Top Masters finishers represent a diverse shuffleboard group

Fourteen clubs were represented among 42 district players in the 2017 Masters, which were hosted by Palmetto Shuffle Club March 22-25.

David Evenson, of Palmetto, won the District Amateur men’s title. Recently elected the Palmetto Shuffle Club president, Evenson retired after 37 years as a freight train conductor on the BNSF railroad.

Ken Mather, who worked 31 years in the manufacture of Wisconsin engines, finished second. He and and his wife, Diana, came to Florida and began shuffling 15 years ago at Tidevue Mobile Home Park.

Jim Lessard, from Salem, N.H., and Ellenton Gardens, traveled the country in a motor home with his wife, Patricia, for many years. He settled at Ellenton Gardens after she passed away. His friends there urged him to try shuffling, which started him on the path to a third-place finish.

Cau Huynh placed fourth in his first year as a shuffler. Having immigrated from Vietnam, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and worked in information technology with that school’s alumni association. In addition to shuffleboard success, he won his division in the 2015 Florida Senior Games table tennis competition, and was singles champion in the 2016 Florida Senior Games badminton competition.

John Hechinger, who finished fifth, retired to Bradenton a couple of years ago, and his wife hoped to find something else to do besides fishing. Discovering Bradenton Shuffle Club on the Internet, they played yellow and black, where they learned to shuffle.

Patrick Antaya, of Lindsay, Ontario, and his wife, Elaine, learned to play at Tropic Isles. They have played five tournaments this year and also play weekly in the summer at Blackstock, Ontario. Patrick placed sixth.

Frank Marderosian, of Golf Lakes, finished seventh. A veteran Seabee (the Navy’s construction service), Marderosian worked as a firefighter, deputy sheriff and in corrections. Other hobbies are cards and metal detecting. A past president of Golf Lakes Shuffle Club, he started shuffling in 2012. His wife, Rita, also a shuffler, and he have a son and three grandchildren.

Tony Souza, of Bechtelsville, Pa., and Ellenton Gardens, was invited by the late Bill Hickman to try shuffling. He played the Masters in memory of Hickman and finished eighth.

Sandra Kolasinski led the four ladies playing in the District Amateur masters with her first-place finish. Kolasinski, a mother of two, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of four has lived at Village on the Greens for 13 years and shuffled for six years. She likes competition and loves cruising on lakes with family in Vermont and Massachusetts in the summer.

Elaine Antaya, who finished second, plays out of Tropical Isles Shuffle Club.

Harriet Piccard, of Palmetto, has shuffled five months per year for 15 years. She finished third. Her late husband, Henry, was a dairy and fruit farmer. She has six children, 15 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

Marilyn Rotman, the president of the Michigan Shuffleboard Association placed fourth. Now living at Paradise Bay, Marilyn is a retired greenhouse owner from Hudsonville, Mich. She and her husband, Gary, have three children. She is an avid knitter and graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

Editor’s note: The weekly shuffleboard column will return to its regularly scheduled day (Wednesday) next week.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Top Masters finishers represent a diverse shuffleboard group."