It’s not every day a head of state comes to a high school physical education class.

But on Oct. 22, Ireland President Michael Higgins did just that when he visited Skyline High School and watched about 36 students play Gaelic football, an Irish team sport.

The fast-paced, high-scoring game looks like soccer, until someone picks up the ball to bunt it forward. To most Americans, the game looks to be a combination of football, soccer, volleyball and basketball.

As it happens, Gaelic football is pretty popular on the Plateau, at least in PE classes at Skyline and Eastlake high schools.

In late September 2014, there were 900 students from Skyline and Eastlake playing Gaelic football at the same time, according to Terry Lynch of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Their respective PE classes lined up that way.

“Because of that, more people were playing Gaelic football on the same day than anywhere else in the world, aside from Dublin, Ireland,” Terry Lynch said. “It’s a darn fun game.”

Lynch, who is the youth coordinator for the association’s Seattle branch, has been part of the organization for the last six years.

Lynch helped start the Gaelic football program at about six schools in the Issaquah School District and Lake Washington School District. The program began about five or six years ago.

That Americans are teaching other Americans to play the game, considered something like a “national treasure” to Irish citizens, is “something that’s caused a lot of amazement with folks in Ireland,” Lynch said.

“This was big news in Ireland,” he said. “They are just flabbergasted that this is happening.”

And something the Irish president just had to see for himself.

A couple years ago, Lynch introduced the game to Skyline High School PE teacher Brendan Hyland.

“We actually really enjoyed it because it was a new game we hadn’t seen before, but it’s easy to play,” Hyland said. “You don’t have to be super skilled to even start playing. That’s the nice thing about it.”

Hyland’s class was out on the field when Higgins came last week.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Hyland said.

Sammamish Mayor Tom Vance and Deputy City Manager Lyman Howard also were in attendance, there to meet the Irish president when he arrived with a small motorcade around 10 a.m.

“It’s not often that you get a head of state at your high school,” Vance said.

Along with his wife, Sabina, the Irish president’s visit was part of an eight-day trip to the U.S. West Coast.