DOUG GORDON:Four days have elapsed since the USA lost to Team Europe in The Mosconi Cup.
Since then we have had a smattering of short threads, mostly from the clueless and few longer ones attacking all sorts of things like the referee, the commentators, Shane, Corey and MD plus the usual plethora of unresearched suggestions.
But refreshingly there has been no large groundswell to relieve Mark Wilson of the Captaincy.
But a few hats were thrown into the ring, by their owners. Then there were a few more championing the causes of The Forgotten and The Forgettable.
Now in the Grand Order of Things, captaining a national pool team is not such a big deal.
But to a Captain's Peers it is a very high profile job and image, character and integrity are all essential assets. Good communication skills as well as a thorough knowledge of the sport are desirable. They need to be disciplined, patient, approachable for fans and media alike.
Most names touted failed to meet that criteria. Where was there such a saint?
Two years ago, twenty years after I first met him I had a long phone discussions with him. I then urged him to put in an application to take on the job. I also lobbied a few key people for support and as a result of this and his excellent submitted resume Matchroom gave Mark Wilson the job.
But Mark came into this with a Double Task Agenda. First he had to put together a Team to take on the rampant Europeans.
His second priority was the game itself. At the end of 2013 Pool in the US was In a very bad place.There were hardly any credible events as evidenced by the calendar that Matchroom used to collect 2015 ranking points.
But from the announcement of Mark's appointment a new optimism emerged. It may have been coincidence but over the next nine months tournaments and tours sprung up.
Meanwhile over at HQ Lindenwood Team USA was being assembled with an emphasis on youth. Out went The Zimmers and in came The Swimmers as The Two Justins made their debut. They were thrown in at the deep end of Blackpool. Mark was preaching the Gospel of Youth. But in the end he stretched the definition of Youth up to the 40+ level.
Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, the task of the 2014 team was pretty formidable. There was quite a large gap between the talent levels of the teams. The USA Talked the Talk but couldn't Walk the Walk. Dreams of a victory were more in Hope than Expectation.
Given the enormity of the task ahead it might have been better to have let Jeremy get an exposure to The Cauldron that is The Mosconi .
Mark was preaching the Gospel of Youth. So out went The Zimmers and in came The Swimmers (thrown in at the deep end). In the end he redefined youth as being 40+.
It didn't pay off and with 20/20 hindsight it might have been more productive to have added Jeremy Sossei's name to Hall and Bergman's. Thoughts of a victory in Blackpool were based more on Hope than Expectation, so an extra year's experience would have benefitted Jeremy.
A lot of Mark's time went on administering his fledgling project. He was raising money to fund it and planning the logistics of setting up public appearances fór his team. He didn't hit all his year óne targets but he got through a tremendous workload.
Mark was given freedom to choose the 2014 team .But an attempt by Matchroom to bring in a qualfying system resulted in a lot of unseen difficulties. These have been documented elsewhere. But but the biggest downside was that Mark was not able to announce his players until only six weeks before tee off'.
In spite of this the team that entered the Vegas Arena had so much team togetherness. Mark’s message must be finally getting through.
But as he now enters Phase Three – the 2016 team are top priority.
Things past have all been sorted out and now Mark is close where he wanted to be. The situation now is clear. Skyler and Justin are dots on the card for sure. Shane will be there again and Mike deserves another shot. But along with Corey, they will be held under the microscope. So Mark has all year to find ONE more player. There need be no qualifiers. Mark will b alerted by any outstanding performances throughout the season so the door is not closed to any ambitious young player.
So far Mark has got to this point without using his biggest asset – his coaching abilities. If he just assembles a team and hopes things turn out right next December then the gap between the two teams will never close.
Europe have the luxury of having players of world class in every age bracket ready to step up to Mosconi duty.
Ruslan Chinakov is a class young player. Joshua Filler will be ready within a year. They are only the tip of the iceberg.
USA don’t have that supply chain. So the short term alternative has to be improving the stock that they have. Mark needs to enter into an agreement with Justin Bergman, Skyler Woodward, Mike Dechaine, Corey Deuel and Shane v Boening whereby he will work one to one with them. They all have cureable faults in their game. If they didn’t then they would have won more events.
They must accept that or bail. Of course it has to be run with a spirit of co-operation between the parties. Most of the problems are easily diagnosable for two people working together. It would not be hard to find a sponsor to support these individual get togethers. Clubs would be happy to host them and adopt a player. The player could get further financial opportunities from this relationship. Mark would get paid too and sponsors would get Mosconi Cup venue status and other MC fringe benefits. There are a few other senior coaches (Scott Lee, Jerry Briesath) supporting Mark’s initiative and he might want to involve them to help improve specialist areas such as breaking, kicking, doubles play etc
Anybody who is performing well in tournaments including Jeremy, Oscar and Brandon could get invited back on the program. Justin Hall and Landon Shuffett.
By December 2016 they might have a chance but by 2017 they would be favories. Without this radical approach the US will probably never win again
Since then we have had a smattering of short threads, mostly from the clueless and few longer ones attacking all sorts of things like the referee, the commentators, Shane, Corey and MD plus the usual plethora of unresearched suggestions.
But refreshingly there has been no large groundswell to relieve Mark Wilson of the Captaincy.
But a few hats were thrown into the ring, by their owners. Then there were a few more championing the causes of The Forgotten and The Forgettable.
Now in the Grand Order of Things, captaining a national pool team is not such a big deal.
But to a Captain's Peers it is a very high profile job and image, character and integrity are all essential assets. Good communication skills as well as a thorough knowledge of the sport are desirable. They need to be disciplined, patient, approachable for fans and media alike.
Most names touted failed to meet that criteria. Where was there such a saint?
Two years ago, twenty years after I first met him I had a long phone discussions with him. I then urged him to put in an application to take on the job. I also lobbied a few key people for support and as a result of this and his excellent submitted resume Matchroom gave Mark Wilson the job.
But Mark came into this with a Double Task Agenda. First he had to put together a Team to take on the rampant Europeans.
His second priority was the game itself. At the end of 2013 Pool in the US was In a very bad place.There were hardly any credible events as evidenced by the calendar that Matchroom used to collect 2015 ranking points.
But from the announcement of Mark's appointment a new optimism emerged. It may have been coincidence but over the next nine months tournaments and tours sprung up.
Meanwhile over at HQ Lindenwood Team USA was being assembled with an emphasis on youth. Out went The Zimmers and in came The Swimmers as The Two Justins made their debut. They were thrown in at the deep end of Blackpool. Mark was preaching the Gospel of Youth. But in the end he stretched the definition of Youth up to the 40+ level.
Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, the task of the 2014 team was pretty formidable. There was quite a large gap between the talent levels of the teams. The USA Talked the Talk but couldn't Walk the Walk. Dreams of a victory were more in Hope than Expectation.
Given the enormity of the task ahead it might have been better to have let Jeremy get an exposure to The Cauldron that is The Mosconi .
Mark was preaching the Gospel of Youth. So out went The Zimmers and in came The Swimmers (thrown in at the deep end). In the end he redefined youth as being 40+.
It didn't pay off and with 20/20 hindsight it might have been more productive to have added Jeremy Sossei's name to Hall and Bergman's. Thoughts of a victory in Blackpool were based more on Hope than Expectation, so an extra year's experience would have benefitted Jeremy.
A lot of Mark's time went on administering his fledgling project. He was raising money to fund it and planning the logistics of setting up public appearances fór his team. He didn't hit all his year óne targets but he got through a tremendous workload.
Mark was given freedom to choose the 2014 team .But an attempt by Matchroom to bring in a qualfying system resulted in a lot of unseen difficulties. These have been documented elsewhere. But but the biggest downside was that Mark was not able to announce his players until only six weeks before tee off'.
In spite of this the team that entered the Vegas Arena had so much team togetherness. Mark’s message must be finally getting through.
But as he now enters Phase Three – the 2016 team are top priority.
Things past have all been sorted out and now Mark is close where he wanted to be. The situation now is clear. Skyler and Justin are dots on the card for sure. Shane will be there again and Mike deserves another shot. But along with Corey, they will be held under the microscope. So Mark has all year to find ONE more player. There need be no qualifiers. Mark will b alerted by any outstanding performances throughout the season so the door is not closed to any ambitious young player.
So far Mark has got to this point without using his biggest asset – his coaching abilities. If he just assembles a team and hopes things turn out right next December then the gap between the two teams will never close.
Europe have the luxury of having players of world class in every age bracket ready to step up to Mosconi duty.
Ruslan Chinakov is a class young player. Joshua Filler will be ready within a year. They are only the tip of the iceberg.
USA don’t have that supply chain. So the short term alternative has to be improving the stock that they have. Mark needs to enter into an agreement with Justin Bergman, Skyler Woodward, Mike Dechaine, Corey Deuel and Shane v Boening whereby he will work one to one with them. They all have cureable faults in their game. If they didn’t then they would have won more events.
They must accept that or bail. Of course it has to be run with a spirit of co-operation between the parties. Most of the problems are easily diagnosable for two people working together. It would not be hard to find a sponsor to support these individual get togethers. Clubs would be happy to host them and adopt a player. The player could get further financial opportunities from this relationship. Mark would get paid too and sponsors would get Mosconi Cup venue status and other MC fringe benefits. There are a few other senior coaches (Scott Lee, Jerry Briesath) supporting Mark’s initiative and he might want to involve them to help improve specialist areas such as breaking, kicking, doubles play etc
Anybody who is performing well in tournaments including Jeremy, Oscar and Brandon could get invited back on the program. Justin Hall and Landon Shuffett.
By December 2016 they might have a chance but by 2017 they would be favories. Without this radical approach the US will probably never win again
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