A group of local friends that found a way to use softball to stay together and active for decades has found an unexpected side effect: winning, lots and lots of winning.

The team, sponsored by Doofers Sports Bar and Grill, has been one of the best teams in the area for quite some time.

In fact, the team has won at least one tournament every year since 1979. Pretty impressive for a group of friends simply looking for a way to hang out and stay active.

“We were just latent jocks that wanted to participate,” said Mike Moeller, who joined the team in 1980. “We got together and started playing and just haven’t quit.”

The Renton native and Renton High graduate first played softball at 18. Moeller said continuing the victory streak hasn’t brought any pressure to Doofers because it wasn’t something the group was trying to achieve in the first place.

“It’s just something that’s happened,” Moeller said. “We’re out there for the camaraderie. We’re good friends and it’s just a way of seeing each other.”

The original core of the team started in the mid-70s and of that group, four still remain on the team today – Bill Johnson, Jim Glockner, Marv Yost and Mike Spellman.

Moeller actually played for one of the Doofers’ nemeses before he joined up. “I played against them all of the time,” Moeller said. “But then most of my team stopped playing, so I joined their team.”

In the decades since then a lot has happened with the team. Many of the members’ sons played on the team at one point or another. Moeller said the kids helped the team stay competitive as the Doofers aged.

Other things have happened that weren’t so pleasant. The team has lost two members in the past few years. The first was Ken Berber.

“It was very traumatic, we were really good friends. It had nothing to do with softball,” Moeller said.

When Kirk Kauzlarich passed away in March, the team again felt the sting of losing a friend. Kauzlarich was a member of the 1967 Renton High state basketball team and a longtime member of the team. Moeller got patches of the letter “K” from an embroidery store and everyone on the team is wearing a patch on his hat or jersey this season. The team also hung Kauzlarich’s jersey in the dugout for the first game this season.

With perhaps a little extra motivation this season, the team stands at 9-3. Because there isn’t a 50-and-over classification in Renton, Doofers plays in the “lower” recreational league through the Renton Community Center. The playoffs start June 25.

The team won a tournament last weekend at Sprinker in Tacoma and won, extending the tournament win streak for another year. The team goes to an average of four or five tournaments per year, usually in-state.

“I don’t know how we sustain it,” Moeller said. “We just play.”

Moeller said that while the team obviously wants to win, winning isn’t the ultimate priority. That priority is to simply have a good time and enjoy playing the game with

friends.

Teammates leave the team, new members join, but the basic feel of the team stays the same. Moeller estimates that three quarters of the group is still from Renton and graduates of Renton High or Hazen.

Things have changed on the diamond as the years have progressed. Moeller said the teammates still have high expectations for each other’s performance but “as we get older, those expectations diminish a little bit because we’re not able to do the same things.”

Mike’s wife Sue Moeller said that she jokes around with the team as the years go on. “I personally kid them about back in the day at the concession stands you could buy a hot dog and pop, now it’s Ben Gay and Alieve.”