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The Kansas City Gaelic Athletic Club (KCGAC) is a Gaelic sporting club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The KCGAC plays & promotes the Irish sports of Hurling and Gaelic football, as well as work within the Irish community of greater Kansas City to spread and educate on the Irish culture. Known as "the Wolfhounds," the team competes nationally in the USGAA, which is overseen by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the governing body of hurling at its top level in Ireland. The Wolfhounds are affiliated with KC's Sporting Club Network.

Creation
Gaelic sports have seen several attempts at starting a club and false starts in the KC area before the Kansas City Gaelic Athletic Club (KCGAC) was established as a non-religious, non-sectarian sporting club in the basement of Redemptorist Church in March 2008 by a combination of Irishmen, Americans of varying Irish heritage, and those with no real Irish connection outside of an interest in Gaelic sports. Early on, as much effort went in to developing the infrastructure required for a GAA club to survive and thrive for the long run as it did playing on the pitch. Adopting the colors navy and Kelly green and the moniker, "the Wolfhounds," a board was elected, a constitution was drawn up and ratified, and the process of becoming approved as a not-for-profit organization was begun.

In those early days just finding a suitable pitch was an adventure. Attempts to find a pitch led us all over the city, from midtown, to the old Southwest High School, out to Olathe, before a chance meeting led to one of the club's oldest and strongest relationships. The then-Wizards offered a chance to play regularly on their artificial turf facility at Swope Park. Finally having a permanent home helped spur the club's first growth spurt. This provided the opportunity to have an organized recreational "pub league" for the first time, with Gaelic Football played in 2009 and Hurling added in 2010. The Wizards transition to Sporting KC led to the KCGAC becoming the first non-soccer member of Sporting.

Club Growth
The club quickly looked for competitive opportunities as well, traveling to NW Arkansas to take on an established Little Rock team and met up with St. Louis for the first time in Springfield as well as a rematch with Little Rock. Although 2008 saw no victories, it provided a glimpse at a club quickly coming into its own, quickly closing the gap on tough competition. The pride of wearing kits that say "Kansas City" on them, for most on the club for the first time in their lives brought about a newfound passion for competition. 2009 saw the club bringing Gaelic sports to Lawrence, KS, competing against a class at Haskell Indian Nations University that was learning various native games. Competitive Gaelic Football wins began to stack up, with the KCGAC notching their first win against NW Arkansas, their first overall tournament championship in their own tourney at Swope Park, and their first road tournament championship in Minneapolis' 7's tourney.

Club growth continued, highlighted by a 23 point drubbing in our first victory over rivals from St Louis by the "Magnificent 13", a KCGAC squad with no subs taking on a deep and seasoned St Louis squad with a full bench on a 100 degree day in Columbia, MO. This led to our first participation in the national finals, held in Chicago. The Wolfhounds lost two games by a single point, but gained a new understanding and level of play. Since then, football teams have traveled all over the Midwest and the country, winning several tournaments and games against teams from Denver, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, St Louis, and Minneapolis, among others. Repeat trips to the national finals in 2013 in Cleveland and 2015 in Chicago found competitive performances but the club still not able to reach their highest goal.

Club growth also led to the chance to develop hurling in its rightful place on par with football. It was slow going at first as the game requires more investment and equipment than the simple ball needed for football. A local league was established in 2010 and a "poc fada" (longest hit) competition was held as part of our annual football tournament. Individual club members began to compete in full hurling matches and in 2012 (is this the correct year?) a full KCGAC hurling squad traveled to St Louis to compete in their annual tournament. Repeated trips to St Louis, Denver, and the annual pilgrimage to Madison followed the sport's growth and development in KC.

2016 National Championship
2016 was easily the most successful to date for both codes. Hurling faced their toughest competition yet, but came away with a runner-up finish in Denver and their first tournament championship in St Louis. The St Louis tourney was also good to the footballers as a championship there was part of an undefeated season, culminating with victories over Minneapolis and Tacoma en route to the club's first ever championship in the national finals, held in Seattle!

2017 to Present Day
Not content to rest on their laurels, the club's ambitions only continue to grow. For the first time, the club plans to take hurlers to the national finals alongside our footballers that will be looking to defend the title.

BEST JERSEYS - In March 2017, SportsJoe.ie declared KCGAC’s newest jersey to be the "Most Beautiful in America!" The famous Irish site covers a lot of topics. Notably, they have comprehensive coverage of the GAA clubs new kit designed every spring. They annually rank all the Irish GAA clubs' kits. In 2017 however, they branched out, over to the USGAA, and dubbed Kansas City's new jerseys the best in America. Joe.ie is an Irish publication with an estimated 3.1 million unique users reached each month. It's the voice of Irish people both at home and abroad.

Annual Team Awards
2017 MVP - Kevin Winters

2017 ROY - Liam O Floinn

Objectives
KCGAC is a voluntary, 501(c)(3) organization promoting Gaelic Games and Irish culture in the greater Kansas City area, which we develop as the core of Irish identity. We are dedicated to ensuring that our values are shared to help improve the lives of our members, families and the communities we serve. We are committed to active, lifelong participation for all and to providing the best facilities available to the community. We reach out to and include all members of our society. Our aim is to promote individual development and well-being and to enable all of our members to achieve their full potential in their chosen roles.

The Club stays committed to representing the city in national competitions, festivals, and exhibition matches to promote the popularity of Hurling and Gaelic Football in Kansas City and across the country.