Vallejo celebrated a historic day recently with the first-ever disc golf round played in Vallejo, at the “Knock The New Off The Chains” tournament at the new Hanns Park Disc Golf Course!

This was a fundraiser for the GVRD Open Space Foundation — and more than $1400 was raised. From the feedback I received, and the numerous people playing every day, I feel that the new course is a huge success. I look forward to continuing to work with GVRD to get permanent tee signs, benches, and erosion walls completed. Once that work is completed, GVRD will hold an official Ribbon Cutting ceremony for the public.

Disc Golf is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, with over 45 million rounds played and 3.5 courses built every day in 2020! It is free to play and you need only two or three discs to play a sport enjoyed by people from all walks of life.

I was very satisfied to see the culmination of many months’ work, made possible by so many people, who came together to realize the dream of bringing the sport of disc golf to Vallejo. Some of those people may have never seen a disc golf course, or live in Vallejo, some were casual players and others, hardcore ambassadors of the sport all working together to get the work done. I believe that the GVRD organization and staff went the extra mile, and it is hard to believe that I only appeared in front of the Board on July 22 to report on the project and begin the process!

I wanted everyone to know who was involved in the design, development and building of the course, but I have learned over the years that some may be overlooked, and I apologize in advance if that is the case.

The course designers: Jon Riley, Dave Wren and Danny Bernardini.

The course development team included: The Greater Vallejo Recreation District Staff:  Gabe Lanusse, Sal Nuno, Chris Andrade, Marco Jaime. We relied on the expertise of local disc golf course designers Tim Steele, Holland Coles, Gabe Neustadt, Leonard Muise and Craig Pile to ensure we had as much feedback and information about course layout as possible.

They all trudged up and down the hills numerous times, to debate basket placement, take measurements and give us advice so we could bring a fun, challenging and beautiful course to Vallejo.

We were also fortunate to have local graphic artists like Dennis Gaines, who stepped in and designed the tee signs and course map, as well as Miro Salazar, who designed the recently formed Vallejo Disc Golf Club.

Course Construction Team: GVRD staff, whose Unions IBEW #1245 and SEIU #1021, include members Doug Vaughn, Javier Pena, Brice Sweet, Armando Segura, Isaac Vizuet (not a union member), Gilbert Marquez. Jose nuño, Darrell Garland, and Patrick Pierson.  Outside groups included the Cement Masons local #400 members, Jorge Romero, Fidel Tena, Juan Orozco, who donated their time, materials, and expertise to get the tee pads framed, poured and finished with the help of Craig Pile and Matt Brown from the Napa Disc Golf Club < awkward sentence. The Ironworkers Local #378 donated, prefabricated, and placed the iron in the pads and Syar Industries gave us a discount on the concrete. The Napa Solano Central Labor Council and our affiliates along with the Building and Construction Trades Council’s partnering with GVRD Board, management and staff made it a model Labor/Management success story.

And of course, the local disc golf community, one that never ceases to amaze me for their dedication to growing the sport, ambassadors who go out of their way to spread the word and their love of the game. Dozens of volunteers from the Napa, Benicia and Vacaville disc clubs showed up to put in some work on the course. Some, like Kyber Hill, Chris Owens, Eric Short, Jesse Pineda and others came back numerous times. Without their support, our course would not have turned out as nice.

Again, I would like to thank the Greater Vallejo Recreation District Board of Directors for funding a majority from their General Fund, and Measure K. I also appreciate GVRD for allocating labor resources for this project.

Please remember, this is your course so respect the neighbors and the land and enjoy this beautiful addition to recreation opportunities provided by GVRD!

If you want to learn more about disc golf in Vallejo visit the Vallejo Disc Golf Club page on Facebook.

— Jon Riley/Executive Director
Napa Solano Central Labor Council