Project: New Shaft (Days 14, 15, & 16) Derby Update

WOW! Where do I even begin?!???
As you know, I’m here in Louisville for the Derby City Classic as well as competing in the Ohio Valley Regional Championships at the Clarion.

We left Minneapolis Thursday afternoon and for whatever hair brained reason, I got it stuck in my head that it was only a 6 hour drive from Minneapolis to Louisville. Oops… Well, after some laundry hiccups with the washer, some 100mph wind storms, a quick stop at Steak ‘n Shake, we finally got in at about 4a.m. Friday morning and I was wired. Well, until I got out of the shower and crashed.

Friday was spent setting some things up, sweating Mike‘s bank pool match, and running errands. Somehow, I found myself in Mike’s truck, picking up office furniture for our set with JR and Dave at 5p.m. It wasn’t until then that I thought, “Maybe I should find out when my tournament starts…” So I called my friend Rebecca to see if the draw was posted. As it turned out, they were just working on it and I played in an hour, at 6p.m. Yikes!

So, we hustled back to drop off the office furniture, I did a quick change, put my slimy hair up after it was under a hat all day, and dashed off to the Clarion for my match.

Honestly, I’ve never been so unprepared for a match before in my entire life. Thank goodness for the navigator in the truck. It got me safely there and back in one attempt and I pulled into the parking lot with one minute to spare. Fortunately, I found a parking space right by the side door. Score!

So, the bottom line is, if I would’ve found the time to write this post two days ago, you’d be getting much more detail about the tournament, but because I’m writing it today, you’ll just have to settle for the cliffs notes version.

Miraculously, after being at the office supply store just an hour before my first match Friday night and interviewing people between matches to get the tournament coverage for InsidePool, I somehow managed to win three rounds. I played outstanding in my first match and barely won the second and third. Honestly, I practically got away with murder. On Saturday, I won two more matches only giving up two games total. But, unfortunately, lost in the finals to a girl called Ida who played outstanding.

The tournament format was a race to 4 games, bar table 8 ball. BUT! Out of 20 girls (most of them from Ohio), I was the only BCA Master signed up so I had to spot everyone 2 games, my race to 6 versus their race to 4. The finals were tough action. Ida missed very few balls and even with my strong start, not missing a ball until the 4th rack, I made too many mistakes in the end and she was solid and steady. I’ll see her in the masters soon.

Overall, I feel I delivered a pretty strong performance and can say I was pretty proud of a lot of things from the tournament. It was a miracle I finished so well in the tournament with as much as I had going on. So, I’ll leave you with this thought: Does tenacity trump preparation???

After being gone for two and a half days for the tournament, it felt like yesterday was my first official day at work. I have since been running my tail off reporting on matches and interviewing players for InsidePoolMag.com. Be sure to check it out!

Mike and I will be starting the filming on our Xtreme Instruction video podcast series soon but I’ll leave you with the video of my first Inside Pool Extreme News report. Let’s play ‘Count how many times Samm says “um” or “uh.”‘ More to come and hopefully the next ones will be better.

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