2006 Club News

November 18th 2006: The new San Diego Youth GAA website was launched. Check it out

October 31st 2006: The 2006 Halloween Bus was another massive success for Setanta. A sellout 5 weeks in adavance, over 75 people all dressed up, boarded the Double Decker bus and hit the town. The Meeting place was The Pennant in Mission Beach. Next was the Ould Sod in Normal Heights where the craziness did not reach the epic heights of previous years, due to us arriving earlier in the night. The third stop brought us into the heart of Ocean Beach for the first time to the well loved Sunshine Company. In other parts of San Diego, 75 people dressed up in costume would get some stares, but not in OB where the oddballs and ecentrics of society are welcomed, so we fit in perfectly. The last port of call was the Catalina Lounge off Nimitz in POint Loma. At 2am the Dan the bus driver dropped us off in PB and left us to our own devices.
Thanks to the Setanta board for organising another great event and to everyone who supported it.

October 25th 2006: The meeting point for the Halloween Bus has been decided.
When: October 27th 2006
Time: 7pm with the bus leaving at 7.30pm
Where:Pennant Bar, 2893 Mission Blvd, San Diego, CA 92109-8159
Directions: The Bar is located south of the roller coaster on Mission Blvd. The Cross St is San Gabriel Pl

September 14th: A meeting will be held on Wednesday October 4th to discuss setting up a San Diego Youth GAA Club.
It will be an absolutely open forum for anyone to attend that feel that they can make a contribution. They don't have to have any history in the GAA or an Irish background or even affiliated with Na Fianna or Setanta locally- Just a willingness to help out and an interest in Youth Sports.
If you would like to attend, or want to get involved in any way please E-mail Niall Johnston

September 5th:In absolutely atrocious weather conditions, Setanta San Diego became the most successful Southern California team at the North American GAA finals over Labor Day weekend. In the Junior C competition, Setanta beat Cleveland St Pats by a scoreline of 1-16 to 0-03. Meanwhile the Junior B side overcame the Chicago John McBrides 0-14 to 1-05 meaning both teams qualified for the semi finals.
The rain from tropical storm Ernesto made the fields complete mud baths by the time the Saturday games were played.In any other circumstances the games would have been cancelled but as all the teams had travelled from all over the USA, the Show had to go on. Setanta Junior C played their semi final first against the Atlanta Clan na nGael club. In a very tight encounter Clan na nGael just got the better of Setanta with a final score of 1-01 to 0-08. Best for Setanta was Ultan Breslin, Scott McBrayer, Stephen Darcy and Tony O'Boyle. Next year the C team will be back stronger and in a better position to win the title.
Later that afternoon Setanta Junior B team played the Pittsburgh Celtics team. This was Setantas best game of the weekend.Against the wind in the first half, Vinny McCarthy got the vital goal needed to seperate the teams at half time. In the second half an attack culminated in Fergal Lally charging up from the half back line scoring a wonderful point. Along with the superb free taking by Conor Smith, Setanta won by a score of 1-06 to 0-03 to qualify for the final.
A 12.30pm kick off on Sunday against the Cleveland St Jarlaths wearing the yellow of Antrim. Cleveland started much the brighter team, winning posession in midfield and getting out in front of the Setanta defenders. By half time Setanta was down 0-07 to 0-03. Dermot Gilligan made another of his great speaches and Setanta was ready for another epic second half performance which was displayed in the previous two games. Again though, Cleveland started the brighter scoring a point and missing two good scoring chances. Then with the introduction of Scott McBrayer, Setanta got a grip of midfield and the play was all one way. Rory O'Loughlin scored a nice point, but Cleveland got one for themselves. Five minutes to go and Setanta was down by 5 points. A long ball was played by Anto Carolan into Vinny McCarthy. Vinny kept the ball in and swung the ball over soccer style into the box. The onrushing Don Sheridan swung at the moving ball but missed and behind him Conor Smith was perfectly placed to scoop the ball out of the muck and into the roof of the net. Colm Conneely scored a nice point and there was only one point in the game. A couple of near misses and the Mayo ref blew the whistle. Setanta had lost the final by the closest of margins. There is no doubt Setanta will be back next year better and stronger with the Junior B & C teams.

August 30th: The end of the season is here but also the highlight of the Gaelic Football calendar. For the second year running Setanta are bringing two teams to the North American Finals which are being hosted for the second year running in Philadelphia. On Sept 1st, the Junior B team line out against the Chicago champions, The McBrides Club from the Northside of the city.This will be a real test of our fitness and ball skills. Playing any of the big cities with large Irish populations is always a tough task. After this our Junior C team lines out against the Cleveland St Pats club. Our C team this year, is considerably stronger than the one in 2005 with alot of new blood added so expectations are high.

August 20th:Yet another fantastic weekend for Gaelic Football was had when the Austin Texas team arrived into San Diego to play their first ever game! With a squad of 18 players Austin played a great game against Setantas Junior C team. We played three 25 minute periods and even at the end of this there was only 2 points between the teams. After the game everyone made their way to Cass St Bar & Grill in Pacific Beach for lots of pitchers and banter. Setanta have been invited to Austin for St Patricks weekend 2007 and plans are already afoot, to make this happen.

August 15th:Setanta is looking forward to the visit of the Celtic Cowboys GAA team from Austin Texas on Aug 19th. The Cowboys arrive in having trained really hard the last few months for their first visit to California. The game starts at 5pm at La Jolla High School. This is your last chance to see Setanta play before we bring two teams to the North American Finals for the second year running.

August 12th: The 6th Annual Mission Bay Party was held on another lovely San Diego day. With the weather in the mid 70's and a great location claimed by Bitser everything was lined up to be a great day. Fantastic organisational work was done by Club President Niall Johnston and his wife Jen. The food was delicious, the beer was devoured and Conor Smith, Rory O'Loughlin and Crissy Pascual helped organise another brilliant special Olympics. The winners were as follows.
Bun and Spatchela Race: PiggyBack Race: Sack Race:Denis and Matthew Three Legged Race: PiggyBack Race: Special Awards: Floyd Landis Award: Steven Glynn Beechers Brook Award: Rory O'Loughlin and Conor Smith

July 29th: Setanta Junior B team lost to the Los Angeles Wild Geese for the first time since 2003 in the Southern California Final. Some poor finishing, particularly when goal chances were available and defending close to goal was the downfall of the team.

July 15th: Setanta travelled with a squad of 18 players to San Francisco. We played two games. The first was against the Ulster Club on Saturday. We won 2-11 to 2-09. It was a good performance but we conceded 2-03 in the last few minutes which made the game look closer than it was. Saturday nights festivities happened at Shanghai Kellys but thankfully everyone was in bed for 10pm.
Sunday morning we played the Celts. We gave them a right fright. We were 4 points up at half time but they got 1-2 without reply at the start of the second half. We missed a couple of really good goal chances and with injuries to Scott McBrayer and Mark Cahill we just werent clinical enough when we needed to be.The Final score was Setanta 0-13 Celts 1-12. Sunday afternoon was spent at Pier 23 drinking blasters and Pacificos and we think everyone made the flight back.

July 8th: A big congratulations to Conor Smith and Fiona Scott who finally got hitched. The big event was held in Ensenada with Junior B Manager Tony O'Boyle showing the ladies his hot bod and Rory O'Loughlin showing them all how to dance. Old Setanta players, Ronan DJ Fitzpatrick and Dermot Kehily travelled from Europe and certainly made a big impact to the days proceedings.

June 24th:For the second game in a row, Setanta made a great comeback to defeat the Wild Geese in Irivine, California. The introduction of Shaun Berstein and the superior fitness of the Setanta team showed in the end, overcoming a 5 point half time deficit, to win by 7.

The Wild Geese travelled to San Diego ready to put their San Diego hoodoo to rest. It was looking good for a long time but the introduction of Anto Carolan at Midfield and Mark Cahill at left corner forward turned the tide. With two mins to go Setanta were down by a goal. Winning a free 21 yds out, James Brogan opted to lob it to the back post and Carolan was there to smash it home with his fist. Then with a minute left, James Brogan blocked the defender, won posession and then delicately lobbed the keeper for a beautiful goal. This was definitely the best game between Setanta and the Wild Geese and it augers well for both teams at the North American Finals in Sept.

The 5th Annual Golf Tournament was a huge success.Here are the winners of the golf

Best Team:: Tony Boland; Debbie; Andy Gapin; Corey Love
Longest Drive:: Stephen Darcy
Nearest the Pin:: Tony Boland

May 21st 2013 @ 6pm	La Jolla High School
May 23rd 2013 @ 6pm	La Jolla High School
May 28th 2013 @ 6pm	La Jolla High School
May 30th 2013 @ 6pm	La Jolla High School