2011 Sportverein Member of the Year

Mat Hanley

Congratulations Mat!

SportVerein

The Peoria SportVerein club was founded in 1927 and incorporated in 1938. The main objective of this club is to further promote Deutsche Kultur through physical activity.

Our SportVerein supports several disciplines of sports: soccer, air gun shooting, archery, bicycling, golf, hiking and running..

The SportVerein Peoria holds its business meetings on the first Thursday of every month at 7:30 pm at Lindenhof. We welcome anyone who is interested to participate with the Deutsche Kultur.

Soccer

Our club sponsors several soccer teams and hosts games on our soccer field at Hickory Grove. We also sponsor occasional "old timers" soccer games.

As well as being a founding member of the Central Illinois Soccer League, the S.V. Blues will host the Walter Reed cup finals this year at Hickory Grove.

SportVerein co-sponsors the Peoria High School Soccer Coaches Association's Senior All-Star Game. This is a game which allows the top seniors in the Peoria-Metro area to showcase their talents in front of college coaches. The boys senior game is held in the Fall and the girls in played in the Spring.

Air Gun Shooting

SVP Schuetzen. Sport shooting returned to the Peoria German Society in 2000 with the First Annual Koenigsschiessen (King's Shoot). Each year now in December, shooting competitions patterned after those held by the Germanic villages in the early Renaissance period, are held on the day of the SVP Appreciation Dinner. The men and ladies each have a one-shot competition on a wooden target to determine the club's King and Queen for the year, and members attempt to shoot down a wooden Koenigsadler (King's Eagle) for the title of Vogelkoenig (Bird King).

In 2002 the Sportverein Schuetzen started an airgun league, with league shooting on the first, third and fifth Thursdays following the International or Olympic competition rules. The group hosts an annual match in June with the 10th year anniversary coming up in 2011, and shoots in competitions against regional German-American shooting clubs in Chicago and St. Louis.

Check out the Schuetzen page for more information.

Archery

Practice dates have yet to be established for 2012.

Our archery league comprises several bow disciplines: longbow, recurve, compound and crossbow. If you would like to try archery but don't own a bow, we have longbow and recurve bow types for any club member's strength to use. We also have a crossbow for club members to use.

We practice at Hickory Grove park and keep score to award bronze, silver and gold medals at the end of each season.

Hiking and Bicycling

Summer bike riding open to German club members and friends.

Everyone rides at their own speed and distance. You can ride part way and then return to the starting point and wait for the others to return if you wish. We will also plan some time so we can share a meal and a couple drinks together, either halfway through the ride or at the end of the ride. This is a great way to meet new friends and share with old friends.

We will try to plan rides two weeks or more in advance, and will try to plan all rides on level to small grades and on safe trails. You will be able to review dates and locations on the German club website calendar at

peoriagermans calendar

Golf

SVP Mixed Golf League is open to all GAS members, family and friends. We are a fun competitive league and socialize after each round of golf visiting a different restaurant in the surrounding Peoria area.