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  • Darby Rasmussen of St. Peter lets a horseshoe fly during the Minnesota State Horseshoe Tournament at the Verizon Wireless Center. Pat Christman

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  • Erwin Tischer Pat Christman

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  • Warren Albrecht (left) jokes with Harland Christoffer during the Minnesota State Horseshoe Tournament Friday at the Verizon Wireless Center. Pat Christman

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  • Ken Howe tries a little body english to get a ringer during Saturday's competition at the Minnesota State Horseshoe Tournament.

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  • Madelia's Mike Lawrence throws a shoe during Saturday's Minnesota State Horseshoe Tournament at the Verizon Wireless Center. Pat Christman

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September 5, 2010

Young or old, they're all ringers

Weekend tournament shows off popularity of sport

By Shane Frederick Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — Becky Wolters tried to avoid looking nervous as she sat in the stands of the Verizon Wireless Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Lake Crystal woman kept her eyes on her daughter, 11-year-old Kaylie, as any good sports parent would, be it a hockey mom or a tennis dad.

“She gets so excited, but she gets very nervous,” Becky said as Kaylie settled into her spot on the arena floor. “When she gets nervous, I get nervous.”

Kaylie wasn’t shooting pucks or hitting balls, however. She was pitching horseshoes as part of the Minnesota State Horseshoe Tournament.

The event began on Friday and runs through Monday afternoon — when the best of the best, including 28-time men’s champion Dale Lipovsky of Apple Valley, take center stage.

More than 200 people are competing in the event, which is being held in Mankato for the second year in a row and hosted by the North Mankato Horseshoe Club.

The tournament’s participants range in age from 7 years old to 87, according to North Mankato club president Erwin Tischer. Tischer himself is 77 and placed second in Friday’s Elders E Division with a 4-1 record.

After 29 years as club president, Tischer is finally stepping down. His term as the state association’s first vice president is also coming up. As for playing the game ...

“I’ve been pitching horseshoes for 34 years,” he said. “I’ll keep throwing until I can’t anymore.”

The North Mankato club, which has its pits in Wheeler Park, has 140 members, Tischer said, and is the largest club in Minnesota and among the largest in the country.

“Everybody else’s numbers are going down, but North Mankato’s are going up,” Tischer said. “Everybody helps get people in.”

Fifty-one of the club’s members earned spots in the state tournament, either by playing in three nationally sanctioned tournaments over the summer or by playing in one tournament and throwing 700 shoes in league play this year.

One of the reasons for the club’s continued growth is that, around these parts, horseshoes isn’t considered an old-man’s game.

A banner hanging in the arena proclaiming horseshoes to be “a sport for all ages,” includes a picture with three generations of Tischers — Erwin, his daughter and granddaughter, among them — who play regularly.

Jesse Wolters, Kaylie’s dad, began throwing about four years ago, and Kaylie quickly wanted to join in. Kaylie is one of about 15 junior members of the North Mankato club.

“She does pretty good,” Jesse Wolters said. “She loves it. I can’t tell her what to do anymore. She says, ‘I’ll do it my own way, dad.’”

Many of the young pitchers, including two-time defending girls state champion Katie Sheehan of Plainview and defending boys champion Joey Mueller of Ham Lake, played stone-faced, concentrating on committing their form to muscle memory and raising their ringer percentage.

Not Kaylie, though.

After purchasing a new set of horseshoes and a hook with which to pull the shoes out of the thick clay pits she played with a perpetual grin on her face, showing little of the nervousness that concerned her mom. And when she’d score a ringer she’d flex her muscles and pump her fists a bit.

“I don’t really care how I throw,” Kaylie said. “I just like the game.”

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