This Labor Day weekend, as many as 150 avid horseshoe pitchers will test their luck on the Earle Piper Horseshoe Courts at Citizens Park in Edgewater, home of the 2005 Colorado Horseshoe Pitchers Association State Tournament.

The Tournament often finds itself in Colorado cities such as Grand Junction or Fort Collins, but this year will try out the pits at Citizens Park. Men, Women, Elder and Junior classes will compete for prize money and scholarships.

This is the first year the CHPA will seed pitchers for the tournament, according to Sheila Shepard, CHPA secretary. The highest-rated pitchers in the state won’t have to pitch in preliminary rounds with everyone else - they’ll wait until the second day of competition to pitch according to their ranking, based on the percentage of “ringers” they throw.

Those who don’t want to play can still come to watch, Shepard said, especially if they’ve never had the thrill of seeing someone throw continuous ringers all day. And it’s more strenuous than most people think, she said.

“I know people don’t consider horseshoes a sport,” Shepard said, “but you throw 150 horseshoes and walk back and forth, you’ll know.”

Monty Rains and John and Betsy Lyle, all of Lakewood, will be competing in the State Championships. Nancy Wright, of Lakewood, who had the No. 10 spot on the list of Colorado’s highest ringer averages as of Aug. 18, will be there. Lakewood resident Richard Pintor, who recently brought home second place in Division A1 at the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association’s World Horseshoe Tournament in Bakersfield, Calif., at the end of July, will be competing for the title. He's also been a member of the Colorado Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame since 1992 and has won seven state titles in his career.

Tony Hernandez, Mark Mason, and Annette Wittig, all of Edgewater, will also be pitching in the tournament.

And Sheila Shepard, who lives in Westminster, will be playing. She’s no slouch herself, with a 72 percent ringer average (No. 1 in the state) and the past two State Championships under her belt. She most recently won the women’s A Class at the World Horseshoe Tournament. What’s her secret?

“I’m just lucky, I guess,” she said.

Yeah, right.

The pitching starts with preliminary rounds at 8 a.m. Sept. 3. Those with the highest Saturday averages will face seeded players in the finals, starting at 8 a.m. Sept. 4. For more information on the Colorado Horseshoe Pitchers Association, go to www.horseshoepitching.com and click on Colorado on the map.