Kill Shot spoke to some members of Team Ireland at the airport prior to their departure.
Captaining the Irish team for the Junior Nationals in San Francisco is a great feeling for Kilkenny’s Kyle Jordan – and he’s even willing to forgo his mother’s home cooking for it!
“It’s an honour to be the captain of this Irish team, we’re all looking forward to going over to America to do our best and hopefully we can bring back the gold,” Kyle told Kill Shot yesterday morning.
“We’re going out on Christmas night to a restaurant I think. I’ll miss my Mammy’s Irish cooking but it will be grand!” he smiled.
Having lost the 40x20 and 60x30 Minor Singles finals to Cormac Finn, Kyle redoubled his efforts and turned the tables on the Sligo man with a very impressive performance in the final of the trials for this trip.
“After the losing the two minor All-Ireland finals, it gave me a lot of motivation to train harder and I got fitter. I did a lot of training with the boys in Kilkenny and it really brought me on.
“On the day of the trials I played very well and I was impressed with myself.”
The Kilfane clubman, Ireland’s 19&U rep, has played in the States before and is looking forward to getting stuck in.
“The alleys are nice because they’re made out of timber but I like going over in general. It’s a nice trip, you get to do a lot of different things, shopping, sight-seeing etc, it’s good craic over there as well.
“I had never heard of this trip before. One of my teachers at school was on this trip a few years ago, Ducksy Walsh was one of his coaches going over, he said it was brilliant craic so hopefully it will be good this time.”
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Carmel Kelleher of Boherbue in Cork is the Irish 15&U rep and the quietly-spoken Rebel girl described it as “a dream come true” and an incentive for other players to commit to handball.
“It was huge to win my place, I had been in a few All-Irelands this year and lost them and I suppose I just really wanted to get this one and I was delighted when I did, it was a dream come true,” said Carmel.
“With camogie and football, you can’t travel abroad with the sport so the prospect of getting a free trip, a free holiday, with handball will keep people interested. Getting the chance to represent your country is a huge opportunity and I think people would love that chance.”
Irish 19&U female rep, Leah Minogue from the famous Tuamgraney club in Clare, was looking forward to her first visit to America.
“Training has gone well, I have been in the court a few nights a week and getting games. It will be the first time playing handball in America and my first time even in America so it should be a good experience and a good opportunity,” she said.
“The first one or two days we will get used to the place and look around but come Tuesday, it will be handball-focused and we’ll be playing our games.”
“It’s nice to have a new experience and do Christmas abroad one time even.”
Action serves off in Pleasonton, outside San Francisco, on Tuesday.
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