Ames’ Brenda Olson is considered a “Top Gun Female.”

Actual guns? No. Toy guns? Hardly.

We’re talking darts. And hard-core darts at that.

Olson is one of a growing number of people across the globe who is making the bars her playing fields. Thursday night competitions are becoming routine. “Dart leagues are really fun, but it gets kind of frustrating always having your Thursday nights booked,” she said. “But it’s really fun.”

For many, darts remains just time-passing bar game, but for some it’s becoming as routine as a league game of softball or a pick-up game of basketball.

Darts is expanding in more than jsut Ames. According to Mike Smythe, executive director of the National Dart Association, about 20 million people across the country play darts, both the electronic and steel-tip version of the game. This is up from 17 million dart enthusiasts just 18 months ago, dart gurus say.

In addition, the game is widely popular in other countries such as Canada and numerous European countries, including a small island close to Guam in the Pacific.

The National Dart Association “promotes the game of electronic darting,” Smythe said. “It is our sole goal. We are focused around that mission.”

According to NDA statistics, Iowa is one of the top 10 states for the popularity of darts, due to a large number of league systems and the number of sanctioned players.

Indeed, Ames and the ISU communities are no exceptions.

Rusty Poehner, program adviser at the Maintenance Shop, said there are about 10 people at the M-Shop who play darts “all the time.”

“People we don’t know come in, too. We probably play maybe three games a day,” she said. “In the last year there’s been a large upswing. There’s a whole new crowd of people who are very much into it.”

The NDA has 400 league systems around the world, most of which are in the continental United States. The organization holds two international championships every year.

The next event is in Las Vegas, April 28 through May 3. Smythe said $200,000 will be awarded in prize money to the winners of the different categories, such as Cricket, 301, 501 and other dart games.

About 5,000 people are expected to participate.

The NDA is also working on a youth program for darts, in which children can “learn improved math skills, and sportsmanlike and gentlemanly conduct,” Smythe said.

Ames has its fair share of tournaments, too.

KD Amusement sponsors many dart leagues locally, and there are independently sponsored tournaments around town, such as the Sunday Night Cricket Tournament at Welch Ave. Station. Mike Adams, manager of Welch Ave. Station, said his dart tournament “is a good chance for people to play competitively without joining a league.”

Even without the competition, dart enthusiasts say the game makes for a good time. “Coming from the last-place team, dart leagues are very fun on a social level, plus I get pins,” said Tony Forsmark, an Ames resident.