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Westfield man is making his mark in shuffleboard
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- Westfield man is making his mark in shuffleboard
WESTFIELD — Dan Raposo is interested in bringing the sport of shuffleboard to Westfield and has the momentum to do it, after winning a gold medal in singles and doubles with his friend Scott Hansen at the Massachusetts Senior Games in 2024, and participating in the National Games in Des Moines, Iowa this summer.
“I’ve been playing shuffleboard for about 10 years, always in Florida where I’ve spent my winters since I retired,” Raposo said, describing himself as the former proprietor of an auto parts store.
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Up here, Raposo started playing at the Agawam Senior Center, which has a small shuffleboard program. “They asked me about the senior games last year, and the state tournament was coming up.”
Since 1991, the Massachusetts Senior Games state tournament has been held every two years at Springfield College. It is an olympic-style athletic competition for adults, ages 40 plus in five-year age groups.
“My friend Scott Hansen and I went over — he hasn’t played a lot, I taught him how to play in Florida when he visited,” Raposo said.
They played in different age categories and both came out on top; Raposo winning gold in the 70-74 age group, and Hansen in 65 to 69.
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“We both won the gold medals in our age groups. Then we partnered together to play doubles and managed to win the gold medal in doubles,” he said.
That was in 2024. Raposo said by winning gold he qualified to go to the 2025 Nationals. “My situation changed a little bit personally, and I decided to go.”
This summer the Nationals Games were held in Des Moines, Iowa. “It was a blast — a really nice city. 12,500 partiipants in all different sports - ping pong, track & field, basketball, volleyball. Shuffleboard is one of the sports. There were 24 people in my age group, and I managed to finish fifth. I did very well; the only game I lost was to the silver medalist,” Raposo said.
This was his first trip to the midwest. “I’ve never even been to the midwest. I’ve been to Chicago maybe once, which is as far as I got.” In 2027 he plans to go back to the nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma, if he qualifies again in the senior games next year. “I met a lot of people there and in Florida,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Raposo hopes to introduce shuffleboard competition to Westfield, but since he’s only here half the year, it makes it difficult. He has spoken with the director at the Westfield Senior Center, who he said is very receptive to the idea.
“They have these rollout vinyl courts — roll them out, play on them, roll them back up and put them away. I’m trying to put it together.”
This would not be his first volunteer effort in Westfield. His son, Michael Raposo, who is the president of the Westfield Little League, recruited Dan, who now runs all the concession stands for the league. “I volunteer to do a lot of things,” he said.
He also created a pool-billiards tournament at the Senior Center, which is played every Tuesday and Thursday. When it started, there were only about 8 or 10 seniors that used the pool tables, now there are 25 people playing every week.
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“I keep track, it’s a point system, and there’s a banquet at the end of the year for the pool players, and a player of the year. It’s good.” Raposo said there are a couple of guys who will run it when he’s not there.
“For some of the guys, that’s the only thing they do. One said to me, ‘This is the only thing I do all week, this is great.’ “
Read the original article on MassLive .
