Barney named July Player of the Month

Shreve, Spradlin, Mallery earn Honorable Mention

* June Player of the Month winner
* Allegany County Disc Golf Club – mission and website
* Allegany County Disc Golf Club on Facebook

FROSTBURG — Ethan Barney has not thrown a single stroke in the inaugural Summer Flex League. He’s not in first place. He’s not in last place. He’s not even on the board.

And still, the 17-year-old from Canaan, N.H., earned the Allegany County Disc Golf Club’s Player of the Month honors for the month of July.

How?

It was in July that Barney — on summer vacation and spending the hottest months of the year with his mom, Nicki Raynor, and stepdad Keith Raynor, in Vale Summit — decided to give back to the game he’s come to know and love since he began playing when he was about 9 years old. Keith Raynor had been scheduled to be an instructor at the club’s first Youth Disc Golf Clinic early in the month at Glendening Park. Barney tagged along. Instead of merely watching, he proactively became a key part of the two-person staff for the clinic. Barney assisted with putting instruction, shared some rules of the game and flew solo with the backhand instruction to the participating kids.

AlleganyPlayground photo
Ethan Barney, right, looks on, along with stepdad Keith Raynor (left) while Frostburg youngster Gary Schulz, 9, practices putting.

Later in July, Barney volunteered again at The Glades at Meshach Run  the only public disc golf course in Maryland located west of Hagerstown — by helping to install tee pads at holes 7, 8 and 9. For anyone who has done it, you know it’s not easy labor. And Barney didn’t give giving his time a second thought.

“He’s just like that,” said proud mom Nicki Raynor. “He always been” about giving back.

Barney will receive a gift certificate to Ryan’s Disc Golf Stop, located in Accident, for the recognition.

Raynor said her son learned the sport through her and a family friend. On the course, Raynor said Barney has “become a lot more patient” over the years.

“He used to get frustrated really easily,” she said. “The other thing I’ve definitely seen in the past couple of years is (that) he’s learning how to use different discs to help him.”

Barney prefers to use those discs on courses that lean towards the technical side. Locally, he enjoys the course at Jumonville Glen near Uniontown, Pa.

“He’s like me, in the sense that he actually prefers wooded holes to open holes,” Raynor said. “It’s made a real difference in his game, to be able to start to figure all that out.”

Many kids Barney’s age spend more than their fair share in front of a video game console. Barney’s no stranger to manipulating joysticks, but the chance to play disc golf “is one of the very few things that is a guaranteed, ‘yeah, I wanna go. I wanna do that.’ I feel the game makes him a more balanced person.”

The rising senior is in the early stages of his collection selection process. He aspires to major in video game design.

AlleganyPlayground photo
Ethan Barney, 17, reviews grip techniques with 9-year-olds Gary Schulz (middle) and Luke Spradlin-Vogelsang.

Honorable Mention

Barney’s selection as Player of the Month was anything but easy. Others contributed to the game, both on and off the course, and made the competition a close one.

Becky Shreve, 41, of Cumberland, and Josiah Spradlin, 12, of Frostburg, continued to dominate their divisions in the club’s Summer Flex League. Both players are undefeated through four weeks of SFL action. Week 5 (Aug. 5-8) is at The Glades at Meshach Run in Garrett County.

Scott Mallery, 54, of Mount Savage, offered a mix of performance and maintenance. Mallery leapfrogged Bill Shreve, 46, of Cumberland, after Week 4 to take over first place — by a single point — in the SFL standings with two weeks to play. Mallery has 25 points to Shreve’s 24 points.

Just as important, though, Mallery continued to maintain Mile Lane Disc Golf Course in Mount Savage. The privately owned course takes no small amount of upkeep, and the course owner did his best to keep up with demand from player demand through both the Summer Flex League as well as Mallery’s Saturday Morning Tag League.

Saturday Morning Tag League nexts tees off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13. The Summer Flex League wraps up its inaugural season with Week 6 in Mount Savage from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22.

AlleganyPlayground photo
Josiah Spradlin

AlleganyPlayground photo
Becky Shreve

AlleganyPlayground photo
Scott Mallery

 

 

Filed in: Latest Headlines, Outdoors, Sports

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