Blake Hafner, a 2016 GMG High School graduate and lifelong Marshalltonian, has a dream to make the community a statewide and regional darts hub through his supply business, Martial Darts, and the tournaments he’s been setting up at places like the 918 Bar. Hafner joked that used to skip school to play darts with a friend and got addicted to the game in the process.

“I started in these playing dart tournaments, started running dart tournaments, and some guy’s like ‘Dude, why don’t you sell dart supplies?’ OK, that’s not a bad idea,” he said.

Like a lot of other indoor activities, darts surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hafner was playing competitively online with players from around the world through a board that syncs up to their smartphones. As establishments began to reopen, he pivoted back to in-person tournaments, and they’ve grown from relatively small (six competitors early on) to a current average of 48 to 50 participants.

Today, he hosts a “King of the Draw” event once a month for a year, and last month, Hafner finally added a youth competition option.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO A total of 16 area youngsters competed at the first youth darts tournament held on Sunday, June 23.

“I started when I was 17 and 18, and I was like ‘You know what? There’s no kids in here. I’m the only one playing with a bunch of old people,'” he said. “I had always, from the beginning, wanted to start getting younger people. A lot of them like it, but they don’t necessarily get hooked. But I feel like if you build the base, build the kids, (they’ll keep playing).”

At the first youth tournament, there were 16 players between the ages of five and 15, and even though the former may seem young, Hafner said the rule was that if you could throw from the line and stick it in the board, you could play. While Waterloo, where the state competition is held, probably has the biggest darts scene in Iowa at the moment along with Des Moines, Hafner and fellow organizer Jade Lockhart are doing their best to replicate it here — with King of the Draw, he estimated that 65 percent of the participants are coming from out of town.

“He’s trying to make it big in Marshalltown,” Lockhart said. “A lot of these guys are coming from Waterloo and Des Moines.”

Bob Jacobson, the owner of the 918, is happy that the events are drawing more customers into his bar while also teaching youngsters the ins and outs of the game, and Lockhart commended him for running such a family-friendly establishment.

“It’s definitely good for business. Everybody comes down here and has a great time. It’s a competitive sport, very competitive,” Jacobson said.

In addition to organizing and overseeing tournaments, Hafner intends to start a youth league soon, and he keeps busy traveling around the Midwest and working to build his supply business, which is aptly named Martial Darts. While it may sound ambitious now, he has a goal of building the league up to the point where he can send some kids to compete at nationals in Wisconsin Dells next year and even introducing darts into local school districts.

Jacobson touted the benefits of hand-eye coordination and math through specific games like 301/501 and Cricket, and for Hafner, the accessibility is a key selling point.

“You can learn strategy. You build bonds, and it’s a game that you don’t have to be the smartest kid, you don’t have to be the fastest kid, you don’t have to be the tallest kid. You don’t have to be whatever,” he said. “Right now, we’re in the very beginning. We’ve got some kids that can play some darts.”

To learn more about Martial Darts and upcoming events, find the business on Facebook or at https://martialdarts.com/. The next King of the Draw tournament will be held Saturday, July 13, and the next youth/parent event is set for the following day.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.