The GAA’s ‘Off the Booze & On the Ball’ challenge is to return for a third year in 2014 following a successful second season in 2013.
The initiative was launched this week in Croke Park by Mayo footballer Cillian O’Connor and Dublin hurler Peter Kelly, and takes place under the GAA’s Alcohol & Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) programme.
The purpose of the initiative is to combine playing and non-playing GAA members giving up alcohol for the month of January and using the opportunity that affords them to take up some kind of health-related physical activity.
It is a solid initiative that seeks to address some of the issues around alcohol and sport without being proscriptive, without imposing a ban, but with an eye to helping come to a mature relationship with drink.
The campaign has also been tailored and expanded within some juvenile teams to incorporate a giving up of fizzy drinks.
“It’s a health challenge,” said GAA Community and Health manager Colin Regan.
“January is a time of year when people are open to changing habits and this provides a structure they can follow either individually or as a group that will set them up perhaps a little better for the year ahead.”
“It is an invitation to kickstart their new year on a healthy footing by abstaining from alcohol for four weeks – that’s the ‘Off the Booze’ element, then the ‘On the Ball’ element is taking up some health related activity or challenge or something that they can encorporate into their New Year routine that hopefully they’ll carry throughout 2014.”
Having started in 2012, the initiative has seen around 250 GAA clubs around the country get involved in each of the last two years. The level of participation in each club has been varied – in some cases just a few members have taken on the challenge, while in others, entire squads have given up alcohol and raised impressive sums of money for their clubs as a result.
“The Currin club in Monaghan for example in the first year got a large part of their senior panel to take up the challenge and they raised over €2,000,” Colin explains. “So if you can get an entire panel to take it up, give each of them a €100 target, it’s quite easy then to raise money around the €2,000 bracket.”
Currin’s 15 participants raised a total of €2,057.50 and used it to buy training gear including new footballs, training bibs, water bottles, tackle bags and more. In the Kinvara Club in Galway, the U16 hurlers took the lead from their seniors who took up the ‘Pint Sized Challenge’ and decided to go ‘Off the Fizz and On the Ball’ by giving up fizzy drinks for the month. Their panel of 19 members alone raised €802.
Colin Regan explains that one big difference with the initiative this year as opposed to the previous two years is that a number of third-level institutions have come on board for 2014.
“In year one and in year two, it was exclusively targeted at our clubs,” he says. “This year we have a number of third-level institutions around the country that are backing it and are pushing it to their student populations.
“We were contacted by a few colleges that were interested in the whole concept and the health promotion message that it gives and we have nine colleges now that are going to push it to their student population in 2014 as well.”
Next week Sport for Business will have an interview with Colin Regan of the GAA looking at other ways in which the Association is helping clubs as part of their overall communities.
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