All Time Junior Player Rankings

Shannon,Corey,and Charlie Williams all told me they couldn't have beaten Shane McMinn at 16 🤨. He was the first to win 3 BCA Junior titles.

Wu is an entirely different animal.

I'm guessing Landon Shuffett is still playing pretty well,even without playing full time. Tommy D.
 
jay helfert said:
I agree that many future champions were already playing great pool by their teens but the two best I can think of were Shannon Daulton, who was a seasoned money player at 14-15, and then there's the strange case of one Keith McCready. who was playing against the best players in the world in the biggest money games at age 14, and often winning! In that respect Keith was somewhat unique. The other future champions mentioned on here were either playing against players who were not among the elite or gambling for smaller stakes altogether. They were still getting acclimated to competing against the champions of their era at an age when Keith was beating these guys.

Players like Hopkins, Hatch, Coltrain and Mizerak could definitely compete with the world's best players by age 17 or 18, but were still underdogs against them. Keith was the favorite over the world at age 18! Remember, "The World has the eight ball" and it was true!
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I watched Ronnie Allen give Keith Mcready the eight in 1972 at the Stardust tourney when Keith was 17 or just before he turned 17. Ronnie beat him two sets at 500$ a set. Keith needed the 7! He was in a little over his head at the time. He was a pretty good player for his age but wasn’t elite by no means. I wasn’t around after that tourney but know he became a top player at some point after 20 yrs old or so thru the grapevine so to speak. Mcready had a lot of heart I believe to step to the plate and play good players but he needed weight to play guys like Ronnie, Cole Dickson,Incardona, Rempe, others and myself, that is when he was 17!
 
Tin Man said:
Wu won the world 9 ball championship at age 16. He was down 16-12 and ran 5 racks and out to take the title. I didn't get a chance to see everyone in the world at 16 but I think based on that run and that stage this must be the standard by which all else is measured.
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As your post indicates, Kuo won Game 28, for the 4-game lead. He then broke successfully (made 1-ball) in Game 29, but fouled getting no rail on a safety on the 2-ball. Wu ran out that game then broke and ran the last 4.
 
AtLarge said:
As your post indicates, Kuo won Game 28, for the 4-game lead. He then broke successfully (made 1-ball) in Game 29, but fouled getting no rail on a safety on the 2-ball. Wu ran out that game then broke and ran the last 4.
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Do you know if Po Cheng Kuo is still active? I looked on his wiki page, he was runner up in the WPA 9 ball WC in both 2005 and 2010. I don't really remember his name much. He is currently 790 and 2115 games in FargoRate. They might be from 15 years ago though. He was born in 1978, making him 46 years old.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Do you know if Po Cheng Kuo is still active? I looked on his wiki page, he was runner up in the WPA 9 ball WC in both 2005 and 2010. I don't really remember his name much. He is currently 790 and 2115 games in FargoRate. They might be from 15 years ago though. He was born in 1978, making him 46 years old.
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yes, he plays in some of the WNT and predator events. you may even have seen him without recognizing him - "the little devil" looks noticably older with grey/white hair
 
hang-the-9 said:
There are not many top players that were not already good by 18, it's probably a lot rarer to find players that did not pick up a cue till their 20s or 30s and became great at it. Dechaine won like 4 Jr yearly events in a row (maybe the SBE one?).
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Top 5? I thinks it comes down to what part of the country you are from. Agreed, most great players were already good as youngsters and could hang with some pro players. Tyler Strawn comes to mind as a very good youngster but there’s too many for a top 5 for me. Life gets in the way of many young players that were great from ever reaching their potential… family, kids, work, hard knocks. And dare I say about the game that I love, sometimes pool gets in the way of young players from ever reaching their potential in life. I admire anyone that does it well enough to make a living of it.
 
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ChrisinNC said:
I thought Tyler Straun, about the same age as Bergman, was just as impressive, with better fundamentals.

If I’m not mistaken, Straun ousted Bergman to win the 2000 and 2001 BCA Junior Nationals 14-and-under, then won the 18-and-under Junior Nationals in 2002, despite only being 15 years old. Reminds me of what Tiger Woods did winning consecutive US Junior and US Amateur titles at such a young age. Sadly, Straun and his girlfriend were killed in a highway accident in 2007.
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Actually talking with Justin this yr I asked em about Tyler. Ty at Magoos/jr nationals.
He said Ty was thee best Jr. player at that time.
 
Tommy-D said:
Shannon,Corey,and Charlie Williams all told me they couldn't have beaten Shane McMinn at 16 🤨. He was the first to win 3 BCA Junior titles.
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Island Drive said:
Actually talking with Justin this yr I asked em about Tyler. Ty at Magoos/jr nationals.
He said Ty was thee best Jr. player at that time.
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Spoken like true hustlers… never brag, never boast, no concern for validation, & avoid the spotlight as much as possible. 😉
 
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Tommy-D said:
Shannon,Corey,and Charlie Williams all told me they couldn't have beaten Shane McMinn at 16 🤨. He was the first to win 3 BCA Junior titles.

Wu is an entirely different animal.

I'm guessing Landon Shuffett is still playing pretty well,even without playing full time. Tommy D.
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Important fact about McMinns wins.
The first two yrs in a row, he played at Magoos.
John Lewis never liked Jr. players having a room advantage, but we were unable to get another room that second yr, so again Shane had home court twice.
John Knew..... for Jr. players it was to McMinns advantage.
He did play good, but Justin Bergman said, Tyler Strawn was thee best Jr. player at the time, then he got killed in a motorcycle accident.
 
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The Stardust tourney was played in April of 1972! This was my last appearance in the pool world pretty much. I claimed Keith Mcready played Ronnie Allen with the eight losing two sets at 500$ per set. He played pretty good but was in over his head!

He needed the seven and I would have still bet on Ronnie! But I looked up Mcready’s Wiki page and he was 15 yrs old that month in April 1972! So what I watched that day was one of the best 15 year old players ever. He was a helluva good 15 year old 9 ball player. He was born in April 1957, I was 5 years older than him. He would have given me major trouble when I was 15 years old. He was a 2-3 rack guy but not elite. But running 2-3 racks quite often as a 15 year old is pretty impressive!
 
ChrisinNC said:
I thought Tyler Straun, about the same age as Bergman, was just as impressive, with better fundamentals.

If I’m not mistaken, Straun ousted Bergman to win the 2000 and 2001 BCA Junior Nationals 14-and-under, then won the 18-and-under Junior Nationals in 2002, despite only being 15 years old. Reminds me of what Tiger Woods did winning consecutive US Junior and US Amateur titles at such a young age. Sadly, Straun and his girlfriend were killed in a highway accident in 2007.
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So did Justin.... Ty was thee best Jr in his grouping at that time.
 
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