RAPID CITY - The Rapid City Church Softball League is enjoying another successful season with a total of 35 teams competing Sunday through Thursday each week this summer. The league has been popular among softball players for years, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

"It varies from year to year, but the last three years it has improved," said league treasurer Dennis Hanken. "We could add three or four more teams but that is it."

The church-affiliated teams, which are broke up into 20 men's squads and 15 women's teams, try to emphasis more than just the softball each night.

"It is competitive but it is also recreational fellowship," Hanken said. "People seem to like it and there is no drinking or smoking on the grounds.

"We try to emphasize good sportsmanship and a family atmosphere all while having fun."

Games are played at Whitehead Fields on Canyon Lake Drive with idle teams acting as umpires for games they are not playing in. Players range in age from 16-years-old all the way to 66.

The league has been playing softball since at least the 1970s and moved to its current home in the '80s.

The final two weeks of the season are reserved for playoffs with the teams divided into two divisions of A and B. Typically, teams with a better than .500 mark take part in the A tournament and those below that mark fall in the B division.

"It costs $450 per team to play, but one way to keep the costs down is by having players work as umpires," Hanken said. "Plus we furnish all of the balls and bats because we don't allow the men to use the high-tech bats. Our fields are only 275 feet so they are not all that long."

While the fields may not be big by today's standards, there is seating for up to 75 people and lights allow games to go as late as they need to.

The league also provides all its own concessions and along with Timberline helps maintain the two fields.

"We have to provide our own liability insurance, and this year we are putting in a new fence, so we just hope to break even," Hanken said.

Games begin at 7 p.m. during the week and 5 p.m. on Sundays and run through the last day of August.