St Saviours GAA on the Greens initiative proved to be a real success.
By Cian O’Connell
It was a busy, but rewarding July for St Saviours in Waterford.
A GAA on the Green scheme to attract young members to the club proved to be a significant success. Connecting with the local community in a meaningful way matters deeply, and St Saviours’ are eager to build for the future.
Club treasurer Stephen Whelan explains the chief reason why St Saviours’ carried out the initiative. “We noticed over the last couple of years that our numbers are declining gradually as we go along,” Whelan says.
“Young lads and young girls these days, they have a lot more options than just GAA, they have soccer, basketball, boxing, all sorts of sports, especially in the area we live - Ballybeg. You have rugby, boxing, three soccer clubs so it is a lot more difficult to engage the kids.”
As a community development worker, Whelan knows the importance of providing a valuable service with proper support. “We decided that this is something we were going to pursue,” he adds.
“The aim of our initiative was to identify the hard to reach localities in the area of our GAA club. We would take our GAA club into their neighbourhoods, to give them a taste of what we have on offer.
“We did it with a bit of co-ordination and said we'd go with the bells and whistles approach. We wanted to set it up, a bit like a street festival. Healthy Waterford do something similar, it was using that type of approach.”
A leaflet drop and social media campaign was implemented. Portable goals were brought to residential areas, speakers played music, goodie bags organised. “The first one we did in the Ballybeg area itself, which is literally 40 or 50 metres up the road from our own pitch, a big green space in front of the supermarket, church and school,” Whelan says.
“We had a really, really positive reception, and lots of people came to it that had never set foot inside in the GAA club. We organised an area for younger kids, four to six year olds, Martina, who looks after our Little Saints initiative, she was there doing fun and games.
“We had six to eight year olds doing a training session on the grass area, that created a spectacle. People were naturally drawn to it. We had tea and coffee for parents, kids came, got involved, it was great. That was our first outing.”
St Saviours GAA on the Greens initiative.
Lessons were learned and during the following weeks further events were delivered. “We replicated that in Foxwood and Meadowbank, two other residential areas in close proximity to where we are,” Whelan says.
“We had another one scheduled for another area, but the rain in the summer prevented us from having that, but it all generated an interest in what we were doing the whole GAA on the Greens approach.”
To conclude the pilot project a homecoming event at the St Saviours grounds was next on the agenda. “We dropped 2,500 leaflets to every house in the area, all the different residential areas,” Whelan says.
“People had a bit of exposure to what we had done, we invited them back to our club for the homecoming event.
“There was a party atmosphere with music, branded goodie bags, medals, and we had all our own teams there in the designated areas and we asked them to make the newcomers as welcome as possible. The coaches did basic drills with the teams, people could step in and out.”
Barry Dunne, Waterford GAA Acting Head of Games Development, and Austin Glesson, working as a Games Development co-ordinator in the city, were involved. “It was a really, really lovely event,” Whelan says.
“The Waterford City Fire Service were in attendance, Barry Dunne and Austin Gleeson from Deise Og as a GDA for the area. Austin was there to interact with the people. It literally tied it all together and brought it back to the club.”
Ultimately, nearly 100 new children were involved. “Some of those might never come back, they were there for the fun, but it gave us a bit of hope,” Whelan remarks.
“Three months ago we were saying we were scraping the barrelling, how are we going to get people in? It now has given us an opportunity to follow up directly and we can send messages inviting people to different things.
“We went from struggling with our four to six year olds on a Saturday morning, having eight, nine, 10 or 11 kids to having 40 kids within a week or two after. Our U8 and U10 teams have seen a nice addition to their numbers.”
New players were invited to participate in St Saviours GAA on the Greens initiative.
Now, St Saviours are exploring the possibility of trying to develop a girls team. “We have a list of 24 girls aged between six and 10, who we met through the GAA on the Greens and The Homecoming,” Whelan says.
“My proposal is having a pilot girls only football training at St Saviours. So, we will invite these girls back to do a really easy and soft introduction to football.
“If we can get them engaged over four weeks, it gives us an option to consider becoming a club where we facilitate girls only in a team. It is remarkable really the positive spin that has come from it.”
Suddenly, hope and momentum has been acquired in the juvenile section of the club. “We are located in a area of Waterford city that would be classed as disadvantaged through the social deprivation index per capita of household, unemployment, single parents, all that sort of thing,” Whelan says.
“We aren't an affluent area, we struggle a little bit, but our gates are wide open to everybody that comes through. We make them feel welcome.”
That inclusivity was crucial. There was a willingness to deal with the issue of declining playing numbers.
A hectic July occurred, but it was extremely worthwhile according to Whelan. "It was heavy going; we said every Wednesday in July, you had five Wednesdays, we had one postponement due to the weather, but it took a good crew of our own juvenile committee and our own coaches,” Whelan acknowledges.
“I just acted as a co-ordinator. One of the reasons we initiated it was it tied in with us being part of the Healthy Clubs Initiative in the GAA. Part of that is the whole community engagement piece, how do you get non playing members into the club or whatever?
“So, instead of looking internally, we went externally, and we went beyond the boundary of our club, we went into communities. It was very good.”
Improving and enhancing the underage offering in the club is the target. Whelan can recall some of the memorable days in the 1990s when St Saviours competed at the highest level in Waterford in both codes. “We were founded in 1980 and we had success at adult level in the late 80s and 90s, we won senior titles,” he says.
A homecoming event was organised at St Saviours GAA club.
“Things took a bit of a decline gradually in the noughties. We had our 42 year anniversary dinner dance, it was supposed to be a 40 year one, but Covid cancelled it. I was looking back at old pictures of underage teams when they were eight, nine, and 10.
“A lot of those kids didn't make it to play adult with us for a variety of reasons. As it stands, at the moment, we'd have our Little Saints, four to six, an U8s team and an U10s team.
“At U15 we are struggling because we lost players years ago so we are assisting another GAA club in the city. At U17s we are amalgamated with another GAA club because we didn't have the volume of kids eight, nine, or 10 years ago.
“That has resulted in us having to assist and amalgamate. In the forefront of our minds is thinking let us get back to basics, get as many kids as we can.”
What happens every weekend in the Little Saints and underage sessions is crucial for the long term development according to Whelan. The first step in the rejuvenation has been taken. “We need to focus on that Saturday morning between 11 and 12, having all of those kids, keeping them engaged and progressing them through the age groups,” Whelan says.
“We need to keep them engaged. Previously, we'd have been disjointed in our structure and organisation. School might be starting back and we wouldn't necessarily have a link with the school. I just got to a stage where I could see what was happening and wanted to give the juvenile as much support as possible.”
Whelan is fully aware that this will be a long term process. “It is going to take time, but we might see the fruits of our labour in the next 10 years where we start to field at all age groups,” he responds.
“That is the end goal, that is what we need to happen, but one flash in the pan, having a month of success, being out and about isn't going to solve that.
"The hard work starts now going forward, maintaining that level of commitment from coaches to ensure players are supported all the way through. Kids that can be difficult at times, we need to engage them and support them. It isn't easy. Blood, sweat, and tears is what it takes, but we have a good crew in the juvenile and adult committee.”
Whelan is encouraged. “We are after creating a template of something that we can hopefully replicate every summer.” The planning and plotting continues.