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 When I first met Darin Young, I knew right away why he was
such a good darts player. He could lean over and practically stick the darts into the board wherever he wanted. I strained
my neck trying to look into his eyes when I asked him for an interview, and I’m no short fellow either. I couldn’t believe it when
he said he had to stand on a chair to retrieve his darts when he was 7 or 8 years old. Anyway, that took us straight to how he started playing darts.
Like most kids, Darin was interested in what his parents were up to, and what they were
up to was baseball. Not the traditional baseball with a bat, ball and bases, but the baseball
that’s played with Widdy Darts and a wooden dartboard. It’s called American Darts and that’s what the folks played back then in White Haven,
Pennsylvania, where Young is from. In fact, American Darts is still regularly played in Eastern PA, Maryland and South New Jersey. For the most part,
American Darts is pretty well unheard of around the rest of the country.
But that game was the seed that sprouted Young’s interest in darts. “Mom
had an American dartboard in the house and she played in a league when I was 7 or 8. I shot a little bit back then, not serious of course. But when I
was about 14 or 15, I started learning the games and understood what was going on,” explained Young.
When Young was around 19, he learned about English style darts. “I was
dating a girl just out of high school and her parents owned a bar,” reminisced Young. “Of course they had dartboards in there, and though I wasn’t old
enough to go in the bar to drink, I was allowed in there during the day. I would go in and meet with a couple of local players like Michael Abboud,
Greg Jones, and Joe Haganey. Back then, they were American dart players, and I’d meet up with them and play some widdy darts. Then electronic darts
became a pretty big phenomenon locally, and they started traveling playing
electronic darts. They started little luck of the draws at the bar, and I started
playing electronic darts. I really got into that and started traveling a little bit.
I played a little bit with Joe (Haganey), Mike (Abboud) and Greg (Jones). I
mostly played with Greg, for a couple of years. He really helped me out. At
that time, he was one of the better shots around and he lived in the same town I did, Whitehaven, PA. It was just convenient, I guess, to play darts
regularly with him because he was close and was probably one of the best shots in the country at that time. He just didn’t get any recognition because
he never really traveled much. Of course, he was married and had kids and his priorities were a little different. That was a dozen years ago.”
So that’s how his love of the game began, and he was a natural. He is a
natural at most things. He loves to hunt and fish. In fact, it’s probably a toss
up as to whether he prefers hunting to throwing darts. Of course, he makes more money throwing darts. But the thrill of whitetail hunting, small game
hunting like rabbits, pheasants and grouse still pulls him from the dartboards during the season. He hasn’t been out West to do big game hunting for elk,
moose or mule deer, but he would probably jump at the chance if offered.
Fishing is another of his favorite past times. He’s an outdoors guy, living in
the country where it’s quiet. He lives right by the Lehigh River in the Poconos
Mountains where the trout run thick. “I don’t get to fish as much as I used to,
but it’s a lot of fun. You get out there with a fly rod and there are times in the summer when you are the only one on the river for as far as you can see and
you can catch fish one right after another. I like trout and bass fishing, and
occasionally, I go to Canada for a week of walleye and pike fishing. But I have to say with the convenience of the river right there by the house, I do
more trout fishing than any other kind.”
For those young ladies out there who think Darin might be a good catch
himself, sorry, he is spoken for. He is engaged and plans to marry this summer to his sweetheart Jeneen, who he has been with for 6 1/2 years. He
met her through her brother, who just happens to be Johnny Kuczynski. Darin and Jeneen have a son, Ryan, who is 4 1/2 and already is following
dad’s footsteps, attending local dart tournaments that they can drive to and making friends with all the players. When asked if Jeneen supports his dart
enthusiasm, the answer is a resounding yes.
Does Darin like to bring his young son and fiancée to tournaments? “Well, I
have so much fun when I come to the dart tournaments and everyone I meet
is so nice. It is like a big family. Oh, and Jeneen loves for me to play darts.
She does not stop me playing darts. She actually encourages me to play
darts. She likes to play darts herself occasionally. That’s why she likes to
come. She has a lot of friends at tournaments. We bring our son with us,
and 100 people in the dart hall look after him. If he needs cookies, soda,
whatever, everyone is willing to help out. People at tournaments are just real good people and they have real good times, and for the most part, I do not
think they are there for the prize money. They are just there to see their friends and have a good time.”
That statement provides a bit of insight into Young’s demeanor on the line.
Nothing much fazes him. American widdy darts, electronic darts, English darts, it doesn’t matter to Young. “It is just darts. You are playing darts.
Electronic soft-tip is just a different form of darts from steel-tip, but I play
widdy darts too, and that is a very different form of darts. I mean it is just darts.”
Young practices regularly, but his practice routine is not...
Continued...
This complete, in-depth interview with Darin Young is available to our print
subscribers on pages 32 – 35 of the March/April 2004 print edition.
Not a BEN subscriber yet? Why the heck not? Darin Young is!
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