2006 West Coast Ladies Football Blitz

The ladies footballers of San Diego Na Fianna and the Seattle Gaels converged on San Francisco's Boxer Stadium on Saturday July 29th for an action-packed day of rapid-fire football in short games running from morning to sunset. There wasn't much time for rest or elaborate warmups as all teams got a comprehensive workout.

First up was Saoirse who easily overpowered a Clan na Gael team that was missing most of the key players. Then it was the turn of the visitors to square up to each other with Seattle setting the pace and coming perilously close to shutting San Diego out. As the day wore on the drama increased as all sides took it more and more seriously and the silverware came within striking distance. The question on everyone's lips was whether or not the out-of-town teams were going to cause an upset. It soon became apparent that San Diego weren't going to pull that off, but Seattle were looking very strong thanks to the efforts of Katie Starbird who was able to bring in some basketball magic and maintain possession while making huge strides down the field. On the wings, Alena Lewis got some nice touches and made life very difficult for her opponents.

The real excitement of the day came in the Shield Final where Seattle made it that far to tackle Fog City's second team only to lose by a mere four points, not a wide margin considering the number of goals they had been putting away on the day.

The form book was adhered to for the final game that saw Fog City's first team take on Saoirse in a rather more unbalanced game.

Special kudos goes to Rebecca Fox, formerly of Seattle and now with Fog City, for pulling this event together and making it happen. Hopefully it will become an annual event that will help the standard of West Coast ladies football. It was such a success that the blitz format is one that is being looked at by the Western Divison Board as a means of helping the other teams on the West Coast in mens football and perhaps hurling and camogie too.