The Western Divisional Board, colloquially known as San Francisco GAA (SFGAA), is a division of the

United States GAA The United States County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or USGAA, is one of the 3 county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in North America, and is responsible for Gaelic games in the United States (except for the New York ...

(USGAA) covering Northern California in the United States. It is the governing body of

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

, and

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. Since its inception, games in the Western Division have been played at various venues throughout the city of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

on municipal fields rented from the city, such as the Beach Chalet playing fields in

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

, and

Boxer Stadium Boxer Stadium (also known as Matthew J. Boxer Stadium) is a soccer stadium in San Francisco, California. Located in Balboa Park, the stadium has a capacity of 3,500. It is owned and operated by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department and ...

at Balboa Park. From 2009 onward, games have been held at Páirc na nGael, a facility that was renovated and leased by the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

(GAA) on

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

Competitions

The playing season, for clubs in the Western Division, typically runs from April until August. Local San Francisco championship winners advance to the USGAA playoffs that take place in August. The playoffs rotate between cities such as Boston, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. A number of Western Division clubs reportedly received fines for not attending the 2021 finals, in Boston, owing to the recommendations in place in the United States during the COVID-19. The USGAA finals have been held in San Francisco on several occasions, including at the Treasure Island grounds in 2011 and 2017, and at both Treasure Island and Balboa Park in 2024. The Continental Youth Championships were held in San Francisco in 2005, 2009, 2015, and 2023.

Grounds

Páirc na nGael, located on

in San Francisco, was opened in December 2008 by GAA President Nickey Brennan. The opening was marked by a

game that included All-Star winners, from various counties in Ireland, from

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Páirc na nGael contains three pitches fields spanning . Páirc na nÓg is the name of the youth field further to the east on the island adjacent to the home grounds of the Golden Gate Rugby Club. Páirc na nGael's development was funded by financial and labor donations from the Irish community in San Francisco, and grants from the government and GAA in Ireland. An unused adjacent elementary school building was later remodeled to become a community centre and function room with funding secured from the

Irish government The Government of Ireland () is the executive authority of Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet – is composed of ministers, each of whom must be a member of the , which consists of ...

Clubs

Clubs within the USGAA Western Division include: Men's football *Eire Óg *Pearse Og's *Sean Treacys *Ulster *Young Irelanders / St Brendan's Hurling *Joseph Mary Plunketts *Na Fianna *Pearse Óg *St. Josephs *Tipperary Hurling Club Ladies football *Clan na Gael *Fog City Harps Camogie *Cú Chulainn Youth *Irish Football Youth League *Éire Óg

References

External links

SFGAA website

USGAA.org website - Western Division
* North American GAA Gaelic games governing bodies in the United States {{GAA-stub