Pool Players News

Pool Players News – About 2,000 stick-wielding competitors are descending on Duluth this week in search of bragging rights. The draw? Not a hockey tournament or a martial arts match but the state 8-ball championship, sponsored by MOMA short for the Minnesota Operators of Music and Amusement the folks who supply pool tables to bars and taverns throughout the Midwest. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the event, which will distribute about $80,000 in prize money to the states top pool players. A breakdown of participants reveals a field thats about 80 percent male and 20 percent female, said Wayne Herron, the tournament director. The caliber of play promises to be top-notch, said Mike Fieldhammer, a professional billiard instructor from the Twin Cities and competitor in the events master division. I would put Minnesota in the top five pool-playing states in the nation right up there with Texas, Florida, New York and California,

Fieldhammer said. So, if you want to take in some world-class pool, head down to the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center today or this weekend. Competition will run all day Friday and Saturday and through the first half of Sunday. This is high-intensity competition, and emotions run high, too. But everyone carries a stick, so that helps keep people in line, joked Bob Thomas, a MOMA member and tournament planner. When asked what has kept him coming back to the state tournament for six years running, Brad Guza of Kellogg, Minn., said: Its both the competition and the friendships you form. Guza also credits his tournament experience for improving his level of play. It helps to compete at state, because everyone tries to shoot their best game when they get here, he said. Theres no telling who youll meet at the tournament. Guzas first opponent in singles competition Thursday was Bill Frisby of Floodwood, who has remained active and competitive in the sport despite being confined to a wheelchair. Frisby, 67, has been playing pool for 53 years but said adjusting to playing from a wheelchair wasnt easy. You have to change your whole game, he said. Its very challenging, but I enjoy it.

As a member of the National Wheelchair Pool Players Association, Frisby hopes to encourage other disabled people to take up the sport, too. Our mission is to get people out in the community, and pool is a tool to get people involved, he said, adding: Pool is community. Northern Minnesota and Canada have produced some particularly fine pool players, said Cody Kendall, 24, of Knife River, a participant in the state tournament. It seems that anywhere thats cold a lot is going to breed a lot of good pool players, he said. Its a good, inexpensive indoor activity. But Kendall said the future may not bode as well for the Twin Ports as a source of elite pool players. There really are no venues for underage players any more, he noted, predicting that future generations of pool players from the area will not benefit from the same opportunity for competitive play that their forbears enjoyed.