Home

Steamboat Springs — Seventeen teams will face off in the third annual NRC Broadcasting kickball tournament starting at 5:30 p.m. today, with double elimination trimming the teams to a final game at 9 p.m. Saturday.

About 300 people are scheduled to play, and event organizers expect spectators to bump total local participation to about 500 people during the two-day tournament, said Lee Smith, an event planner, office manager and disc jockey for NRC Broadcasting.

In its first year, the tournament was a single-elimination, single-day event limited to eight teams. When the staff members at KFMU 104.1/105.5 FM decided to expand the event to two days and 16 teams, community participation and athletic rivalry exploded, Smith said.

"About half the teams are there just to play kickball and have fun - it's a kids' game," she said. "And the other half are really there to win it."

Kickoff for the first game is at 5:30 p.m. today at the ball fields at Howelsen Hill, and teams will play under the lights until 10:30 p.m., Smith said. The competition continues at noon Saturday, with a championship game at 9 p.m. and a tournament after-party featuring a DJ, dance-off and drink specials at Mambo Italiano at 10 p.m.

Burrito Babes will sell food at the fields. The winning kickball team receives a $200 bar tab to use at the Mambo after-party. Registration for the tournament is closed.

KFMU has dubbed its third annual kickball tournament the "KITBall Klassic" and plans to donate half the proceeds from tournament fees to the Kit Rice Memorial Fund at the Yampa Valley Community Foundation. Former Steamboat Springs Sports Coordinator Kit Rice was an athletics enthusiast and helped KFMU with its kickball tournaments. She died suddenly in September 2008, at age 47.

The stated purpose of the Kit Rice Memorial Fund is "to provide financial support for the growth and enrichment for young female athletes in Steamboat," said Community Foundation office manager Eliza Dodd. Since it was established, the fund has provided financial support to buy hockey equipment for young athletes, and has given to Advocates Building Peaceful Communities and the Steamboat Springs Animal Shelter, said fund advisor Laura Stamp.