Central Texas: Home of the best horseshoe pitchers in the country

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Every week at Brazos East Park, the Central Texas Horseshoe Pitcher’s Association gets together and plays a few games.

This group based in Waco is not made up of your ordinary horseshoe pitchers. They’re made up of some of the best pitchers in the entire country.

“I was fortunate enough to be number one in the national high-point average, 42 games to 95 points to average,” said Danny Patterson, the top elder horseshoe pitcher in the country.

He said in NFL terms, “it would be like the number one receiver, number one pass-catcher in the entire league.”

The CTHPA has been playing together since the late 80′s, after a group of inspiring pitchers go together in a friend’s backyard.

“We all played at a house out in Speegleville,” said TP Holt, president of the CTHPA. “He had a few pits set up and that’s how we all got started.”

Nearly 35 years later, this competitive horseshoe league attracts the best of the best pitchers, some from places near, and others from distant ones.

“We got some that come from Caldwell, that’s a little over 100 miles,” said CTHPA league director Brooks Symank.”I even have four or five guys who ride with me that come from Hamilton, then they catch on with me and we ride the rest of the way.”

Though winning isn’t the only thing that counts in horseshoes. To this group of the pitchers, they find a sense of community in meeting with one another.

“You build lifelong friends doing this,” said Holt. “You don’t really call them friends anymore, it’s our horseshoe family that is what it is.”

The CTHPA also welcomes all who want to get their horseshoe on.

“This is for everybody. If you’ve never pitched before, don’t be coming out here being scared to pitch, because you’re gonna be pitching with somebody percentage wise that’s in your own class, so to speak.”

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