Making Their Pitch

SEATTLE — Frost covered the grass and car windows early Saturday morning. But by the time people arrived at the northern end of Woodland Park in Seattle, the sun was shining bright.

People walked dogs over grassy fields. Through the trees, rowers could be spied on Green Lake. Birds chirped.

And clink after clink of metal on metal filled the air, with friendly banter and scores called back and forth at the first tournament in the annual Winetrout Winter Classic, held Jan. 17; the series continues every other weekend through March 28.

“Horseshoes is made for days like today,” said Gerald Stangland, of Enumclaw, one of 22 pitchers to turn out from around the state. “I love a busy park when I’m throwing horseshoes. … It’s a breath of fresh air.”

Being in winter, the weather is not always this nice for the 61-year-old Winetrout tournaments — not nearly.

“We have pitched when it’s 25 degrees and snowing,” said P.J. Shinpaugh, of Bellingham. Portable heaters are brought out. Packets of hand warmers ripped open. “We prefer this,” she said, a sparkly purple visor shielding her eyes from the bright sun. The day would top out at 51 degrees.

The 14 sets of pits at Woodland Park are covered on both ends. But women and older pitchers, who get to pitch from 30 feet instead of the standard 40 feet, are stuck in the elements.

Shinpaugh and her husband are “fair-weather pitchers” these days. Rain? No thanks.

But the days of pitching in the snow for the Winetrout are done, too.

The tournaments can be called off for snow, primarily for travel concerns, including pass conditions, with players coming over from Spokane, the Tri-Cities and elsewhere.

“Our members are going down. We need to keep them,” quipped Washington State Horseshoe Pitchers Association President Cindy Clausen, of Brier, at a pre-game meeting.

Indeed, the state of competitive horseshoe pitching in Washington state is at a critical juncture, as existing members continue to age, and too few young people take up the sport that’s as steeped in nostalgia as it is skill.

The majority of players on hand at Winetrout are over 60 years old, said Don Davis, of Auburn, WSHPA’s immediate past president. “I’ve done a lot of speaking at funerals.”

Shifting pastimes

Stan Speers, of Toledo, recalls a Winetrout tournament in the 1990s, when the series had expanded to Forest Park in Everett; 92 pitchers turned out. They had to play in two shifts.

Now the Everett chapter is no more, and its 22 courts — once one of the largest arrays in the state — are piles of rubble.

Bellingham, Vancouver and Yakima chapters are also inactive.

“We’ve lost so many of them,” said Speers, a 1999 state champion.

Even the Seattle chapter, which hosts the Winetrouts on courts that date to the Works Progress Administration, is barely hanging on.

“I am the chapter right now,” said Jon Martin, of Woodinville. “Years ago there were probably 15 or so. Then it got down to about five, and then people started dying. So right now I’m the only one. We’re active basically officially because I’m still there and the pits are in good shape and we don’t want to lose that.”

(Though vandalism gives him a run for his money — an electrical box was broken into this time around.)

Statewide, membership in WSHPA has steadily fallen from a height of around 300 in the 1990s — when President George H.W. Bush was among those enjoying the sport — to less than 90 at the close of the 2025 season.

It mirrors national trends. Charter membership in the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association in 2024 was 6,683, down from 15,000 in the 1990s.

“To see it dwindle like this, it just kind of breaks my heart,” said Gaylord Lund, of Arlington, a past president of the now-inactive Everett chapter.

Horseshoe pitching was growing in popularity when Everett’s Forest Park responded to demand in 1983 by installing new and more courts. This past fall, the courts were demolished to make way for a lighted pickleball facility.

Use of the horseshoe pits, which were maintained by the Everett WSHPA chapter, had fallen off, said Cory Rettenmier, recreation and golf manager for Everett Parks and Facilities. “However, we do still have some passionate horseshoe players that enjoy courts.”

Eight new horseshoe courts will be built as part of the renovation project, along with a basketball court and cornhole. So horseshoe pitching will be able to continue at the park, just not enough for tournaments like Winetrout. Construction is slated for spring, with completion in summer.

Roughly 15 years ago, Lund worked with Arlington’s parks department to install horseshoe courts at City Park, he said. A children’s spray pad is in the spot now.

“It’s pickleball. That’s a big deal,” Lund said. And cornhole, though “it takes a lot more skill to throw a horseshoe than a beanbag in cornhole.” (It’s a sentiment you’ll hear a time or two in these circles.)

About the people

Horseshoe pitching is, indeed, a skilled sport, with different strategies for footwork, turning the shoe, and getting the right trajectory to increase the chances of a ringer, when the shoe completely encircles the stake without touching it to score maximum points. There are different approaches for sand courts — what most in Washington are filled with — and clay courts like those used at the world tournament level.

“It is a pretty tough sport to do. But anybody can do it,” said Davis, the past state president.

Still, many of the pitchers on hand at Woodland Park say the sport’s competitive aspect isn’t what keeps them coming back year after year.

“I love the sport, but the people are the main draw,” Martin said.

Charlie Tapper, of Auburn, has been playing for at least five decades, but has never notched a title. At age 95, he’s the league’s oldest player — and likely Boeing’s oldest employee. The aerospace engineer works in property management these days.

Tapper got his start in horseshoes as a boy when he spent summers with his uncle, a retired postman who had a pit. Later in life, when Tapper had a family of his own, he got into it again with a neighbor. Over time, Tapper was convinced to join the WSHPA. “And I’ve been doing it (competitively) ever since.”

He’s enjoyed seeing other parts of the country for tournaments, like Utah.

And he enjoys the exercise it gives him, with a 3.5-pound shoe putting multiple muscles to work as it’s tossed 30 to 40 feet — especially after tossing hundreds of them over the course of some tournaments.

Tapper used to run marathons, and he likens the end of a horseshoes tournament to crossing that finish line. “You just feel good when you throw a ringer or two.”

But it’s about more than all that, Tapper said: “Lots of good people, good fellowship, lifelong friends.”

The youth problem

Horseshoes is an accessible sport that makes a point of sticking to its family-friendly roots.

Rules include no smoking, drinking, drugs or bad language on the courts. Tournaments begin with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and hearing a prayer of blessing.

“What other game can you play that you can pitch with your kids, your grandkids? It’s fun. It’s competitive, but family-oriented,” said Cindy Reeves, of Spokane, a scorekeeper for the day.

Spokane remains one of the healthier chapters, with 20 members and several youth players. At age 11, Jeremiah DeMello won the 2025 Cadet Boys World Championship in Sandy, Utah, taking all five of his matches.

DeMello is the son of chapter President John DeMello Jr., who’s wrapped all his children into the game at one point or another.

It’s a familiar pattern.

Reeves’ daughter, Kaiti Reeves, was a three-time state junior girls champion (2008-2010) and two-time women’s champion (2015-2016).

Lund’s son, Brandon Lund, was a two-time state champion (2004-2005) following two junior titles in the mid-1990s.

And there are others.

But getting youth into the sport these days is a challenge, to say the least.

When it was active, the Bellingham chapter ran a horseshoes program with the high schools in Ferndale.

“They brought the kids out once a week for PE class,” said Phyllis Quist, both a WSHPA and NHPA Hall of Fame member. “Some of these kids are good pitchers; some of them are naturals. But come the weekend, they’ve got football games, other sports, band.”

And cellphones, and video games, and busy parents who can’t drive them to tournaments, some of them pretty far-flung.

‘Not going to quit’

Jeff Saunders is the Spokane chapter vice president. Horseshoe pitching goes way back in his family: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. “The only person who didn’t pitch in the Saunders family was my mom,” he said. (Her toss of a shoe ended up on the roof of their porch at their California home. That decided that.)

Saunders is now part of the marketing team for NHPA. At the local level, he’s hoping to double Spokane’s numbers.

“We got to keep the sport alive,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times a day I mention horseshoes and people say, ‘That’s a thing?’ Yeah that’s a thing. Let me tell you about it.”

Lund, of Arlington, got his start in competitive horseshoes at the Winetrout tournaments. He had to sit out this year’s first matchup following knee surgery. He hopes to get back into it — and he hopes the familiar clinks of horseshoes return in force to Everett’s Forest Park.

“I haven’t given up hope. Maybe someday there will be a resurgence,” Lund said.

Bill Martino harbors the same hopes to resurrect the Vancouver chapter. He’s working on refurbishing the pits outside Marshall Center by Marshall Park, a first step.

“Once you mention it a lot of people want to see them fixed. They’ve all played with their grandparents or a family member at barbecues and picnics, and that’s as far as it went — but it was fun,” Martino said. “We’re not going to quit.”

With shiny horseshoe earrings and brooch, Quist, the Hall of Famer, is all smiles.

“We run into people all the time who say, ‘Oh, we didn’t know there was a horseshoe organization,’” she said. “We’ve been around forever.”

At age 89, Quist still pitches. And has no intention of stopping.

“As long as I can keep going, I’m going to.”

More Info

The Washington State Horseshoe Pitchers Association welcomes all ages and abilities to join for “fun and fellowship.” Learn more at www.wshpa.com.

Melissa Slager, a former reporter at The Daily Herald, is an author and journalist in Everett, Washington.