My Unlikely Addiction

Everyone knows that shuffleboard is for old people, right? You have to live in a retirement home to even begin to enjoy this silly and simple “sport” that involves pushing a disc, right?
WRONG! Either that, or I am old before my time, because I, age 53, am seriously addicted to this game.

It all started with moving to Florida, land of many retirees. We moved here to purchase and run a business, and early on we found ourselves with some amount of “spare time” that could be filled with recreation. Right up the street from us, at 109 E. Main Street (across the street from City Hall at 110 E. Main), was a facility that fascinated Stu, despite its sign reading “Avon Park Senior Activities Center,” because of its many visible shuffleboard courts. Upon inquiry, Stu discovered that the club is open to any adult of age 18 or older, although there aren’t currently many members under age 60.

Stu and I had some familiarity with shuffleboard in its court format, having once been members of the Jewish Community Centers Association, or J.C.C.A., back in St. Louis. The JCCA, or “the J” for short, is an organization similar to the YMCA (which started originally as the “Young Men’s Christian Association). They had these cryptic courts with the numbers on them that kind of looked like hopscotch. In fact, at least one year that Stu participated as a “youngster” (50+) in the St. Louis Senior Olympics at the “J”, he participated in the shuffleboard event there. He remembers that he didn’t do particularly well in that event and now he knows why-- it’s not as easy as it looks.

Shuffleboard courts are fairly rare in St. Louis, MO, at least to the degree that we were not aware of any shuffleboard CLUBS existing there during our residence. In Florida, however, shuffleboard is a VERY popular sport which many of its devotees take quite seriously. And there is good reason for this. As we grew to learn the sport, we found a great deal of mental strategy involved in being competitive at shuffleboard. Rather than a simple game where you try to shove discs into areas for score, shuffleboard turns out to be more like a cross between billiards and chess when you really start to learn the game.

Stu joined the Avon Park club in January of 2010, just one month after we moved to Avon Park, and quickly fell in love with the game. He convinced me to join shortly thereafter since it was amazingly inexpensive for a yearly membership that allowed unlimited play. He felt it would be something fun that we could do together, but he had no idea how addicted to it I would become.

The Avon Park club has what are called “scrambles” three times a week during winter season: 8:50 a.m. on Wednesdays (singles 16-frame), 8:50 a.m. on Saturdays (doubles 16-frame) and 1:00 p.m. on Sundays (doubles 12-frame, with ice cream and sometimes bingo thereafter). These are very informal sessions where you draw a disc from a bag indicating at which position you will play, either Head or Foot of a numbered court and a color, either Yellow or Black indicating the four discs you will use. You wind up playing against a variety of other people and in so doing, get to know them pretty well. We have met some of our closest friends in the area this way.

There are varying levels of expertise represented at the Avon Park shuffleboard club and at the Sebring Recreation Club, which are both part of Florida’s Central District. A Pro, or professional player, is someone who has placed 1st through 4th, or gotten a “point” as it’s also called, in 10 different district, state or national tournaments. Probably close to half of the players with whom we scramble several times a week are pros. There are levels of amateurs below pro, and our club even boasts at least one Hall of Fame pro, which I am told requires 100 points to achieve.

I played in my first all-amateur tournament this past Monday, partnering with Stu. Unfortunately for Stu, we not only did not place, but we lost four games in a row taking us completely out of the tournament quickly. On Thursday, Stu played in a Pro-Am mixed tournament, partnered with a pro named Esther, and they won their first four matches (8 games straight) to go into the finals. They not only placed, but won 2nd in that tournament. Stu is now up to two points of the 10 required to go pro.

I don’t see myself getting any points any time soon, but I certainly do love the game enough that it’s one of the main reasons I would be reluctant to move out of Florida. I know that some of the far northern states such as Ohio and Michigan (you know, the states whether the majority of snowbirds, or winter-only Florida residents, reside during the summer) have their own shuffleboard organizations, but if we were to move back to Missouri, I don’t believe there is a shuffleboard organization there.

While living in Florida, if I did get a regular office job, I could still shuffle on weekends, but as it is, I get to shuffle three to four times a week right up the street. Tomorrow I hope to participate in the all-day Monday mini-tournament. There is a small entry fee that goes into a pot to be divided among those who place. I don’t expect to place even in a mini at present, but if I keep practicing, someday I will do so; maybe even before I reach actual retirement age!