As Old Gaelic reached the midpoint of its last practice ahead of its first preseason game, acting coach Alex Diegel wasn’t finished. Having just gotten into the finer details of the team’s defensive philosophies, there was still a slate of drills left to finish the night’s work. That’s when lightning struck overhead. Again. And again.

“Ok. First we set the post, then we fold around to our A-B-C positions,” Diegel rambled on amongst the strikes. “Then, against a full backline, we add our 1-2-3 defenders to mark the threats. It’s all about the picture the other team shows us. And, uh… we’ll keep an eye on it,” he said with a nonchalant glance at the strikes of lightning that threatened overhead.

Fortunately, cooler heads and a series of nervous glances caused the whistle to be blown and chalk talk to be continued in the shed. However, when the team went 5/10 on lineouts in the ensuing match, a critical session that was cut short in the Thursday training, Diegel could be heard grumbling on the sideline, “I knew we should have thrown them up in the middle of the damned lightning.”