Article from the DallasNews.com dated August 10, 2007.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...cfocus_10eas.ART0.North.Edition1.431fbd1.html
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Billiards Skills Help Area Students Excel Academically
By J. LOUISE LARSON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Friday, August 10, 2007
Imagine a high school sport where no one sits on the bench. Where athletes play with a stick, but utilize some math and physics. And where boys and girls compete on equal footing.
The game is billiards and North Texas is host to a pilot program and a budding dynasty.
Billiard Excellence Through Training, Education and Recreation is a hit at Rowlett High School, where the Eagles have only once not won the state championship in 9-ball billiards.
Rowlett senior Logan Elkins is the program's top-ranked individual player in Texas. Captain of the state champion billiards team the past two years, he placed 26th in the country at the junior nationals this summer.
So what does it take to be good at billiards?
"I'm really good at math and the angles and stuff it comes naturally, so I caught on real quick. You've got to have a bunch of practice," he said. "School comes first, but I'm always shooting pool."
Rockwall High is also in on the new billiards wave. Recent graduate Trent McMullen placed third in the nation in "artistic," where the goal is to make a series of four shots in the shortest time. His brother Trey took second the year before.
"It gave me something to focus on my grades used to not be that good. Then my brother started playing pool and I got into it," Trent said. "And my grades had to be good in order to play in matches."
William Howard, a senior on the Berkner team that has finished second to Rowlett the past two seasons, said billiards has given him a new appreciation for math and physics.
"You don't realize how much they affect you, but when the teacher puts it in terms of a pool table, it's different than in the classroom," he said.
The desire to pass and then to play has transformed his report card, William said. "I was a C student doing just enough to get by. I started studying really hard, and now I'm making straight A's," he said.
Earl Munson has nurtured the state's fledgling program over its six-year history. He coaches all eight teams in the region.
Mr. Munson said the sport is bucking an unsavory reputation earned in the 1920s, when speakeasies were gambling establishments or "pool rooms."
"In the U.S., we're trying to break that old stigma," Mr. Munson said. "We don't call it pool in school it's been billiards for hundreds of years. Most times, you'll see pool in a bar but billiards came from the noble families."
Wylie parent Kathy Villarreal said her concerns about competitive billiards were allayed when she found her son Vince would be practicing the pastime with his team at bowling alleys, not at "pool halls."
"A bowling alley is a great place to go," she said.
The sport is seeing an infusion of female talent. At last year's junior world championships, American girls took gold and silver.
Ten Dallas-Fort Worth area students went to Minnesota State University to participate in the Billiards Education Foundation junior nationals, squaring off against 140 students from around the country. The Texas group flexed intellectual muscle as well as skills on the table.
Mr. Munson said he was most proud that six of the Texans were honored as academic all-Americans.
"A lot of our kids have improved their academics," he said. "And the parents are absolutely ecstatic."
J. Louise Larson is a freelance writer in Ennis.
jackielarsonwrites@gmail.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...cfocus_10eas.ART0.North.Edition1.431fbd1.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Billiards Skills Help Area Students Excel Academically
By J. LOUISE LARSON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Friday, August 10, 2007
Imagine a high school sport where no one sits on the bench. Where athletes play with a stick, but utilize some math and physics. And where boys and girls compete on equal footing.
The game is billiards and North Texas is host to a pilot program and a budding dynasty.
Billiard Excellence Through Training, Education and Recreation is a hit at Rowlett High School, where the Eagles have only once not won the state championship in 9-ball billiards.
Rowlett senior Logan Elkins is the program's top-ranked individual player in Texas. Captain of the state champion billiards team the past two years, he placed 26th in the country at the junior nationals this summer.
So what does it take to be good at billiards?
"I'm really good at math and the angles and stuff it comes naturally, so I caught on real quick. You've got to have a bunch of practice," he said. "School comes first, but I'm always shooting pool."
Rockwall High is also in on the new billiards wave. Recent graduate Trent McMullen placed third in the nation in "artistic," where the goal is to make a series of four shots in the shortest time. His brother Trey took second the year before.
"It gave me something to focus on my grades used to not be that good. Then my brother started playing pool and I got into it," Trent said. "And my grades had to be good in order to play in matches."
William Howard, a senior on the Berkner team that has finished second to Rowlett the past two seasons, said billiards has given him a new appreciation for math and physics.
"You don't realize how much they affect you, but when the teacher puts it in terms of a pool table, it's different than in the classroom," he said.
The desire to pass and then to play has transformed his report card, William said. "I was a C student doing just enough to get by. I started studying really hard, and now I'm making straight A's," he said.
Earl Munson has nurtured the state's fledgling program over its six-year history. He coaches all eight teams in the region.
Mr. Munson said the sport is bucking an unsavory reputation earned in the 1920s, when speakeasies were gambling establishments or "pool rooms."
"In the U.S., we're trying to break that old stigma," Mr. Munson said. "We don't call it pool in school it's been billiards for hundreds of years. Most times, you'll see pool in a bar but billiards came from the noble families."
Wylie parent Kathy Villarreal said her concerns about competitive billiards were allayed when she found her son Vince would be practicing the pastime with his team at bowling alleys, not at "pool halls."
"A bowling alley is a great place to go," she said.
The sport is seeing an infusion of female talent. At last year's junior world championships, American girls took gold and silver.
Ten Dallas-Fort Worth area students went to Minnesota State University to participate in the Billiards Education Foundation junior nationals, squaring off against 140 students from around the country. The Texas group flexed intellectual muscle as well as skills on the table.
Mr. Munson said he was most proud that six of the Texans were honored as academic all-Americans.
"A lot of our kids have improved their academics," he said. "And the parents are absolutely ecstatic."
J. Louise Larson is a freelance writer in Ennis.
jackielarsonwrites@gmail.com
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