I have an Excelleron in the building queue myself. My flying situation resembles yours as well, having flown (at) pattern for a couple or three years about 15 years ago, but having also put R/C aside completely due to partial loss of use of my hands from arthritis until just a couple years ago. I resumed flying on a limited basis by becoming interested in electrics (easier to start the motors), but never lost the love for the aesthetic and handling appeal of pure pattern birds. I've been flying only sporadically the last year or so, but haven't flown anything glow since about 1992. [X(]

Anyway, I will likely be flying my Excelleron much more for sport than competition, like you. There is no shame in NOT flying pattern with a pattern aircraft, is there? I just have always liked the locked-in feel and responsiveness of one over 95% of the sport types out there. I'm sure the guys (MTK) at the local field will be trying to nudge me back into pattern flying, however, when I do get it flying.
We'll see how that goes. Heck, I don't even know what the Sportsman pattern looks like any more. I did catch myself doing stall turns, point rolls and slow rolls on Aerofly Pro the other day with the Smaragd though...

Good luck with yours.

Rick