Irish Sports Featured at Free Event May 24 at Southwestern College

SAN DIEGO, CA – Fáilte! Welcome to the West Coast Sevens, the annual Irish sports tournament held on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend in San Diego. This year the one-day tournament of Gaelic Games will be played on May 24, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Southwestern College, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910.

The West Coast Sevens is the second largest Irish sports competition in U.S, and this year 74 games will be played by more than 30 Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) clubs from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Francisco in addition to New York, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Phoenix, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary.

"For more than a decade, the West Coast Sevens has hosted hundreds of Irish, American, and Canadian athletes in the fastest and most exciting games played on grass. We are grateful and excited to hold such a well-attended and well-respected tournament," said West Coast Sevens chairman Declan Hartney. “We invite friends and family from all over Southern California to enjoy this free event and a fun day of great competition playing very old and exciting sports.”

Gaelic football is similar to playing soccer with your hands and includes the skills of rugby, volleyball, and basketball. Hurling and camogie are similar to field hockey and also include the skills of lacrosse and baseball, with some of the contact of rugby.

Hurling has been played by the Irish for more than 3,000 years, and records of Gaelic football being played date back to the 1600s. Camogie is the women’s version of hurling, with both sports played with a wooden stick called a hurley and small leather ball called a sliotar. More information on Gaelic Football can be found at https://usgaa.org/gaelic-footb... and Hurling and Camogie are described in more detail at https://usgaa.org/hurling.

Follow the tournament on Facebook & Instagram: @westcoastsevens

Additional information on the tournament is at https://sandiegogaa.com/inform...