Mel Yockstick, Colorado

Mel meets the vigorous standards of Stokes Award both historically and particularly on the national level in the past nine years.  Mel has pitched in the Denver Metro Horseshoe League for the past 47 years and has published the Colorado stats and history for over 40 years.  He also has held many offices in the CHPA’s charter as well as the club level.  

In 2010 Mel was appointed the NHPA World Tournament Statistician.   Mel began using his stats and historical gathering skills to maintain the data that’s required for this position.  He began documenting numerus new charts and lists of accomplishments connected to the World Tournament.  He coordinated getting this data placed on the NHPA webpage.  If you check the “World Tournament Stats” section of the NHPA’s webpage, you will find the WT stats, of which the number of available categories has doubled since Mel took the position.  He prepares data pages for the WT program and makes award presentations each year at the WT.  Many of these awards, Mel proposed and obtained council approval to start tracking and presenting.  Mel had a big in developing and maintaining the “WT Participation” file.  In 2003, he was awarded the “NHPA Presidential Award, in 2010, he was awarded “The Sanctioned League “Director of the Year” award and then in 2019 he received an Achievement Award.