Bucks third baseman Gerald "Paco" Vasquez makes the play. Smedes photo.

RENO/SPARKS, NV - Tournament softball in Northern Nevada has always been a big-time participant sport. Heck, softball on every level in Northern Nevada is big-time. Whether it be league, high school, youth, church or deep freeze for that matter; Softball is extremely popular and important in the North.

The Northern Nevada area has its share of top-flight teams that compete across the spectrum of divisions and sanctioning bodies that offer tournaments on the West Coast.

Competing is not the problem. Respectable finishes are not a problem. Winning tournaments and bringing_or keeping titles in Northern Nevada has been a little more problematical.

The 23rd Annual Smoke Softball Club Tournamentwas held September 17-18 at sites around the greater Reno/Sparks, Nevada area. Seventy-seven teams in ‘C’, ‘D’ and Co-ed divisions came to do battle at one of the most popular annual softball tournaments held in the Northern Nevada area each season. The annual Smoke tournament is also one of the best-attended and popular events on the West Coast each year. In recent year’s, teams from Northern California have been the dominant force taking home a majority of the various divisions first place awards.

The 2005 version of the Smoke saw the men’s ‘C’ and ‘D’ brackets won by local favorites D-12 in the ‘D’ and Bucks/Bully’s in the ‘C’ to keep the Smoke Tournament titles in the Reno/Sparks area. According to tournament director Tom Smedes, "It’s been about ten years since we had two finalists in the ‘D’ division from Northern Nevada play in the finals. I believe it was when the Blazing Armadillos and Round Up Awards from Yerington played each other, plus with Bucks winning the ‘C’ division it was a good tournament for the local area teams."

The ‘C’ division saw Buck’s/Bully’s go 4-0 to claim the top honors over the seven team field. Buck’s took down Alaskan Warriors, Printing Service of NV and SWAC twice to finish undefeated. The championship game saw a Buck’s/SWAC rematch of an earlier round game. The second time around was no different, as Buck’s jumped out early and often pounding out a 19-6 title game victory. SWAC finished in second at 2-2, with Wicked (2-2) and No Limit (2-2) in third and fourth places, respectively.

Tony Enad, of Buck’s, earned offensive MVP honors, while Brent Miller, SWAC, garnered defensive MVP selection.
The ‘D’ division saw a weekend full of strong efforts as several teams made impressive bids to take home first place hardware. Nevada Fitness held off the strong draw with an impressive run of six straight wins to capture top tournament honors. D-12 started fast, going 4-0 before falling twice to the eventual champions. D-12 finished in second place with a 4-2 record.

Third place, with a record of 6-2, went to Greenscapes and the fourth place finisher was Dynamic Reunion at 5-2. Jerrad Kordonowy of Nevada Fitness was selected the offensive MVP and Matt Williams of D-12 captured defensive MVP honors.

The Co-ed bracket saw a distinctive Bay Area flavor dominate the draw as three of the top four finishers hailed from the greater Bay Area. 5150 (Vacaville, CA) went undefeated at 5-0 to secure first place. 5150 pounded out a 20-12 title game victory over Bum Wrap (Martinez, CA) in landing the tournament top spot.

Bum Wrap finished at 4-2. The Co-ed draw saw three teams finish at 4-2 as Happy Hour (Tucson, AZ) and Early & Often (Vacaville, CA) finished in the third and fourth place slots. 5150’s Darrell Kuykendall and Melissa Payaslian were selected offensive Co-MVP’s, while Nate Szutu earned defensive MVP honors for Team Bum Wrap.