Armed with their "weapons" at Brandy's Grill at Stadium Mall,
from left: Pat Nelson,15, Matt Motas Jr. , 17, Nick Chun, 17
(the Aloha State Games' top youth player) and Bryce Chung, 16.
Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin

"On the mainland, there are more and more non-alcoholic dart tournaments," Nelson said. "I can't say I'm personally for that, but it's probably a good thing for kids."

Darts are like pool - because of where these games normally are played, the contestants are usually adults. Most parents don't want their kids hanging out in taverns.

But when teen-agers Nick Yuen, Matt Motas, Pat Nelson and Bryce Chung meet at Brandy's Grill, they walk right past the bar and head for the steel tip dart boards.

At the Stadium Mall watering hole, everybody knows their names.

"I come here to relax, have fun, see my friends - and my aunties and uncles," said Matt Motas, 17, of Aiea. "This is wholesome. It's just people having fun."

The boys are all second-generation dart players. And they are all finalists for the American Darts Organization's regional youth finals, to be held at Brandy's on July 13.

Matt's dad, Matthew, is an ace dart player and former police officer. He doesn't mind his son spending his free time at Brandy's.

"My wife, at times, tells me she feels kind of shaky about him being in here, but he's supervised," Motas said. "There are rules."

Brad Chun, Nick's father and one of the owners of Brandy's, said that any dart players under 21 must have a guardian with them.

"This is more a family place than a 'bar' bar," said Kerri Chung, Bryce's mother and a top dart player herself. She also said darts can be educational.

"Bryce was very poor in math," Chung says. "But playing darts has helped him learn to add and subtract very quickly in his head."

That's one of the differences between the traditional steel tip dart game and the electronic soft tip game. The soft tip game automatically keeps score for the players.

There's also the money part. The soft tip machines run on quarters, while there's no charge for steel tip. So guess which game is more popular among teen-agers with little spending cash?

"This is fairly cheap," said Pat Nelson, 15, of Foster Village, while fingering his steel tip darts. "And I don't have to listen to all the noise those machines make."

The teens also say steel tip darts are more challenging than soft tip. You have to be more careful about throwing the dart correctly to make it stick in the board. Also, the scoring areas are smaller, requiring more accuracy.

None of this - or competing against the best adults in the state - intimidated Nick Chun last month in the Aloha State Games.

Chun, 17, won a silver medal in cricket in the open division. He won every match before losing to veteran Phil Tica twice in a battle for the gold medal.

"I was kind of out of it by then," said Chun, who won his first six matches before waiting for Tica to emerge from the loser's bracket.

The amazing part of it is that Chun has been playing darts for only four months.

"He showed some interest, so I told him to just go and wing 'em," Brad Chun said.

Brad kept some family bragging rights by winning in other dart competition: a gold medal in cricket open doubles and a bronze in 501 open singles.

But Nick won the most medals: three.

Rob Crabtree, the president of the Aloha Darting Association, says Nick has the potential to become a national youth champion.

First, though, he has to get past his buddies in the regionals. But win or lose, they will remain friends.

"We don't seem to be competing as much as having fun," Pat Nelson says. And that can be with his peers, or his dad.

"It's something a parent and child can do together," said Dave Nelson, Pat's father.

The winner of the American Darts Organization region 2-1 youth finals at Brandy's Grill on July 13 will advance to the national finals in Las Vegas on Aug. 16.

"This is the first time we're having a youth qualifying event, at least in the six years I've been associated with the sport here,'' said Aloha Darting Association president Rob Crabtree.

Crabtree said there will be about 20 other adult darts competitors from Hawaii in Las Vegas the weekend of Aug. 16-18.

The ADO also will hold its East-West All-Star event at that time. Hawaii's representatives on the West team are Willy Wong and Jeanine Colbert.

Other highlights include the National 501 Singles Championship and the $45,000 North American Open.

Crabtree said Brandy's is hosting an $1,800 tuneup Aug. 9-11.

For information on Aloha Darting Association and American Darts Organization events, call Crabtree at 656-2200 (days) or 422-7134 (nights).