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Burying the hatchet WW resident to compete in World Axe Throwing Championships By Justin Feil
Joe Hovemeyer grew up in Hamilton dreaming about playing a professional sport. Now, decades later, he’s at the highest level of a sport he never expected. Hovemeyer is headed to the World Axe Throwing Championships for the second straight year. Tulsa, Oklahoma will host this year’s world championships at the WeStreet Ice Center from April 18-21, and while Hovemeyer has made all the arrangements already, he’s also accepting any financial support for his world championships encore. “For this year, I’m going to try to be as relaxed as possible and take everything in stride,” Hovemeyer said. “I’ve found that thinking too much about it gets to your head, and then you can kind of play mind games with yourself, and that’s not ideal for anything or for anyone in that position. So I’ll try to be as relaxed and open-minded as possible.” Hovemeyer, 36, works as senior partner specialist with an IT services and consulting company. He grew up playing traditional sports
like baseball and soccer. He continued with those sports recreationally while attending Steinert High School, where he was a pole vaulter on the Spartan boys track and field team. “I was subpar or average,” Hovemeyer said of his high school track career. But when he got into axe throwing, he found a sport in which he has been able to excel, something that has taken a significant spot in his life. He threw an axe for the first time at a friend’s birthday party, and now he’ll be competing against the best in the world. “I grew up playing baseball, soccer, and I always thought growing up it would be cool to become a professional baseball player or whatever. As I got older, that never materialized,” said Hovemeyer, who now lives in Plainsboro. “I never thought six years later I’d be throwing axes and having fun and making money off it. That’s unheard of. I’m grateful for where I’m at and all the people who I have met and have taught me different things over the years. It’s definitely something I never thought would happen.” Once Hovemeyer started to get more interested in axe throwing, though, he found himself getting serious fast. He invested in the tools needed, upgrading to better and more expensive axes, and put in the time to improve his throwSee AXE, Page 13
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COMMUNITYN Wilbo Wright (left), Tom Tallitsch and John Henry Goldman.
WW Arts goes on aCOMMUNI jazz-filled journey in Space and Time By ReBeKAH SCHROeDeR
Jazz has distinct origins in blues and ragtime, but the genre’s everevolving melodies change shape across the continuum of music and exert a multidimensional pull unique to each performance. But every soulful leap into sound finds its groove again at West Windsor Arts, which presents “A Musical Journey in Space and Time,” a live concert experi-
ence featuring John Henry Goldman of StraightJazz Productions and his new band JOSITOBO on Friday, April 5, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the West Windsor Arts building, 952 Alexander Road, in Princeton Junction. Overseen by Goldman, a jazz trumpeter and West Windsor resident, StraightJazz Productions has been combining musical performance and education in the tristate area for more than 20 years.
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Its latest project is JOSITOBO, a quartet composed of Goldman and three other Mercer County musicians, including Sim Cain of Princeton on percussion, Tom Tallitsch of Hopewell on tenor saxophone, and Wilbo Wright of West Windsor on upright bass. The recently formed group— whose name is an eight-letter acronym of its members’ first names with the “Jo” from John See JAZZ, Page 5
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