Mr. August: S. Mallery wins club Player of the Month honors

S. Farris 2nd, B. Shreve 3rd, B. Padovini 4th, A. Stiffler 5th

Recent winners:
* July: Josiah Spradlin
* June: Evan Padovini
* May: David Warder
* April: Noah Gaughan
* March: Ethan von Hagel
* February: Shania Farris
* January: Tim Farris
* 2022 Player of the Month winners

FROSTBURG — In August 2022, the Allegany County Disc Golf Club’s three-person voting panel awarded all three first-place votes to Scott Mallery.

This time around, Mallery didn’t garner any of the three first-place votes up for grabs. But he did catch all four second-place votes and, in the ranked-choice system, beat out the competition for the club’s August 2023 Player of the Month award.

Scott Mallery

Mallery, 55, of Mount Savage, becomes the first two-time winner of the monthly award. This month, though, three of the five contenders were previous winners and the top three vote-getters each had won the award in the past year.

Voters completed their ballots that included five candidates with a ranked-choice system: Five points for the person they wanted most to win, four points for their second-favorite candidate, and so on. Voters were given only summaries of each contender’s monthly body of work; names were redacted.

Mallery garnered all three second-place votes to finish with 12 points. Shania Farris, 26, of Wiley Ford, W.Va., earned one first-place vote (and two third-place votes) for 11 points while Bill Shreve, 47, of Cumberland, earned 10 points (including five for one of the first-place votes). Brian Padovini, 42, of Frostburg, earned the remaining first-place vote and finished fourth in voting with eight points. Albina Stiffler, 23, of Cumberland, rounded out the field of five candidates with four points.

As he did last summer, Mallery this time around boasts quite the résumé.

Mallery participated in four of the club’s six events in August and while he performed very well on the course — a first-place finish in Week 8 of the club’s Summer Flex League, two thirds and a fourth — his CV offered intangibles that no other contender could match.

For the third straight August, Mallery hosted the annual Summer Fling Doubles Tournament at his family-owned Mile Lane Disc Golf in Mount Savage. In addition, he facilitated one week of the independently operated Saturday Morning Tag League. What might have put him over the top for voters, though, is that he helped bring more people to the game. With both performance on the course and quality in character, Mallery exudes the traits required to be a great ambassador for the game of disc golf.

Along with Mallery, four other members of the club’s Men’s Advanced Division have won the award: Bill Shreve, Colby Mallery, Ethan von Hagel and David Warder.

Mallery chose to donate his $15 award back to the Allegany County Disc Golf Club.

Shania Farris

Shania Farris

For the second straight month, the top three contenders for the monthly award were separated by only three points. Farris was third in July’s voting and has continued her Summer Flex League dominance, winning each of the season’s 11 weeks (with three remaining).

Along with not missing a single Summer Flex League weekend in 2023, she has rarely missed a club round in all of 2023 since she and husband Tim Farris joined the club for Week 1 of Winter Doubles League on Jan. 1.

Farris also has been a constant participant in the club’s monthly Fisher Cup initiative.

Farris was named Player of the Month in February. She is the only Women’s Division player to win the award and one of only two females (Lily Lick, in the Girls’ Division, won in September 2022).

Bill Shreve

Like Mallery and Farris, Bill Shreve, too, has won Player of the Month honors. He took the award home in October 2022.

Shreve, 47, of Cumberland, had quite the August. He racked up two Summer Flex League division wins and two runner-up finishes. Shreve holds a six-point lead over Scott Mallery for first place in the Men’s Advanced Division standings in the Summer Flex League. There are three weeks remaining in the 14-week season. In 2022, Mallery beat Shreve by a single point.

Bill Shreve

Brian Padovini

Brian Padovini is solidly near the top of the Men’s Rec Division — and he’s been playing only since early June.

He finished fourth in the voting; it’s the second time he has contended for the award. Along with rapid progress in performance on the course, Padovini has proved to be a reliable club volunteer during community outreach events as well as course maintenance. In addition, he’s served as a sounding board for some of the club’s future activities.

On the course, Padovini had a second-place finishe in the Men’s Rec Division of the Summer Flex League, along with two third-place finishes and one fourth-place finish. He also volunteered (and won his division) at the club’s inaugural Little Piggy Flex Tournament at Hoffman Park in Frostburg.

Albina Stiffler

In her short time since joining the club this summer, Albina Stiffler has has quite the impact on the Women’s Division in the Summer Flex League standings.

The 23-year-old Cumberland resident, a recent transplant from the Martinsburg, W.Va., area, currently sits in fourth place of a seven-person field and is only five points out of third place. Stiffler has the second-highest weekly points average, based on performance, in the Women’s Division (behind Farris). Stiffler placed second in each of the four Summer Flex League weeks in August.

And, oh yeah, Stiffler is approximately 32 weeks pregnant. She serves as an inspiration for responsible, safe physical and mental health and recreation opportunities.