New England Hall of Fame
/Brian Simmons//

Player
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2002
Born in Kittery Maine in 1961, son of the late Clinton and Bertha Simmons. Brian Simmons currently resides in Coventry, RI and bartends at Club Jogues. He has one sister and brother in-law, Christine & Thomas Heilmann and two nieces, Melissa and Kimberly. Brian started pitching horseshoes at age nine. Under his father/coach's guidance, leadership and influence, Brian became not only a great horseshoe player, but also the BEST horseshoe player in the World!! He is currently ranked #1 in the World with a high three of 86.23%.

In 2001, Brian was the RI State Vice-President and is currently a member a member of the Little Rhody Horseshoe Club in RI. He participates in their horseshoe league on Mondays, on Tuesdays he plays in the MA Traveling Horseshoe League, and on Wednesdays, pitchers in the Norwich CT Horseshoe League. In addition to leagues, Brian has given numerous lessons and demonstrations, and when asked upon, is more then willing to help anyone looking to improve their horseshoe game.

Greatest Accomplishments/Championships

· 2000 NHPA Men's World Champion, Bismarck ND - avg. 80.82%.
Competed in 12 World Championships finishing 2nd, 3rd, or 4th since 1995
Junior world Champion in both "C" and "B" Classes
· 2001 Eastern National Champion in Erie PA with a 15-0 record, 84.38%.
· 5 Time new England Champion - 2001, 1992-1995
Highest percent in NEC was 83.89% in which he lost in playoffs (2000).
He played in 28 NEC tournaments, 19 consecutive.
· 2001 RI State Champion - avg. 83.50%.
· Two-time New Hampshire State Champion.
· Nine time Maine State Champion.

Some interesting information about Brian

· Although he has designed a shoe after himself - the Simmons XL - he prefers to pitch with Ted Allen's (he says he gets more ringers using Ted's).
· Highest ringer percentage pitched in a single game was 100%, not once but 3 times.
1st 3/10/96 New Milford CT - 22 ringers pitched in a row.
2nd 1/7/01 East Hartford, CT - The Brian Simmons Open (named after himself) - 26 ringers pitched in a row. He also came to within one ringer in a previous game earlier that day.
3rd 6/9/02 Dracut, MA - Ray Tremblay memorial Tournament - 24 ringers pitched in a row (then he began his next game pitching 18 ringers in a row).
· In the last 12 months, Brian has pitched in approximately 20 Singles tournaments placing 1st in class A in all but one, the Tournaments of Champions (handicapped) in which he placed 2nd. In these tournaments, he has a win-loss record of 144-6 versus his opponents and his highest tournament percentage was 88.70% in Jan. 2001 at the Brian Simmons Open; the same tournament he pitched a 100% game.
· His best high 3 was in 2001 in which he finished the year with a respectable 86.64%.
· The most ringers he has thrown in a row were 62 = 31 doubles!
· He is involved in 3 World tournament records, all of them in the men's division:
1st Brian holds the one-day high ringer % of 91.59% in the first day of the 2001 championship class.
2nd In 1999, he and Walter ray Williams Jr. pitched a combined 91.25% ringer percentage in class play to be in a tie for the record with Dale Lipovsky and Alan Francis.
3rd In that same game (#2) Brian pitched 90% which ties him with Alan Francis for the highest losing ringer percentage in a preliminary game.