(This is a legit sport, folks!) Also, we’ve got road reporting, pigskin, and a new state law.
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When I meet someone new, I’m most interested to learn what they’re genuinely passionate about. It’s just always (*usually*) fun to engage with people about hobbies or other interests that animate their personalities. (Yeah, I know, also sometimes torture.)
I first met my bud Jason Green about a half dozen or so years ago, introduced by mutual friends when hanging out with our kids at the Annual Katonah Fire Department Parade & Carnival. Jason’s gregarious personality grabs you right away, and he’d have the smarty pant chops and charisma to run for office if he also possessed a secret masochistic streak.
Anyway, while we didn’t discuss it when we first met, I eventually learned about his zest for a sport I barely knew existed: disc golf.
His eyes lit up the couple of times we’ve discussed the topic. So when I was chatting with Examiner Editor-in-Chief Martin Wilbur last month, before his vacation, and he told me he was working on an area disc golf feature for the late summer, I immediately thought of J.
For locals who assume disc golf is nothing more than something you might have vaguely heard about sort of strangely occurring inside the woods at Leonard Park in Mount Kisco, get this: The sport even enjoys its own association, not to mention an interesting history that dates back to 1966. Learn more here.
In Martin’s story, he writes about Eric Bowers, an avid (“regular”) golfer since he was 13. When Eric was on a summer vacation with his wife to Lake Placid several years ago, his attention and interest were captured by a nine-hole disc golf course near Whiteface Mountain.
He’s now an avid player and was elected to the board of the Westchester Disc Golf Enthusiasts (WeDGE). Yes, that’s a thing. It’s a nonprofit organization that runs the sport’s local competitions and maintains the county’s only two disc golf courses, at Leonard and one further north, at FDR State Park in Yorktown.
The ‘Green’ Team
As for Green, when a college student at SUNY Albany, he played frisbee golf for a club team. A girls varsity basketball coach for the past 16 years and teacher at a New York City public high school, Green is the kind of guy who relishes friendly trash talk when duking it out against buddies.
Amazingly, it turns out disc golf is why Jason moved to Mount Kisco, which I didn’t know until now. When living in a condo in New Rochelle, he’d shoot up to Kisco to play at Leonard. After three to four years of that, when Jason and his wife Amanda were house shopping, disc golf was the magnet that pulled them to town 11 years ago.
I was curious about what drew Jason to disc golf in particular, and for some reason never asked him that particular question before. His answer was super specific and made me realize the option definitely occupies a unique place among the activities that sporty guys and gals can choose from when deciding how to spend their limited playtime.
“What drew me initially was growing up I played frisbee and always loved it, so when I became a new dad, it would be hard to play golf for six hours, and disc golf you can do in like an hour and a half with friends, and you’re done,” Green told me during a brief call late this afternoon while he sipped an after work Peroni beer with friends in the city.
“I also love hiking, and it also allows you to compete with friends,” added the father of eight-year-old Noah and 12-year-old Sienna. “So between frisbee, hiking, and competition with friends, you have all three. And there’s the beautiful scenery in the woods that makes it all work.”
Here’s Martin’s article if you want to check it out.
In Other News
Also, as you might remember, when I was on deadline Monday, I teased a piece here on Examiner+ that Martin was working on for our print edition about a new state law.
The legislation requires all New York State public school districts to provide same-day notification to the family of a student with a disability where behavioral intervention is needed. Here’s that article.
We also happen to have a surplus of exciting road reporting this week! (Should I commit publishing blasphemy and include my first newsletter “lol”? Too late.)
Briarcliff’s mayor is calling on the DOT to make Route 9A repairs. I’m sure many of your fingers are crossed. Here’s that one.
Not to be outdone, neighboring Pleasantville also has its eyes on road-related work. It’s a long-awaited Manville Road project, now slated to start this month.
“The state has opined that the traffic light at Wheeler is not compliant with the codes. We have to remove it, and in order to do that, a bag is put over the light for a test period,” Pleasantville Mayor Peter Scherer explains in Examiner reporter Abby Luby’s piece.
Last but certainly not least, we’ve covered less obscure sports this week, too, not just disc golf. That includes a massive football preseason package from local legend and Examiner Sports Editor Ray Gallagher with his three-plus decades of unmatched Section 1 institutional knowledge. This one was a beast for Ray to slay. Thank you, sir! And here’s that pigskin preview.
From disc golf to various state laws to local infrastructure to sports you’ve actually heard of, we’ve got you covered!
Have a nice evening, -Adam
PS On a separate note, you might have noticed more writing from me in recent weeks in the body of emails and an increase in the sharing of links to our staff’s other digital coverage. It’s been a test-and-learn approach to Examiner+ over the past year-plus, and I think we’re just starting to settle into a better formula that aggressively embraces the conversational, less detached newsletter writing ethos, with more enhancements to come. (Plenty of standalone staff news and feature articles in the body of emails in the future too.) Stay tuned!
Adam Stone is the publisher of Examiner Media. When not running local news outlets or chauffeuring his children, Stone can be found on the tennis courts at Mt. Kisco’s Leonard Park, on his Ipad playing chess, or on the floor cleaning after his two dogs.
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