USGAA's Bennett Burke spreading the word with zeal of the converted 

By John Harrington

As a first-year student in the University of Texas at Austin, Bennett Burke experienced an existential sporting crisis.

A one-time dream of top-level soccer hadn’t panned out and he found himself going through what’s known in the USA as the ‘Freshman 15’, the common belief that first-year students gain about 15 pounds due to lifestyle changes.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit which gave him some time to figure out his next sporting step.

He’d always had an affinity for Ireland because his father’s four grandparents had come from Mayo and Clare.

His father and uncles hail from New Jersey and played Gaelic football and hurling in their youth but that hadn’t been an option for Bennett growing up in McKinney, Texas.

But when he moved to Austin he discovered the city had a GAA club of its own, the Celtic Cowboys.

Bennett bought a hurley, sliotar, and Gaelic football and taught himself the skills of both games in an open field near his house during the Covid sporting lockdown. By the time 2021 swung around and the USGAA games programme was back up and running he was primed to join the Celtic Cowboys, or so he thought.

“It was a tough onboarding, the guys didn't go easy on me at all,” he laughs.

“I got knocked down a lot. I got lots of choice words hurled at me, all in good fun, of course. But I think that kind of trial by fire made me a better player.

“I loved it from the start. Something just clicked. I've played a lot of sports in my life and I've enjoyed a lot of sports, but they lose their lustre after a bit. That's never happened for me with GAA. Five years in and I still look forward to practice, look forward to the matches.

“There's something about the way the games flow and the way it feels to puck a sliotar, kick a football. That's like, ‘Yeah, this is this is it. This is my sport’.”

Fast-forward six years and Burke’s passion for Gaelic games isn’t just confined to the pitch.

He was elected USGAA PRO at their Convention last November and is also an avid GAA historian. So much so, that he moved to Ireland in 2023 for four months to fully immerse himself in it.

“I studied history at UT Austin and it has really strong focus on Latin American history and history of conflict and trade throughout the 20th century,” says Burke.

“There's a small British and Irish studies department, but there's no courses, there's no emphasis on that part of the world, so that was something I had to come to myself.

“I self-financed a short course in Maynooth after I graduated from UT. I wanted to supplement my education a bit so I spent a semester at Maynooth just doing an independent study in Irish history.

“That's when I got really interested in the history of the GAA. I would go to the Croke Park archives and I started arranging chats with senior people in the USGAA about their experience with the founding of the organization.”

While in Ireland he also decided to accelerate his development as a GAA player by trying out for Maynooth’s Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup teams. It proved to be an eye-opening experience.

“It definitely made me appreciate how good Irish people are at these games,” says Burke.

“I'm used to playing on a very hard, dry, dusty surface here in Texas and so the first night that we had a rainy night for trials and I tried to hop the ball and it just stayed put. I was like, 'Jesus, this is a whole other landscape!’

“I was maybe a little overconfident, but it was a good experience. I got to do two weeks of trials, which was great. And then I watched a game every week and that was really good to see.

“When I got back to the Celtic Cowboys I was just super energized by the whole experience and came home with a newfound appreciation for it.”

Burke’s zeal of the converted is something he now wants to spread far and wide in his role as USGAA PRO.

He’s convinced that more people in the USA will flock to Gaelic games if they only know about them, and that’s where he plans to come in.

“My big vision is that I want every city in America to have a thriving GAA club, which obviously does not happen through PR alone,” he says.

“There's a lot of other really important people on the board and really important people at the club and volunteer level who are going to be instrumental in making that happen.

“But as far as PR goes, I'd really like to make a push to get stories about the GAA in the non-Irish American media. ESPN, for example.

“A lot of people are hearing about Gaelic football on their TVs because of Charlie Smyth and his success with the Saints. I want to capitalize on that and say, ‘this is what the sport is, you can play here in the US’.

“I'd really love to drive membership through journalism, through expanded social media outreach, and really equip the divisional and club PROs with the ability to outreach their local media and get the word out about these sports.”

Burke certainly won’t lack for good stories to pitch to the American media because these are boom times for USGAA.

New clubs are popping up all the time, youth participation is on the rise, and Gaelic games are no longer the preserve of Irish ex-pats or the Irish-American community.

“It's really cool to see because for a long time in the history of the USGAA it would have been predominantly Irish immigrants and their immediate descendants but it’s really become very diverse,” says Burke.

“You have people like me who are maybe a little further removed from Ireland but still have that connection. And then you have people who have no Irish connection at all and just think the games are great, which they are.

“It's really amazing to see the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of the people who come together at the USGAA finals. It's a really beautiful scene.

“A lot of clubs now around the country are doing youth programmes. And you also get a lot of older people getting involved too who have backgrounds in rugby or American football, but that's too rough on their bodies now so they want something a little lighter that still packs a punch and football's perfect for that. You have people from lacrosse backgrounds who find a really easy transfer to hurling.

“And yeah, a lot of youth, which is just fantastic. It used to just be that the strongholds like the Phillies, the Bostons, San Franciscos, Chicago, that they would really have the strong youth scenes.

“But we're seeing more and more clubs outside of those areas develop something as well.”

Those involved in the USGAA are generally cut from the same cloth as Burke in so far as they’re hugely passionate about Gaelic games.

They have to be, because most USGAA clubs have an array of logistical challenges to overcome that simply don’t exist for GAA clubs in Ireland.

“Yeah, it really is like a very intentional effort to keep a GAA club thriving in the States because most clubs outside of the Irish diaspora strongholds don't have dedicated grounds,” says Burke.

“The Celtic Cowboys train on a public park or sometimes we book space on the rugby pitch.

“For a lot of people the first time they'll see a proper GAA field all year is at the USGAA finals.

“So, it really is a constant effort to keep the clubs alive, keep the players coming, keep the facilities booked. And I think joining the board at the national level has really pulled back the curtain for me in terms of just how much effort goes into keeping these games alive.

“I think all the volunteers from top to bottom deserve a big round of applause for that.”

Burke believes that Gaelic games can go from strength to strength in the US because they offer something that isn’t readily available through other sports there – a sense of community and a spirit of playing for fun.

Most US sports are funnelled towards a professional system and if you don’t make the grade then there isn’t a great amateur infrastructure in which you can continue playing your sport of choice at a less competitive level for pure enjoyment.

“I think the GAA's model of amateurism is unlike anything else in the world,” says Burke. “We have a lot of debates about that in the U.S. as it relates to college sports.

“You're right, it is very geared towards professionalism in the U.S. And there's this idea that, okay, you play your sport in high school, you go to college or pro if you're good enough. But besides that, you just watch sports on TV and that's it.

“I think the GAA is a really exciting model that counters that narrative because you have people who are 45, 50, 60 years old, still taking the pitch.

“I think people are seeing that through these amazing sports you can continue to play at a high level. You have that balance of we all still have full-time jobs and we're fighting for glory out on the pitch. At the end of the day it's not about putting our bodies on the line for money. It's about the community. It's about having fun.

“So I think you're totally right that there is a gap in the market for a serious, intense sport, but one that's amateur and community-based.”

Burke will soon be leaving Texas behind him for a family-driven relocation. When mulling over where they might like to settle, one of the top priorities for him was that it had to be a city with an established GAA club.

So he’ll soon move to Portland, Oregon, and has already been in touch with the Columbia Red Branch GAA club there.

It’s going to be a big year on and off the pitch for him, and he’s excited about what it will bring.

Gaelic games has enriched his life, and now he wants it to do the same for as many people as possible in the USA.

“The GAA has really become a huge part of my life, and it's all the better for it,” says Burke. “Like I said earlier, these are the greatest sports in the world.

“There's nothing quite like playing them, and I want everyone to be able to experience that.”