The Herald, Sharon, PA Published Sunday, Feb. 11, 2001

SANDY LAKE

Active seniors keep pushing for fitness
§   §   §
Shuffleboard teams play in tourneys

By Sherris Moreira-Byers
Herald Staff Writer

Cue sticks and pucks mixed together give seniors in Sandy Lake a board to stand on -- a shuffleboard that is.

McQuiston Center by the Park has two shuffleboards that help to keep seniors physically fit.

But fitness isn’t the only pleasure the game gives to the players.

"We enjoy coming down here. It’s a way for us to visit and play," said Bob Kimmel, 70, of Sandy Lake.

The senior center offers the activity every Tuesday morning with shuffleboard tournaments held every other month during the summer starting in May.

"It keeps the seniors active, and it gives them something different to do," said Joan Segaty, a center aide from Sandy Lake. "Though normally it’s an outdoor game, they can do it inside here to keep them active all year long."

Kimmel and his wife Janice, 67, see the weekly sport as a way not only to get out of the house and get rid of the winter doldrums, but a way to enjoy the company of friends.

"I enjoy the fellowship with other people, and I like to see how good we get from one week to the next," said Henry Schell, 68, of Sandy Lake.

The center’s shuffleboard, which can be played with one to four players, draws about eight people in the winter and about 20 in the summer.

The McQuiston center offers shuffleboard from 9 to 11 a.m. every Tuesday.

"A lot of people are in Florida during the winter where they practice every day," said Kimmel. "We’re just amateurs. We just have more fun, we don’t get so serious."

Though they don’t seem overly competitive, the group playing that winter day in January had a few tips to play a smoother game.

The yellow and black pucks slide better with silicone spray, and the lighter the cue stick the better the score, said Kimmel, whose top score is 75.

"Then it’s easier to knock your opponent’s puck out of a number, or knock your own into a higher number," Kimmel said.

Shuffleboard isn’t just a Sandy Lake center pastime.

Greenville Area Senior Service Center, in St. Paul Homes in West Salem Township, also offers shuffleboard on two courts in Keifer gymnasium.

"The shuffleboard competition for the senior games is held here," said Center Director Carmella Ansinger. "But we have about 15 people every week who enjoy the shuffleboarding here in the winter, and over 20 people weekly in the summer."

The Greenville center offers shuffleboard from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

Shuffleboard is in the works for the new senior center planned for the former Bill Rudge Ministries building in Hermitage as well, according to a spokesperson at Shenango Valley Multi-Service Center.

"All I know is that it’s a good way to put in a morning," Schell said.


For more information about shuffleboard call McQuiston center at 376-3608; or call the Greenville center at 588-3155.



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