Their Aim is True

In sports-crazy Syracuse there’s always a competition going on. While the Triple-A baseball team and the Dome-dwelling football team take their winter sabbaticals, fans head indoors to cheer the powerful basketball team and the scrappy hockey squad. Golfers migrate south, leaving competitive juices still flowing through bowling alleys, gyms and indoor soccer arenas. From Friday, Feb. 19, through Sunday, Feb. 21, a major event comes to town when local players welcome rivals from across North America who are aiming to take home a cut of $21,000 in prize money at the Syracuse Open Steel Tip Dart Tournament.

The ballroom of the Holiday Inn, 441 Electronics Parkway, Liverpool, will be buzzing with more than 500 dart shooters for the 32nd annual tournament, creating an atmosphere that’s reminiscent of a bowling alley without the noise created by 20-pound balls crashing into wooden pins. Instead, competitors toss projectiles weighing between 12 and 36 grams and making a quiet thud as they pierce spiral-marked boards.

For the local shooters who play in the Salt City Dart League, it’s the highlight of their winter season and a badge of honor to host an event that is widely recognized in the dart world. “The tournament will probably have the top 50 American darters because it’s a $21,000 payout,” boasts Salt City president Pete Smith of North Syracuse. “That’s when you start talking about the American Dart Organization; that’s nationwide. That’s how you get your ranking. For that one there’s a lot of people from Canada, New York City, Long Island, Pennsylvania and a lot of people from out West.”

Eighteen-year veteran Dale LaFrance, of the KJ Quinlan’s team in the Genesee Valley Dart Association, competed in his fourth Syracuse Invitational in 2009. “For everyone who shoots in dart leagues in their respective cities, this would be the big tournament of the year,” LaFrance says. “Folks who do well here can go to the nationals in Las Vegas. These events are open to anybody, so if you make the top eight, you’re gonna run across one or two pros.”

While more experienced amateurs like LaFrance brace for tough competition, casual shooters, like Debbie Davis of Binghamton, enjoy the social aspects of the open. Davis, whose husband Joe also shoots, visited Syracuse for the second time in 2009, combining the enjoyment of competing with a little traveling. “You get to meet new people and go new places,” Davis says. “I’ve been to Connecticut, Albany, here. In two weeks we’ve got Albany {again} and then in three weeks we have Virginia Beach. This is our first year of going there. Everybody talked me into it.”

“It’s a fun event,” Smith notes. “A lot of people come to have fun, to see people they haven’t seen in a year. But there’s some real good competition. People take it very seriously. You’ll have some people who are in for the first time, but you’ll have other people that are hardcore. That is their job. You could run into a professional in the first round. It’s a blind draw. It’s like putting your name in a hat.

Dart Vaders

In addition to the cash prizes, top shooters at the open boost their prestige as they move on to other dart events. “The points they win will go on their national ranking and then they can go to the next tournament,” Smith explains. “There’s tournaments like ours all over. There’s one in a couple of weeks in Albany called the Tri-City Tournament. It’s not as big as ours, but it’s a lot of stiff competition. The Colorado Open is a $20,000 tournament in late November. In January there’s the American Dart Organization Cricket National Tournament out in Las Vegas. They’re all over the U.S.” Dartboard manufacturer Halex is the sponsor of the 2010 Syracuse Open, which is sanctioned by the American Dart Organization.

Locally, the 300 darters who play in the Salt City Dart League can tune up for national competition with weekly shootouts in area taverns. “The league season runs from the last Tuesday in September to roughly April,” Smith says. “There’s also a short summer season that’s more relaxed, a fun league.” There are 55 teams of six players in the league, divided into five divisions and they all shoot every week.

Salt City athletes fire darts with steel tips as opposed to the soft, plastic-tipped electronic darts that are common as a bar game. “This is real darts,” asserts Smith, who finished the 2008 season ranked 59th nationally. “We have a scorekeeper. You have to do the math yourself. You don’t have a computer doing it for you. The triples and doubles are smaller than a soft tip board. The bull’s-eye is smaller. You have to be a real good shot to consistently hit what you’re throwing at.”

There are various games that dart throwers play, some based upon European traditions, while others are more modern, American-style games. “401 is a race to zero,” Smith says. “You have to hit one of the doubles to go out. We also play cricket. That’s an American game. You have to close out your numbers before the other guy does. You have to close out your 20s, your 19s, 18s, 17s, 16s, 15s and your bull’s-eyes to win.” Divisions determine the game and how many contests are played each evening of competition, since better, higher division shooters finish a game faster.

In league play, there’s no distinction made between male and female players. Many of the teams have only men shooting, while others are coed. “We have an A division team sponsored by Dodesters and there are actually five women on that team,” Smith notes.

A sideways stance is popular among shooters, with many players leaning forward, holding their dart high. Some throw with a quick flick while others employ a longer stroke.

Regardless of technique, hand-eye coordination is essential to score well. “You need to pick out a spot on the board and use muscle memory, knowing how hard to throw and release,” LaFrance says. “You look at the board and you’ve got dozens of points you could hit. To be able to concentrate and hit that on point each time you’re up there, is a nice pass-fail type of thing.”

Camaraderie and sportsmanship mark weekly matches with competing players sharing food served by the host taverns. “You meet people over the years,” Smith says. “I’ve been throwing darts for 10 years, starting back when we had an H division. I’ve worked my way up and met people along the way. The A division is very competitive. It’s the top shop in the league. There’s some serious darters. We have fun, but there’s guys who are serious.” The number of divisions varies from year to year depending on the number of players and the league. Currently the league has divisions A through E.

In contrast to some sports, there’s usually no rowdiness, fist pumping or hand slapping in recognition of good shooting. Instead, teammates and opponents offer quiet congratulations when appropriate.

“If you get somebody who for the first time beats somebody big, you’re going to get a ‘Yeah,’ not so much jumping around in your face,” Smith says. “Other people who’ve been around the circuit a while, have thrown a bit and had tough matches, there’s mutual respect. It’s one of the few sports that starts and ends with a handshake.”

Dart attack: JP’s Tavern in Baldwinsville, and its owners Julie Montgomery and Carrie Bond, sponsor the Salt City Dart League, led by Pete Smith (below), who practices regularly with the group at Club Polski on Teall Avenue.

Shoot to Thrill

New players are welcomed into the league, where the veterans become mentors. “There’s something for everybody, no matter their skill level,” assures vice president J.D. Thomas. “Every year we get some new blood. Sometimes new players start as subs, while others start as soft-tip players.”

When Smith competes, he wears a golf shirt with the logo of his team sponsor, JP’s Tavern of Baldwinsville, a favorite gathering place among dart enthusiasts. “People say ‘Wow’ when they first come in and see all of the darts going on here,” says owner Julie Montgomery. “We’ve got eight steel tip boards and seven for plastic tip darts.”

In addition to hosting dart shooters and her bar serving as a venue for league play, Montgomery is a sponsor of numerous teams and a shooter herself. “I was a dart shooter before I was a bar owner,” she explains over the din of a tournament raging in her pub. “So I know what loyal dart players like. I brought in steel tip when I bought the bar nine years ago. Darts come first here.” When she competes, Montgomery teams with family and her husband, whom she married at her bar on New Year’s Eve, 2007, during a dart tournament.

Players at the Syracuse Open are directed by intercom announcements to one of about three dozen dartboards mounted on two opposite walls. Each board is illuminated by a spotlight and attended by a scorekeeper armed with a marker and a message board. Scorers are recruited by players to assist in operation of the tourney.

“They usually ask someone to chalk, a friend, a teammate,” Smith explains of the dart slang for scorekeeping. “There’s a chalking 10 Commandments. There are certain things to know. You can’t move around when you chalk. You’ve got to stand still and face the board. There’s a drawing once a night or maybe twice a night and we give out prizes to the chalkers.”

Between matches, players and spectators can take a seat at a table in the middle of the room to relax, snack or visit. If they venture out into the lobby and hallways outside the bustling ballroom, they’ll find dart equipment suppliers peddling dart-related T-shirts, golf shirts, jackets and caps alongside sets of darts, cases and metal tips.

“Our biggest dart supplier here locally is Bullseye Darts & Etc. on South Main Street in North Syracuse,” Smith points out. “The owner is Randy Harris. He’s been helping us out for years. The dartboards are ordered through him. He’s always there at the open selling darts and helping darters.”

Throwers have to purchase their own missiles and, as with any sport, prices vary based on the player’s preferences and price range. “You can buy a set of three steel-tipped darts from $19.99 all the way up to roughly $150,” Smith states. “Usually what dictates the price is how much tungsten is in the dart. The more tungsten in the dart, the pricier the barrel is going to be. Tungsten is a really hard metal, so it’s going to be more durable if there’s more in the dart.”

In addition to buying darts, players incur league membership costs, about $70 per year, and tournament entry fees, but they get a lot of action for their money. “Expense-wise, relative to a bowling league or a soft-tip league, it’s a lot cheaper to throw steel,” Smith says.

Another difference from many sports is that, for the most part, uniforms are absent from the event. Some competitors have tournament shirts, often embroidered with a name or moniker—last year Lucky and Victim Maker were on hand—usually on the back or back of shoulder of the shirt, which makes sense when you consider that most often when players are in action, that’s the angle from which they’re seen. Some shirts boast a logo from a home tavern or league.

“I have my name on the back of the left shoulder of my shirts,” Smith says. “If you’re sponsored or if you’re a really good darter, you’ll have your autograph on the back. It’s preference. At a lot of tournaments they sell shirts for the tournament. And if you want, you can have them embroider it. People get to know your name. You could be throwing darts and have a big win and nobody knows who you are.”

But if you throw accurately and consistently enough to win the Syracuse Open, the dart world will surely find out about you.

For more information on the 32nd Syracuse Open Steel Tip Dart Tournament, call 446-7101. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.bullseyenews.com.