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Official Publication of the Minnesota Gopher State Horseshoe Pitchers' Association
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Greenfield Horseshoe Club News
by Jerry LaBrosse
The GHC concluded another very successful season. GHC conducts a late fall league concluding in December, and a winter league that wraps up in March.
GHC had two of it's members take top ten honors in the NHPA Sanctioned League Top Ten Program for 2014.
Sara Otto had 10th high Woman's average at 58.06%. Mark Smith had the 8th high game at 80%. Congratulations for capturing these national honors.
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L-R: Mark Smith, Sara Otto.
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The Greenfield Monday league concluded their winter league play with Tom Strandquist holding off Bill Marquette by a whisker to capture first place.
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L-R: Pat
Backhaus, Tom Strandquist, Lowell Johnson, Dave Borschied, Bill Marquette, Dwayne Robeck, and Mike Demars.
Missing: Steve Lilly and Ron Fadden.
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The Greenfield Thursday Afternoon League had Jim Aleckson receive top honors with a nice 63.17 % average.
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Back Row L-R: Ray Volkers, Jerry Hokkala, Sara Otto, Dick Dvorak
Front: Joes Mueller and Mark Smith. Missing: Tom Prokop, April Lynch, Bill Marquette, and Rob Hagman.
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In the fierce Thursday Night Straightaway League, it was a squeeker down to the last night. Ray Volkers had an astonishing 90% game winning percentage, losing only three times the whole season. Mark Smith and Sara Otto were right on his heals every week and there were many great games logged onto the GHC "Wall of Fame".
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Back Row L-R: Ray Volkers, Jerry Hokkala, Sara Otto, Dick Dvorak.
Front: Joe Mueller and Mark Smith. Missing: Tom Prokop, April Lynch,
Bill Marquette, and Rob Hagman.
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I want to thank all the Greenfield Horseshoe Club members for another successful season. The fun and fellowship we all share is a blessing, especially during the off season.
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MGSHPA President
Cathy Ziemann
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Has it stopped "raining on your parade" yet?
For those of us who pitch on Thursday nights, I don't think Mother Nature had shown us her best weather in May. We can only hope the rest of the summer is better to us.
A reminder to all Club Secretaries, please submit your sanction information and dues to Bonnie Holland as soon as possible. I will be asking her for an update on club submissions and will contact you personally if your information is not submitted.
Now that the spring and summer tournaments are well under way, a reminder to all Tournament Directors; please insure that ALL participants have been sanctioned BEFORE you allow them to play in your tournament. Contact Dustin Dahl to get your tournament sanctioned and let him know how many patches you will need.
For any member entering tournaments, the schedules are posted on the website. If you need a schedule mailed to you, you must request one.
There are 2 offices within the MGSHPA that are up for election, re-election in 2015. They are the West Metro Vice-President (currently held by Robin Constance) and the Secretary-Treasurer-Membership Director (currently held by Bonnie Holland). Candidates for MGSHPA offices must announce their candidacy in writing and received by the President and the Ringer Digest Editor no later than June 1st. I have received notification from Robin and Bonnie regarding their intention to seek reelection. I did not receive any other candidate submissions.
By now I am sure that everyone has heard that the next World Tournament is being held in Topeka, Kansas July 13-25, 2015. There will be 79 Minnesotans pitching. I wish the very Best of Luck to all members. Check the NHPA website for live feed and results.
Please start to think about nominations for 2015 Rookie of the Year and Scholarship award. These nominations should be sent to Joe Mueller and will be announced at our annual State Tournament, Labor Day Weekend. (The forms are available on the MGSHPA Website.) Just a reminder - the Scholarship Award is not limited to High School Students, but can be for adults returning to Post-Secondary schools.
We all know that the majority of the MGSHPA membership voted to have the Ringer Digest available electronically. I have heard from some of our elder members or those without computers who are not seeing the Digest. Please check with your club members and perhaps print out a copy to share with them.
Hope to see you soon on the courts!
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North Mankato Club News
by Kim Briard
Our annual meeting was held on April 6th with clean up night April 28th, preparing 12 courts.
The club currently has 13 teams consisting of just under 80 players, six juniors and seven new players. League nights are on Wednesday and Thursday nights in Wheeler park.
Our annual Fun Days tournament will be held the weekend of July 8-12.
To follow our latest updates and news, feel free to like our Facebook page: North Mankato Horseshoe Club.
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(Click the link above to see all upcoming tournaments.)
Tournament Results
Click on any of the tournament names below to see how players placed.
(Listed by date played.)
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Seeking Volunteers for the Horseshoe Competition of the National Senior Games
by Sara Otto
The Bloomington Horseshoe Club is proud to host the 2015 National Senior Games. This competition brings approximately 10,000 athletes to Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington in 19 different sports.
The horseshoe competition has over 100 participants from all over the U.S. and we need your help to execute the tournament. Your scorekeeping expertise would be especially helpful on July 4 and 5, as well as July 7 and 8.
If you are available, please contact either:
Sara Otto: 612-327-2277
OR Robin Constance 612-327-0553 for further details and to sign up.
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From the Secretary
by Bonnie Holland
I hope everyone is enjoying the 2015 season. For those league secretaries who have not yet sent in for your cards, please do so as soon as possible. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask.
I am glad to hear the Savage club is up and running this year with new directors. We also have a new club; Clank and Thuds from Becker, MN. I believe they just throw in the winter indoors. We welcome them. Isanti club also has a few courts indoors to throw in the winter.
I am getting a financial report ready after I update deposits and send money to the National. I will have that in next month's Digest.
Here are a few tidbits to ponder on:
There were 3 new clubs organized in 1995; Silver Lake, Annandale, and Maple Lake. What happened to them?
In 1994 the WSP Tournament was called 'The Firecracker'.
In 1979; 425 members went to State! Jack O'Connor threw 81%.
In 1970 at the Allard Open in Moorhead, Walter Ray Williams entered their tournament at the age of 18 and threw 81%.
In 1979; the Coon Rapids tournament only cost $3.00 to enter, Donnelly only $8.00.
Who remembers the Tri-County club? Their tournament was $10.00 to enter.
In 1988 the Fridley tournament cost $14.00 to enter.
The new score sheet we are currently using was introduced in 1995.
Remember the ' Stewlies'? There were 828 of them in 2007
And who remembers in 2004; the Canterbury Park Ringer Toss?
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Alexandria League Spring Update
by Janet Larson
Our roster consists of 23 regular league pitchers and a number of subs. We have had two of those subs pitch with us so far. Of the 25 pitchers, 12 will be competing at the World tournament in Topeka, KS this summer. Can any other club claim a higher percentage of WT pitchers?
We are enjoying our new facility this summer. The new concession stand worked great for our 5th annual Alex Open tournament, we had 48 participants. We know Memorial weekend is a hard time for many of you to come and check out our new set up, so hopefully, sometime soon, we will be able to get a tournament set up on another date during the summer.
We pitch on Wednesday evenings, and we are halfway through the round robin portion of our season. We will work in our Singles Tournament around the World Tournament schedule, and then we will finish our season with a double elimination tournament starting in August. We'd like to wish everyone good luck at the World Tournament and hopefully we will see many of you there.
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Savage League (always accepting new players)
by Mike Berger
Savage league Monday night Dan Patch is fully up and running. We currently have 14 players and are looking for more to grow. This league is under new leadership. Mike Berger is president and Mark Hillegas is secretary/treasure. Any one interested in joining please contact Mike or Mark. We play three games on Mondays starting at 7pm at Warren Butler Park in Savage. Always looking for new friendly players.
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Come Pitch with Us!
Location:
Warren Butler Park
Contact:
Mike Berger
Contact Email:
Contact Phone:
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Alexandria Open Tournament Recap
by Janet Larson
Having an outdoor tournament in MN in May is always a gamble, but we lucked out again. Except for a few sprinkles on Sunday the weather was really pretty good. We were excited to show off our new facility and it did not disappoint. We welcomed a couple new faces to the NHPA pitching experience, brothers, Nathan and Eric Dehkes. They have pitched since they were kids, but never as NHPA members. They will soon be known by all the guys in the open men upper classes as they finished with 49.56% and 35.19% respectively. Out here in western MN we also welcomed our friends to the west, Milton Renville from South Dakota, and Joe Martin, Jean McNichols, Wilbur and Noah Gabel and Wilbur's great-grandson, Kyler Nielsen all from North Dakota.
The Junior and Cadet pitchers proved hard to beat, with four out of five placing in the top two spots in their classes, Noah Gabel and Kyler Nielson each took 1st and Devin and Tyler Stone each finished 2nd.
We ran Classes A and B as 40 point games. Class B was decided by a playoff game between Josh Olson and Phil Swenson, with Josh taking 1st place honors.
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High Ringer Games in each class went to:
- Class A - Sig Armitage 76.67%
- Class B - Josh Olson 66.67%
- Class C - Brian Wipper 56.00%
- Class D - Byron Edwards 42.00%
- Class E - Milton Renville 46.00%
- Class F - Noah Gabel 42.00%
- Class G - Devin Stone 32.00%
- Class H - Kyler Nielsen 26.00
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Pitching the highest over their averages were:
- Devin Stone 7.47% over
- Rick Branson 4.94% over
- Tyler Stone 4.27% over
- Jerald Hagen 3.84% over
- Noah Gabel 3.70% over
- Brian Wipper 3.49% over
- Norm Greenwaldt 3.40% over
- Kendra Swenson 2.19% over
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We had three winners of the 50/50 raffle drawings, congrats to Jean McNichols, Janet Larson, and Josh Olson. The raffle tickets were also good for four drawings for Wisconsin Cheese, those winners were David Balgaard, Jo Greenwaldt, Cody Olson and Phil Swenson.
We'd like to thank everyone for coming and helping to make the tournament a great success.
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Class A Winners
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Class B Winners
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Class C Winners
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Class D Winners
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Class E Winners
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Class F Winners
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Class G Winners
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Class H Winners
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Montgomery Club News
by Denny Keogh and Dick David
On April 11th the Montgomery Horseshoe Club held their 9-Pin Bowling Tournament at Strike Force Bowl in New Prague. Door prices were awarded. Everyone had a good time. Hope to see everyone next year.
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Placing as Follow:
1st - Jerry Roemhildt (862) 2nd - Sandy Keogh (796) 3rd - Don Ehrhardt (789) 4th - Penny Roemhildt (777) 5th - Doug David (759)
High game with handicap:
Game 1 1st - Jerry Roemhildt (309) 2nd - Sandy Keogh (273) Game 2 1st - Penny Roemhildt (297) 2nd - Jerry Roemhildt (280) Game 3 1st - Greg David (336) 2nd - Jerry Hagel (310)
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About Us
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MGSHPA's Ringer Digest is the official newsletter of the Minnesota Gopher State Horseshoe Pitchers' Association. It is free to members of the MGSHPA and other interested partieis. Changes of email address can be sent directly to RingerDigest@gmail.com.
All submissions subject to editing, available space, and must be received by the 10th of the month preceding the date of issue.
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