developed inter-school tournaments.
A lack of coaches is one of the most obvious barriers to growing Gaelic games outside of Ireland so the genius of what’s happening in Galicia is how the clubs have engaged with school-teachers.
“The teachers in the high school and the primary school are very important for us,” explains Otero Soliño.
“We focus on teaching them and also then we organise every year foundation coaching courses and we invite them to complete the course even if they don't play gaelic football themselves.
“If we can get the teachers trained then they can work alone. We will still go there, but it's better if they're self-sufficient.
“When we go the schools we offer the teachers four to six lessons about how to coach Gaelic football, and if you want us to teach you those lessons, you then have to participate in our tournaments.
“In that way we really started to grow the game, especially in some rural areas because they have less options for sport, and now it’s working very well.
“A lot of schools now get in touch with us and ask us can we come to their schools because it's an interesting sport. But then they're obliged to also participate in tournaments.
“Last year we created three inter-school tournaments and this year we had three more at Christmas in different locations in Galicia.”
Chairperson of the Keltoi Vigo club, Miguel Ángel Otero Soliño, is pictured left.
The flames of youth development in Galicia will be further planned in April when Vigo hosts the 2024 GGE European Féile.
Prior to that, they'll also run two pre-Féile tournaments so they can select what teams from the region to forward to compete in Féile.
The imagination and hard-work that all the clubs in Galicia are putting in to developing the game is all the more impressive considering it’s driven by native Galicians rather than Irish abroad.
Where does this affinity for Gaelic games come from? Otero Soliño himself is an illuminating case-study that throws light on some of the answers to that question.
“I started to play eight years ago,” he says. “I saw an advertisement saying they were looking for players to play Gaelic football. I knew a bit about it because a long time ago there was a piece about Gaelic football on Trans World sport and I thought it was interesting.
“I'm a goalkeeper and was playing futsal and soccer so I thought I'd go for training and see how it was and I enjoyed it a lot from the very beginning.
“The following week I played my first ever match. As a goalkeeper it was very interesting for me because when you play soccer in 11-a-side it can be a bit boring for a goalkeeper but in Gaelic football as a goalkeeper you're much more involved in the game.
“So I enjoyed the sport from the start but i also enjoyed the idea of Gaelic football. The soul of Gaelic football was what impressed me the most.
“Here everything is soccer and it's very competitive and very aggressive but there are no values anymore. Whereas Gaelic football is very competitive and we play hard but in a different way. It has much more community and more soul.
“I really liked this community idea and the way the Galicia club was working at that moment to create that community, and that’s what really attracts the parents of the children now that we’re getting involved.
“They’re also bored with soccer. The rivalries and fights. Gaelic football offer something different. It's about community, family, getting to know different countries, having a club that you can't change...some parents just find it much more interesting, it's something different.
“And the sport itself is a really fun sport to play. These two things connected are very powerful. But we have to make sure that we can organise enough tournaments because for the children it's all about games. We need to offer them games otherwise they get bored because they just want to play.
“We are focused on giving them games and now we are trying to form relationships with clubs in Ireland so we can offer our children matches against teams from Ireland as well which is a great experience for them.
“I'm very jealous of the kids playing now, I would have loved the same opportunities."
The Galicia, Europe, Native Born Ladies Football squad during the Renault GAA World Games 2019 Day 2 at WIT Arena, Carriganore, Co. Waterford. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
That opportunity to represent Galicia in European competition and at the World games is a big attraction for those who get involved because they have such pride of place in where they come from.
The Galicians regard themselves as Celts, which is probably another reason why an indigenous Irish sport is something they’re so attracted to.
So, as well as growing the game at a local level, the Galicians are also keen to increase playing opportunities against other European clubs because it’s about more than sport, it’s also an expression of their identity as well.
Otero Soliño recently attended a Gaelic Games Europe Youth seminar in the Irish embassy in Paris along with 21 other coaches from across the continent, and forged as many connections as possible with the other attendees.
“We are all working in isolated pockets in different ways so it's great for us all to come together in this way because we all realise then that we are not alone.
“We are all creating something in common and it's powerful to be able to exchange information and find out ways to improve the things that we do by having great connections with all the other clubs.
“Now that we know each other and trust one another we are more eager to create tournaments or friendly games. We might be isolated from each other in terms of distance, but in Europe now we're coming together as a group more often and organising more tournaments and games and this is the way forward for Europe in terms of youth development.
“Our WhatsApp group is getting bigger all the time and now that you know these people personally it's much easier to form connections.
“Networking like that is something we were probably missing before but it's the best way to develop and get stronger from working together.”
Coaches from around Europe being put through their paces at a recent Youth Coaching Seminar in Paris.
The upcoming Féile in April will strengthen many of those connections and forge some new ones too.
It will also further raise the profile of Gaelic games in Galicia because it will be televised on regional Galician TV.
Last year’s Iberian Cup Final was also televised as have the last three All-Ireland Senior football Finals – yet another barometer of the growing popularity of the game there.
A solid foundation is already in place, and it’s going to be very interesting to see just how much the popularity of Gaelic games will grow in Galicia in the coming years and decades.
“That's the hope, this is why we have developed this project, Galicas Escolas,” says Otero Soliño.
“The idea is that this new course will create new clubs. The hope is that the kids will enjoy playing in the schools so they'll then join a club.
“It's not only about getting new players for existing clubs, we also want to create new clubs. Because we need that. It will take some time to do that because these kids are young but hopefully in four or five years they will be very competitive and they can create that club.
“So that's the idea. Coaching in schools, creating academies and then academies support a current club, and then the we create the new club. These are the new steps we create.
“The plan is working in Galicia, and we’re going to continue with it.”