The Midwest Invasion, Part 3

The Grand Opening of DD Savannah in Pooler, GA

 The last couple weeks I have been talking about the Midwest Invasion that is coming to Madison, Wisconsin this July as the United States Women’s Disc Golf Championships comes to town. Already breaking every record, this event is going to be historic in so many ways. This event will be the culmination of years of hard work from women across the nation (and the men that support them), and this week I want to shed some light on a woman who embodies that passion and spirit that has helped grow the sport for women, Valerie Williams. She is doing amazing things down in the Southeast Region of the United States.

I met Valerie through my wife, Alyssa, who was just my girlfriend at the time. She was always tagging #WickedAces in her social media posts, and then one day Valerie reached out to her to find out why. Alyssa recalls, “I started following Wicked Aces on social media. I really liked the fact that it was a woman owned, small local disc golf company. I like her style as well. I began tagging her in things, and then she reached out to me and said she liked what I was representing.” Alyssa became one of Valerie’s first sponsored players, and shortly after I was added to the team. We are both proud to be part of her journey!

Valerie has been playing disc golf for eight years. She started at her home course, Tom Triplett Park, in Pooler, GA. She says, “Once I picked up a disc, I never put one back down again. This is the most amazing sport and I have met so many amazing people.” This passion for the game naturally led her to create her own business that focused on the sport. She even suffered and ultimately healed from a very bad snake bite on her throwing hand, which is just more evidence of this woman’s tenacity and passion for the sport. Today she is throwing better than ever.

Before founding Wicked Aces Disc Golf, Valerie was working for a sport printing company, putting her in a prime position to take her skill set from that career and create her own company. Valerie explains the origins of Wicked Aces. She says, “I started Wicked Aces Disc Golf in 2019 because I wanted a platform to grow the sport with people that I know embody the positivity of the sport. It has been a dream, a doorway, and an awesome experience so far.” Why ‘Wicked Aces’? Valerie says, “The name came from literally always saying ‘That’s wicked cool!’ Not very creative, but I was drawn to it, and I love it. It has brought me so many blessings and lessons, and it’s going to continue with a bang!” Taking her brand on the road, Valerie has been a vendor or tournament director for countless events in the southeast over the last two years. The woman works hard and seems to never sleep.

She is also the founder of the Crosswinds Open, a tournament held in February at the Crosswinds Golf Club, where they erect a temporary 18-hole course for the event. She sits on the board for the Savannah Disc Golf Association as well. The woman has her fingers in a lot of pies, and still is managing to find time for even bigger endeavors. In April 2022, she opened a brick-and-mortar store called Dynamic Discs Savannah. Valerie says, “It is a partnership with Dynamic that we have been working on for a while, but I wanted to find the perfect building. They have been an amazing company to work with and I only see more things happening in the future.” The store is conveniently down the street from TTP, and Valerie says the size and layout of the venue is perfect. “We have a lot of growing to do, but these first weeks have been great!”, she says.

Savannah Disc Golf Association

Each of her amazing accomplishments have all stemmed from the same goal: to grow women’s disc golf. Her actions are directly responsible for this growth down south. She says, “I have seen the surge of more women playing, especially since 2020. You can tell the sport is growing. There are more women’s tournaments and talks about how to make the sport more accommodating for us. In our own town, we have stared the Savannah Discing Ladies Club which will be hosting our very own tournament in a few months and will be starting our ladies league again in the Fall.” When I asked her about the national impact of this growth, she says, “I am also seeing more women’s events around the country, especially in our Southeast area. It is cool to see the growth, and in the next five years, I see bigger women’s events taking place.”

Efforts like what Valerie is doing in the Southeast, and what the women in the Midwest are doing, are exactly the reasons why the USWDGC in July is going to be massive. Of course, there are many other women doing many other things all over the country. I could write a blog each week covering each of these women and never run out of things to cover. For now, I’m just happy to be a part of it all. What a time to be alive, and I, for one, am looking forward to experiencing history in the making in July.