By Marina Giovannelli
Wilmington, NC – The Wilmington skee ball league is wrapping-up its season with a tournament this Sunday at the Blue Post bar downtown.
In the bar's cozy back room, about 70 skee ballers are vying for the number one spot in the fourth skeeson.
They roll small wooden balls down the mini-bowling lane, trying to get the ball in the hole with the highest point value.
The game is nearly century-old and comes with its own lexicon, with team names like American Skee-ros' and Yo Mamma's Fanta-skee'.
The league's Skee.E.O. Adrianne Varnam says the game is not only fun, but a good networking opportunity as well.
"People have gotten jobs, made networking connections, love connections. It's an opportunity for like minded folks to come together and have a good time," says Varnam.
About 20 teams plan to compete in Sunday's tournament, which will mark the end of Wilmington's fourth skee-son.
Varnam says the game has a unique appeal.
"It's got a nostalgia that lots of people associate with growing up, and playing skeet ball at Chuck E. Cheese or the Jersey Shore. I don't know a lot of people who associate darts with child hood, so it's a lot of fun," says Varnam.
Skee ball originated as an amusement park game, and is now played as a league sport in Wilmington, Charlotte, San Francisco and New York.
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