Board Approves New CB&L Director

         Hello, my name is Helen Hawkinson and I am stepping into the role as the new Constitution and Bylaws Director. I will need big shoes to fill Gordy Schmidt's role who filled this position for the last 9 years. It is a bit overwhelming but if I have questions Gordy is only a step or two away (you can run but you can't hide Gordy). Seriously, it is an honor to be C&B Director and my background may have helped as I have been a Legal Administrative Assistant at a Minneapolis Construction based law firm for the past 32 years. If you know me, I am much better at words than numbers. Thank you for having the confidence in me and for nominating me for this position.

Bertha Open 2019 Recap

By Josh Olson

       I would like to thank everyone for coming to Bertha and pitching in the Bertha Open this year, we had a Full Tournament 2- Full Shifts, I personally think it was perfect pitching weather, maybe a little chilly right away in the morning but once it started to warm up a little it was perfect. The temperature didn't hit 70 all day, and the sun didn't come out at all that I can remember, Oh and we pitched inside so there wasn't any wind or rain to interfere. I would like to Congratulate all the Winners starting with the Morning shift, Class D we had Mick Ziemann who took 4th Place, and we had a 3-way tie for 1st place, tie breaker was Head-To-Head then Over Average, Carolyn Brigner finished 3rd, Bruce Swenson finished 2nd, and Bertha Club member Wil Reed finished 1st throwing 4% over his entry Average, class D pitched 40 shoe games and was handicapped, Class C pitched 30 Point games no shoe limit, Class C 4th place was Barry Schilling, 3rd Place was Gary Kirckof, 2nd place went to Joe Raycraft, and with a perfect 7-0 Record our out of state friend Paul Anderson took home Class C Honors. We had a little break in the action between shifts with the 50/50 drawing which was won by Lu Cave. Then the Afternoon shift began. Class A and B would be playing 40 Point games no shoe limit again just like class C. Class B results there was a tie for 4th place between Jerry Werk and Andy Olson, Andy sneaked by on ringer % Jerry finished with 39.62% and Andy had 40.06% a difference of a couple ringers. There was also a tie for 2nd Place between Patti Oakes and Melisa Wimmer, both went 5-2 for the day and even though Melisa did defeat Patti on the last game of the day, Patti finished with 44.51% to Melisa's 43.99%. And I can't forget who took home the class B honors and that Class Champion patch, it was another Win for Bertha with Al Woida going 6-1 and throwing just over his average with 38.29%. Class A had some battles all day long, some long games and some short games to say the least, Highlight of the Day was in Class A when Bill Danielson and Phil Swenson faced off in game #2, Bill had a 95% game, Bill had 19 ringers out of 20 Shoes! Results from Class A, Lori York would take 4th Place, Brad Heth and Nathan Dehkes would tie for 2nd place with Nathan having the higher ringer percentage of the 2 with would put Brad in 3rd Place and Nathan taking 2nd place. Bill Danielson would go on to Win the Tournament Championship Patch and Honors with a 6-1 record, he would get his one loss from Brad Heth.

Nathan Dehkes,Bill Danielson, Brad Heth, Lori York	Andy Olson, Al Woida, Patti Oakes, Malissa Wimmer
Gary Kirckof, Paul Anderson, Joe Raycraft, Barry Schilling	Carolyn Brigner, Will Reed, Bruce Swenson, Mick Ziemann

I want to Thank My family for everything that they do to help me behind the scenes and with everything during the Tournament, without them the Tournament wouldn't be successful.

Thank you everyone for making the trip to Bertha, I hope to see everyone back next year!

Josh

                                  *REWARD*

Fun, Lifelong friendships, Great exercise, Inexpensive, Family involvement, Mind-Muscle Coordination, Social interaction and much more!!

Dear Members,

I hope you are having a great summer and enjoying league and some fun tournaments too. I'm reaching out to see if you would like to help our Junior Horseshoe program grow by introducing this sport to your own child, a grandchild or a great grandchild. If you already have that's awesome! Another idea would be to help a current junior member introduce the sport to another family member, friend or classmate. Many of my lifelong friendships were made through my involvement in horseshoes as a junior then even more friendships gained playing as an adult. The memories I have traveling to tournaments with my grandpa are some of the best times that I will always cherish! Not to mention all the tournaments I have attended with my parents and sister's during my childhood. This sport feels like one huge family to me and I know many other members feel the same so let's work together and share the sport with our younger generation!

A good luck shout out to the following Junior/Cadet members that will be competing at the world tournament in Texas this July...

Marshal Swenson, Tyler Condon, Brenna & Kevin Hagman, Justice Martin, Brielle Schneider, and Isacc & Lucas Rasmussen.

Contact: April Lynch, Mn Junior Director @ 651-226-7970

e-mail: [email protected]

Bylaw Change Passes

At the spring membership meeting held on June 1st in Forest Lake at the Bud Nelson Open, the membership passed the following Bylaw change:

MGSHPA Proposed Bylaw Change For 2019

Proposed by Gordy Schmidt - Constitution and Bylaws

Sec. 3. STATE TOURNAMENT REQUIREMENTS (continued)

2. QUALIFICATIONS (continued)

The first part of c. currently reads as follows:

c. To qualify for the State Tournament, adult pitchers (except Special Needs pitchers) must have competed in at least 1 (one) sanctioned tournament held within Minnesota in the 12 (twelve) months proceeding August 1st. In addition, adult pitchers (except Special Needs pitchers) must either have competed in at least 2 (two) or more NHPA sanctioned tournaments in the 12 (twelve) months preceding August 1st, or pitch a minimum of 200 (two hundred) shoes in a sanctioned league in the current year through July 25th.....

Proposed change would read as follows:

c. To qualify for the State Tournament, adult pitchers (except Special Needs pitchers) must have pitched a minimum of 600 (six hundred) shoes in a sanctioned league in the current year through July 25th, Or have competed in one tournament from the state schedule plus a minimum of 200 (two hundred) shoes pitched in a league through July 25th, OR have competed in at least 2 (two) NHPA sanctioned tournaments in the 12 (twelve) months proceeding August 1st, one of which must be from the state schedule.

Reason for change.

In the interest of growing our State Tournament there are some people currently having a hard time qualifying for our state tournament. Those are the people that have jobs with no weekends off. My son being one, for example. He is now a Physical Trainer by profession, and his most busy time of the week is the weekend. He never has one off. I also know of others that work weekends. My son loved pitching horseshoes, and our State Tournament, but has not been able to do so the last couple of years.

Also, I would like to make it easier for any pitchers after completing their first year of league "if they would like" to be able to compete in the State Tournament. A lot of first year league pitchers never think of pitching in a tournament outside of league during that first year. But maybe, at the end of the year they might want to give it a try, so why don't we let them, and grow our State tournament in the process.

Team World Recap

By Josh Olson

Minnesota crossed into Wisconsin with 3 Teams this year to compete in the 2019 Team World Tournament, we all played 21 games over the course of 3 days, the format is Team style for the coin flip that takes place before each new round of pitching, the winning Team gets to pick the head to head games, and the losing team gets to pick the courts the games will be played on. The tournament runs Friday-Sunday with the finals coming to an end Sunday afternoon. 22 Teams from Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Massachusetts came to compete. Weather was not the norm, usually we experience cold damp weather during the tournament, this year it did rain, but it was warmer than previous years. Highlights from the Tournament the top 5 Teams that made the Playoff Round were Missouri #1, Wisconsin #1, Massachusetts, Michigan #1 and Illinois #1, The Finals came down to the defending champions Wisconsin #1 and the #1 seed going into the Playoffs Michigan #1, Wisconsin prevailed once again and Won the Tournament making it the 2nd year in a row. Penny Steinke from Wisconsin made some noise and pitched some very big games during the Tournament day 1, a 97.5% which is only 39 out of 40 ringers.