"I'm Crap!"

I forgot to describe two of the funniest parts of Hurling practice yesterday.

First, there is one darling coach (Dermott -- but I think there's an Irish spelling and pronunciation of that name... Laura? Can you clarify?) hustled me over to roll balls (Sliotars) to the kids so that they could practice striking them while in motion. 

This was awesome as I got to know the kids a bit better. One asked me if I was from America and was surprised at the coincidence that "there was a boy here YESTERDAY from America too!!!"

They were all hilarious but I noticed one particularly small boy. I started talking with him before their little scrimmage and asked him if he was also a "first class". He clarified that he was in preschool but that his brother was on this team (apparently his dad is also a coach). They were about to start the scrimmage when he realized that he was playing against his brother: 

"I HATE playing against him. I'm CRAP and he's, like, BRILLIANT!" 

You can't believe how funny that was with a) him being so SMALL and b) that crazy accent. 

Second, at the end of the practice they all meet in the big goal of the pitch where Dermott gives them this awesome pep talk. Yesterday's was cool because apparently all other sports had been cancelled due to the cold, but the hurlers were still working hard. At the end he pulls one kid out "Who wants to give the cheer today?" And one kid comes out, faces the other kids and screams:

"WHO DO YEH PLAY FER????"

and they scream back (unintelligibly)

"KILMACUD CROKES!!!!!!!!!!"

So awesome. I will get this on video for you soon.

 As an aside, I picked up a hurley for myself as well so that Johnny and I could practice together. That sport is AWESOME. Hockey, of course, will remain my love, but wow. We practiced out front tonight with a small soccer ball. Our "driveway" has loads of little stone pebbles, so I didn't trust myself trying to hit a little ball without spraying Johnny's face with the pebbles and causing some sort of Dick Cheney incident. There is nothing like swinging that stick up above your shoulders like a baseball bat, but hitting the ball on the ground like a hockey puck, but with a bigger fatter stick. Unbelievable. When I get home I'll invite anyone over for a try, particularly if you have some aggressions you want to assuage!