SCSHC STATE OF
THE CLUB REPORT

IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS since I joined the St. Clair Shores Horseshoe Club. In 1997, the year before I joined, there were 10 pitchers on record with the Club. The club owned one watering spigot, a few clipboards, a few shovels, and had no records of accounting. The courts were only 7 years old, but most of them were not up to regulation. The 2003 season ended with 52 pitchers with 50 of them paid club members. Our Club now holds sanctioned tournaments, has a Club shed, more than two shovels per pit, watering containers, two watering spigots, hoses, chairs, scoreboards, hand held electronic megaphone, generator, work and serving tables, league and tournament supplies, assorted tools, and many other items too numerous to list. We have an inventory list to keep track of what we have.

Why the turn-around? Good organization, great club officers and an active membership pull it off. President John Thomachefski and Vice-president John Zadick do an outstanding job of running the club. Darrell Miller handles the weekly league line-ups. Boz Miller, Jerry Shene, Ray Rangel, Warren and Roberta Kolosiek, Chuck Ashmore, Elbert Hawkins, Jim Fontello, Sandy Gates, Darrell Harris, Chris Watson, Ike Wilson, Marty Mulligan, and Leo Soloman, have been very active helping with club duties and sanctioned tournaments. Many others show up early on league nights to work the pits. Many volunteer to prepare the courts for a sanctioned tournament even if they won't be pitching in the competition.

We have 12 of the best courts in Macomb County and one of our goals was to fill the courts with pitchers during league play. We did it a couple of times.

Of the 50 paid club members 18 of us are WSHPA/NHPA members and play in sanctioned tournaments throughout the state. More of the SCSHC membership plan to join the WSHPA for the 2004 season.

Next year we will add another night of play and have a sanctioned league. The Indoor Club had a sanctioned certificate and it became inactive when the club ceased play. Lorraine Sternberg, NHPA sanctioned club director, just sent me an updated certificate with a

name change. Now the certificate is the St. Clair Shores Sanctioned League. So, we are all set for sanctioned league play come the first Thursday in May 2004.

We are on the schedule for WSHPA/NHPA sanctioned tournament play the weekends of May 8-9, and July 24-25.

Along with the Indoor club transferring the sanctioned certificate to SCSHC, the entire building fund and the Ted Kowalski Award are now part of SCSHC. Another donation increased the building fund treasury. The SCSHC treasury, itself, has ended with another surplus ever since our shed was built.

The Kowalski Award was given for the second time in 2003 with Claude Shannahan receiving the award. Ted's grandson, Phil Hernandez, Jr., presented the award. Ted's widow and many family members attended the awards ceremony. It was a very touching moment for club members and the Kowalski family. The award includes a personal plaque, recipient plaque, and $100 that is sent to the NHPF in memory of Ted. The recipient plaque is on display at the SCS recreation center.

Publicity has been a big part of the SCSHC since 1998. We have established a Club Guidebook for all members and especially new members when they join. We had an officers meeting after league play and will hold a membership meeting the week before league play begins. Flyers are printed and given to each member to pass out and post. Blurbs about the club run in the Macomb Daily, the C & G newspapers and other community papers. Cable TV bulletin boards run free advertisement for us in the spring. The recreation newsletter runs a story about our club. During sanctioned tournament play we have handouts that inquisitive people may take.

The most important thing is the one-on-one recruiting that members will be doing. Many of our new members say they will bring one or two friends next year to join the club.

We have a solid, well-run club with some goals we haven't met yet. We will keep working to fulfill them and then come up with new goals. Horseshoe Pitching is fun, but being an active member just makes for double fun and, believe it or not, the ringers go on the stakes easier.

October 2003