Stacy Bromberg

At the 1997 Bluebonnet Classic in Houston, TX, Stacy Bromberg sat down with me to talk about her darts career. She wanted to be certain I mentioned her black and white cat, Scooter, too. Stacy's married name is Dove' but she stays with Bromberg in the darts world because she never hears her name called for matches when she uses Dove'. Listening so long for one name is too ingrained to change.

Darts came into Stacy's life in January of 1987 while at a Culver City pub in southern California. The "A" division team was one person short for league that night. Somebody put a set of darts in Stacy's hand, pointed at the board and told her what to shoot at, and the team took first place.

Stacy didn't even know the rules to the game she was playing, but hit the double 10 for the win in that best of 5 match. She was then told to get down to the darts office to pay her $10 membership fee the next day or the team couldn't count her wins. That's the night she met her future husband, too. He was the one who taught her how to play darts.

Having had such a good time, Stacy bought her own set of tungsten Pirahna II, 25gm knurled darts and learned the rules to the game. Today Stacy plays with 24gm knurled Power Points but will be switching to the Accudart 25gm knurled Triple 20 soon since she will be sponsored by Accudart in 1997. She always uses a straight knurled barrel with short shafts and a tear drop flight.

Stacy will be sent around the country by Accudart to promote darts but she will set up her own scheduling. If anyone is interested in having darts champion Stacy Bromberg come to your town, you can reach her through Bulls Eye News or Accudart. Most of the time her fee is a hotel room and comp entry into the tournament.

When playing against the men, Stacy plays straight-away challenge matches. Against the women, there are several choices. She will play straight-away or she will spot up to a 100 points, or the opponent can insist Stacy only plays on certain colors of the board, or some numbers can be closed before the start of a Cricket game, or she plays with only 2 darts against the opponents 3 darts, or some other agreement can be made.

Stacy always brings along some prizes to use for a raffle in case the darters are connected to a charity or just want to raise money for their association. One of the most popular prizes she raffles off is herself. Since most of her exhibitions are done the day before a major tournament, she puts herself up as a partner for the weekend.

Stacy is very big on promoting darts to women and to the youth. One of her goals this year is to get the inner city middle schools in Las Vegas to set up some games and then challenge the law enforcement agencies. This does two things. First, the dart game will help the kids with their math skills and second, it will give the kids a chance to "play" with the police officers instead of just coming in contact with them in bad situations.

When I asked Stacy which city she considered the best one to play tournament darts in she was quick to reply Las Vegas since she doesn't have to travel. Stacy and her husband moved to Las Vegas last year and now she gets to play hostess to visiting dart pros who come in for the prestigious North American Open in August. This works out well for her since the British pros reciprocate with a room when she goes to England.

But, Stacy continued, Las Vegas is absolutely the best dart town she has ever been to in her life. There are more dart leagues and Blind Draw tournaments playing there. The leagues run Monday thru Thursday with 4 to 5 divisions and the tournaments run all weekend. And, she adds, Las Vegas is really like a small town. The Strip is a novelty, but the rest of the town is like living in Hooterville. Everyone knows everyone and you never travel further than 15 to 18 miles to go anywhere.

Lori Verrier is Stacy's regular women's partner this year and Jerry Umberger is her open partner, but she also plays partners with Larry Butler, Mick Sweeny and Paul Lim.

Getting to go to all the tournaments is not really a problem for Stacy since she owns her own private investigation office. She is also vice-president of a financial company.

With all the national tournaments keeping her busy, I asked Stacy if she ever gets to help out in charity events. Stacy has been competing in events raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation as well as events for the Red Cross, the Special Olympics, the Nevada Special Olympics, the Associaion for the Prevention of Child Abuse and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

301 is definitly Stacy's favorite game since, as she puts it, "if played well it's quicker and it determines the best shooter". But on soft tip: "Those who can do, those who can't play soft tip". She just doesn't like the weight limits in soft tip or paying for a game or the freeze-out rules or the handicap system.

What about her practice routine? I was surprised that she doesn't even have a dartboard up at home. But she quickens to add that she has been living for the last 7 to 9 months in a small apartment and only moved into a house a few months ago. She is welcomed at Jimmy Murphy's Pub for her practice so it works out OK for her.