Benefield: Santa Rosa's Sluys clan rules as horseshoe royalty

The soundtrack of Travis Sluys’s childhood has been the jarring clank of horseshoes smacking into metal stakes.

For as long as he can remember, his grandparents, Gail and Casey Sluys of Santa Rosa, have been loading up their gold minivan (the one with the horseshoe pitching decal on the side and “2RNGRS6” on the license plate) and traveling across the state and country - wherever the siren song of clanking horseshoes lured them.

And for as long as he can remember, Travis, 16, has gone with them.

Turlock, Vallejo, Willows, Pleasanton - nearly every weekend for seven months of the year.

In the early days, he would spend tournaments riding atop his grandfather’s shoulders watching competitors pitch shoes in an endless array of courts.

“So I wouldn’t lose him in the crowd,” Casey, 60, said.

Travis might have been held up in those early years, but never held back. Skipping rocks in the corner only holds appeal for so long.

“I have been pitching since I could stand and hold one,” Travis, a junior at Maria Carrillo High School, said. “My grandma taught me when I was two or three.”

He started competing (and winning) when he was five years old and was crowned world champion for his age group at nine. He is a three-time state champ. He’s won almost all there is to win in his age group but has yet to take home the world championship crown for juniors.

“He doesn’t work hard at it at all; he seems to be a natural,” Casey said.

The sport (don’t call it a game, please) has been good to the Sluyses.

Gail was a world-caliber competitor before lung issues forced her from the sport. Casey was an avid pitcher and pitchman for the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association before he too gave it up because of his health. But still, every weekend from February through October, the three Sluyses for years have headed out to revel in the sport and watch their grandson pitch.

“The thing about horseshoes is it’s such a family sport,” Gail said.

And the Sluyses are family.

Travis has lived with his grandparents since he was born. His parents “went the wrong way,” Gail said, so she and Casey took him in and started their unexpected next phase of parenthood.

“I never expected to be this age with a teenager,” Gail said. “He’s ours as far as we are concerned.”

The tone in her voice signals the end of that topic.

Horseshoes quickly became a unifying force for the Sluyses.

“It’s like a big family,” Travis said. “Everyone knows who I am because I have been around so long.”

“Everyone in the nation that pitches horseshoes knows us,” Casey said.

What’s that saying - it ain’t braggin’ if it’s true?

The caravan got a little larger about two years ago when Travis’s pal Hayden Lee, a junior at Montgomery High School, took up the sport.

He, like Travis, was deemed “a natural.” The duo practiced on the court built into the Sluys’s backyard in Rincon Valley and signed up for league play at Doyle Park.

Soon, the best games Travis could find were against his buddy.

They pitched a 92 percent to 90 percent game this summer in a tournament in Vallejo - a nearly unheard of head-to-head score.

But in recent competitions, Hayden has surged ahead of his mentor.

“Last year, Hayden took the Sonoma County championship from Travis, the state championship from Travis and Northern California from Travis,” Casey said. “Travis had all three and Hayden took them.”

It would be rough to have hard feelings when you spend so much time in the backseat of a minivan rolling from tournament to tournament. For the world championship in Buffalo, N.Y., the gang of four drove for six days each way. That’s a lot of togetherness for competitors. Especially 16-year-old competitors.

But the rivalry is as good as it gets they said - fierce but friendly.

Supportive. Like family.

“Travis is my best friend,” Hayden said. “He’s kind of the person that taught me everything.”

Is Travis, once king of the hill, bitter that his buddy has taken his crown? At least for now?

At the world championships last month, Travis’s game faltered early on and he knew he was out of the running.

“I was like, ‘I know I’m not going to win, but I hope Hayden does,’ ” he said. “I taught him and he became really good and I’m proud I taught him.”

For Travis, it just might be an evolution 16 years in the making. His grandparents taught him - the step, the swing, the release - and he passed what he knew along to Hayden.

Even though both boys are largely beyond the elder Sluyses’ range when it comes to coaching, Casey and Gail are integral to the whole operation - the itinerary, the pit stops, hotel reservations, 5 a.m. wake-up calls. And their support for Travis has never wavered.

One of his fondest memories in 16 years of competing and playing horseshoes?

He was nine. He was playing for the cadet division world championship in Gillette, Wyo. and he was trailing.

He had two throws left and, if he wanted to win, both had to be ringers.

First toss?

“I just closed my eyes for a minute and I made it,” he said. “I looked up and saw my grandparents and I smiled at them.”

Next throw, he again closed his eyes - just for a second - then opened them and let go.

The next thing he heard was the clank of metal and cheers.

Ringer.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com and on Twitter @benefield.