Distinctly Montana Magazine

71 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m who hails from Galway, Ireland, and now resides south of Havre with his wife and two sons. "It is widely accepted as the most definitively Irish sport we have. Along with speaking the native language, you really couldn't do two things that are more Irish. It's so uniquely ours." Athletes playing the sport in the United States today generally carry out games on football fields. The fields, called "pitches" in the context of hurling, are smaller than Irish pitches, so only 11 to 13 players make up each team as opposed to the 15 players per team in Ireland. Athletes don their kits—team-specific jerseys, shorts, socks, and helmets—as they battle through two 35-min- ute halves. The overarching goal of the game is to hit the ball (knows as a sliotar) over the crossbar of the opponent's goal (for one point), or beneath the cross- bar and into the opponent's goal (for three points). They must simultaneously defend their own goal while also evading their opponents. "It's basically a free-flowing field sport where the ball is in constant motion," explains Myles Maloney, president of the Thomas Meagher Hurling Club out of Missoula. "That's why it is known as the fastest game on grass. You're striking the ball the length of the field at times, and the entire field is in play." Hurling is also extremely physical and hard-hitting. "It's this crazy-ass sport that looks dangerous as hell," Maloney laughs. "It takes the hand-eye coordination of baseball. There are principles of tennis because you're striking on the run. You need field awareness of soccer players. There are elements of hockey. Hurling requires all these different skillsets from all these different sports." Ryan Mulcahy, founder, president, and coach of Butte's Wolfe Tones Hurling Club, describes hurling as "the rugby version of lacrosse." "People are familiar with lacrosse and they know rugby is rough," Mulcahy says. "In hurl- ing, there's no pads or protective gear with the exception of the helmets. It is a nonstop game for 35-minute halves. The only time you stop run- ning is if the game stops for an injury or because the ball went out-of-bounds." Hurling makes for a thrilling spectacle, rife with a fervent fandom that fuels the athletes and builds a unifying sense of community and com- radery. "You have to see it to really understand it, and that's why we've been doing the St. Patrick's Day game every year," says Mulcahy. BRINGING HURLING TO MONTANA The first organized hurling club in the Big Sky state was founded in Missoula in 2013 by Naoise Waldron, an Irish Fulbright Scholarship student, and Brian Barry, an Irish exchange student. "We have an amazing Irish studies program at the University of Montana (UM)—one of the biggest programs in the country," says Maloney. "Dance, language, art history…it is a phenome- nal program." But when Waldron and Barry learned there were no hurling clubs in the area, they knew they needed to think fast. "Here they are in the middle of Montana and they're so excited to be here," Maloney explains, "but they also weren't going to go a whole year without having hurling in their lives." They founded UM's Montana Grizzlies Hurl- ing club that same year. Soon thereafter, the team gained the attention of the National Collegiate Gaelic Athletic Association (NCGAA), which is the U.S. collegiate-lev- el version of the GAA. They began traveling around the country, racking up win after win against well-established teams along the way. "The Griz had such strong athletes on the team, they wound up winning the national championship their very first season," Maloney says of the coed club. The following year, Barry successfully lobbied to have UM host the 2015 national championship. The matches were held at the Washington-Grizzly Stadium. KARLIE BUTLER BOB O'BOYLE

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