Jan/Feb/Mar Ringer Digest

MINNESOTA HORSESHOE PITCHERS'

Ringer Digest

January-February-March 2022

A Charter of the NHPA

Official Publication of the Minnesota Gopher State Horseshoe Pitchers' Association

Happy New Year!!

Membership Renewal Made Simple With Eshoe

In all the years I've been involved with this sport, I have never seen innovation like we've seen recently in the NHPA. I just renewed my membership on Eshoe and it took me about 30 seconds with PayPal. Let's all get our memberships updated early and I suggest you do it online.

Here's the direct link ------->>>>>>>> Eshoe

Please keep our own Jim Aleckson in your thoughts and prayers as he recovers from a life saving open heart procedure in the past month. Get well soon Jim !!!!

MGHSPA Enters Historic Agreement !

The Executive Board has approved an agreement with the City of Genola for the use of the beautiful Genola Horseshoe Arena. Outgoing president Rick Wright had several rounds of negotiations with the Mayor of Genola, Larry Korf.

The main points of the agreement include the following:

The Mn State Tournament will be held in Genola each year moving forward.
Minimum two other tournaments will be held at the arena during the month of August, one of which being a two day event.
We are responsible for all court maintenance, upgrades to courts, and building clean up.
Contract renews annually automatically but will be reviewed every 5 years.

The Genola arena is centrally located right in the middle of the state, thus allowing equal travel distance for everyone in MN. The 16 beautiful permanent clay pits have seen much of the hottest horseshoe pitching ever in the history of our association. With the on-site camping at only $15 per night, Genola is a great place to gather with your horseshoe friends and have a great time. The officers and directors of the MGSHPA have entered into this agreement with the future of our Association as the top priority. As with many other NHPA charters, the pandemic really took a hard toll on membership numbers. This has put many charters into “survival mode”. It is our hope that we can provide a quality pitching venue for our annual State Championships well into the future, and this agreement assures that will happen. The state needs the support of all of us to renew our memberships and attend tournaments. With the rising costs of everything these days, horseshoes is a very attractive and inexpensive sport. It is our sincere hopes that our membership decline will stop and that we can begin to regain our numbers by providing a great horseshoe experience at our tournaments.

President’s Message

By Ray Pierce Jr

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season with family and friends. I’m sure your stockings were stuffed with horseshoe tools and towels and you found new sets of shoes under the tree. With the holidays behind us, we know horseshoes are right around the corner.

Some clubs have been pitching winter leagues and if you have the itch this winter, keep your eyes on the newly designed website for upcoming winter tournaments. Lori York has been incredible on the rework of our website and you can expect it to be more user friendly and easier to navigate.

I have a few ideas for some promotional stuff and as I get settled in I will be pitching a few things to the board and our members. Michelle Foard has been doing an awesome job with social media promotions. I’m sure many of you have seen her videos, several of which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times! The more eyes on our sport the better!

The State Horseshoe tournament is slated to be back in Genola and I am hoping we can double our participation. It is still easier than ever to get entered and I challenge every club to get a new member entered. Hibbing will be bringing back the Leaner Lounge and I can’t wait.

I am always available to answer questions, take suggestions and move things on to the board or members. Please utilize your Regional Vice Presidents as well. They are knowledgeable and willing to help. We all have many good ideas to draw new members, or make horseshoes more available. Feel free to call me anytime, I will get back to you 218-969-7040. You can shoot me an e-mail or even stick a letter in the mailbox.

My plan is to attend a bunch of tournaments this summer with my wife so I can meet everybody and introduce myself. I hope to see you on the courts this summer!

Please be safe this winter and keep an eye out for winter tournaments.

Ray Pierce Jr

Regional Director / Stats Guy

By Josh Olson

Cheers to a fun, safe and successful 2022 of friendships and horseshoe pitching!

I hope everyone had a chance to spend some time with there friends and family during this holiday season. It is that time of year, the new year of tournaments and leagues are upon us, its never to early to start getting things lined up for your up coming tournament and summer leagues, before we know it the grass will be growing, and the snow will all be gone, and we will be back outside pitching shoes! Josh Olson

A few Tournaments I like to spotlight for the upcoming year. Team World in Beloit Wisconsin, the official Tournament Flyer is available on the Wisconsin horseshoe pitching website so here is hoping that the event will go on without any issues for 2022. The MGSHPA has sponsored 2 of our top teams in the past and hopefully we continue to do so going forward! I can’t forget about the World Tournament that will be held in Monroe, Louisiana this year. The Dixie Center is a great venue for horseshoes, there will be plenty of things to do while down in the Bayou, so start planning for another great World Tournament. The dates are July 11th through the 23rd.

Tournament Directors, PLEASE get me your information if you are looking to run a tournament this winter/spring/summer, the sooner you get that information to me for eShoe and Lori York our Webmaster the better chance you have of getting the word out there in a timely fashion.

Be sure to keep an eye on the first winter tournament that will be live streamed during the entire event! The NHPF Benefit Tournament will have Facebook live coverage throughout the entire tournament, so everyone be sure you mark your calendar for January 15th, sign up now or watch anywhere in the WORLD. (Details for that tournament can be found on the digest, eShoe and of course our website.

That is all for now. See you on the courts!

Josh

North Vice President

By Rory "Rocky" Pierce

Hello Horseshoe Pitchers

A little word from your North Vice-President, we have been working with Rick to get the portable pits and the trailer situation squared away. I believe that is all taken care of now. I am looking forward to another great season coming in 2022. Now is as good of time as any to be talking to your friends about pitching in the summer, when you are sitting in the fishouse or hanging out for the holidays horseshoes is a great topic. Horseshoe sets also make great gift ideas for those hard to buy people on your list. I hope all of you have a very merry Christmas and a Happy new Year. If you have any questions for me I am always here to help in any way that I can.

Sincerely

Rory L. Pierce Sr

South Vice President

by Jeff Washburn

Season’s Greetings to all of our horseshoe friends and families. By the time you read this, Christmas will have come and gone but that won’t stop me from donning my Santa hat.

This Holiday time of the year is always one of my favorites as a season of hope for me and maybe for some of you, too! Not only surrounding the meaning of Christmas but also it is a good time to reflect on what is really important to us in our lives, and that is our family, friends, and hopefully good health.

2021 was a good year for horseshoes as many of our clubs and tournaments were back in action, along with our state tournament. It is never too early to start thinking and planning on which tournaments to enter for 2022. This is also the time to offer encouragement to those who have never participated in a tournament or are thinking of maybe considering entering a tournament. What a great way to enjoy some friendly competition, camaraderie with folks you know, the opportunity to meet some new horseshoe pitchers, and to help our local clubs.

This is also a good time for everyone to sign up for your 2022 card. This can be done by simply googling eshoe and selecting the NHPA eshoe tab, or going on the MGSHPA website and clicking on the membership sign up tab to renew either electronically, or by mailing in the form to Ann Hagman. Remember, there are no cards being mailed out anymore. A card can always be printed if a pitcher still wants to carry one in their purse or wallet. (Like me)

Please take a look at our evolving MGSHPA website. Our new Webmaster, Lori York, is working some real magic to make the site more user friendly while also creating a significant increase in information flow via social media options. Great work, Lori!!

Finally, lets all take our hats off in honor of our outgoing President, Rick Wright, for his MANY years of service to our MGSHPA. Congratulations, Rick, and thank you for all of your support over the years. Now you can just focus on pitching ringers in 2022. At the same time, we welcome our new President, Ray Pierce, Jr. Good luck Ray and all the best in your new endeavor with MGSHPA.

Here’s to wishing each of you and your families a safe, healthy, and Happy New Year, with lots of ringers. Cheers, Jeff

Promotion / News Media

by Michelle Foard

Happy New Year to you all! I hope the new year finds you happy and healthy.

As for me the off season is a better time to work on the social media accounts. Mostly Tik Tok. Right before Christmas I had a video from the Turkey Toss Tournament get over half a million views. That is by far my most watched video. I was also able to get a guy from Texas connected to a club down there. He commented on the video asking where he could pitch. I get lots of comments on videos. Several ask where they can play. That is a goal of mine. To get more people to pitch. There will be a few winter tournaments I can make more videos. I know many of you don't follow Tik Tok, but part of what I do is following other people's pages and liking their content. In turn many follow my page. As the page grows I can reach more people. Lots of younger people are on Tik Tok and I hope to gain their attention.

Brooklyn Park has plenty of room in our league for more players. We pitch Mon and Tues if your interested please contact me. You can certainly pitch for more than one club.

Thank you to those clubs who sent in group photos. I would like to do that again this year. I think it is great seeing all the clubs and everyone pitching. Also if you have any photos from your club or any tournaments you can certainly send them to me to post on social media.

Let's have a great New Year!

New Year-NewWebmaster

By Lori York

Happy New Year from the MGSHPA Webmaster. I am new to this role as October 2021, taking over from Josh Olson. He provided a brief orientation to our platform and reassigned the access rights, and then without hesitation I got to work. Although not classically trained in web design, I have learned-by-doing through my job duties and now bring that expertise to our organization.

If you have not been on our website lately, please take a look. www.minnesotahorseshoes.com Some of things I have been working on include:

The current state champions featured on our homepage along with links to our social media

A makeover of the Tournament Listing page with links to E-Shoe

New Locations pages, North and South, with links to Google Maps

There is more work to be done. That’s the beauty of this role. A website is never static; it is always changing and evolving. As soon as I check off one item on my to-do list, I’m adding at least two more. I know there is old information and dead links on our pages so my resolution for 2022 is continue the clean-up project.

I hope you like what you see - a subtle balance of fashionable and functional. Your feedback is welcome. Email me at webmaster@minnesotahorseshoes.com with your comments and suggestions.

Helen’s Corner

By Helen Hawkinson

Russ Girtz is one of many of the Girtz siblings from Pierz, Minnesota. A lot of his relatives pitched horseshoes in Genola and Pierz for many years and that is where he got his start. Both his mother and father pitched in the World Tournament held in Genola, Minnesota in 1981 and that is where he was introduced to sanctioned horseshoes at the age of 12. He was then a junior and played in the boys division and took 1st! That was when the Championship pitchers wore all white he recalls. He mentioned watching Dave Hughes, Dale and Lenny Lipovsky, and Dick Dvorak compete. I asked him what shoe he favors and he told me Ted Allen’s in which he pitches a turn and a quarter. You may also be aware that Russ is left handed, but maybe not. Russ is now 53 and recently started pitching more frequently again after things slowed down raising his family. He is the President of the Becker league and runs the Clank and Thud Tournaments as well. He was instrumental in getting four indoor courts up and running at the old Firehall Station in Becker where he plays weekly. Russ has competed in the Minnesota State Tournament several years and has played in many tournaments. Russ said that he was happy to make it to playoffs in Hibbing this year at State and is looking forward to many more tournaments to come.

Greenfield Horseshoe Club News

By Jerry LaBrosse

The Greenfield Horseshoe Club finished another successful fall season. The GHC conducts two leagues each week Mondays and Thursdays. Mondays are handicapped and Thursdays are straight away.

Lowell Johnson had a great season capturing both the league and season end tournament titles for the Monday night league.

Jerry Hokkala also had a great season, winning over 80% of his games and averaging 64.74% to secure the title.

He also went undefeated in the season end tournament. We had a special guest visitor with us at theseason end tournament. NHPA Hall of Famer Paul LaCrosse was in town for his annual Thanksgiving visit.

Congratulations to Lowell and Jerry for a job well done.

The GHC pitches in world class conditions at the Greenfield Academy for Sports Excellence located in rural Greenfield.

The NHPF Benefit Tournament is going to be held in this facility on January 15. If interested in pitching in this tournament contact Jerry LaBrosse at JLABRO6186@aol.com right away to see if there are still openings.