As I said in a previous post, the BEF Junior National 9-ball tournament was being held in my hometown of Bloomington/Normal, IL. I got a chance to attend the banquet and give a speech. It was a packed house!
The banquet was really awesome. I wish there would have been something like that when I was playing! There were prizes and different awards given out...most of them directed toward good students. Everything was fun, then it was time for the speech. I wrote my speech a couple days ago and practiced here and there. Once I got up there, I was so freaked out and nervous, I couldn't see the words on my notes! I had to wing it and my voice was super shaky...but hopefully I got my point across. First a picture, then the video of my speech at the bottom of the post.
Are politics in my future?? I think not! After the banquet, Dr. Cue, Tom Rossman put on an exhibition. If you haven't seen his show before, it is definitely one of the best when it comes to trick shots. He put on a show for over an hour and could have kept going!
To end the first night, Laura Smith, Dawn Hopkins, and myself did challenge games. I was determined to not quit until everyone had a chance to play.
I went to watch as much as I could. Saturday night I got to do some more challenge matches and meet a lot of the players. Sunday, the finals were pretty exciting. Landon Shuffett moved up a division but still came out the winner. Brianna Miller defended her title as the 14 and under division. Liz Lovely won the 19 and under girls and Brendan Crockett won the 14 and under boys division. All of these kids are really amazing talents. We all have to watch out for them soon!
I have to give a big thanks to all of the kids and parents. I had a great time and I got to go back to having a good feeling about pool. Everyone was so friendly and appreciative. Thank you for the opportunity to be around that!
Here it is...in two parts, the speech. Part of it was cut out in order to take some pictures. The camera is a little shaky so you might want to close your eyes! My opening line was cut out. I said "I was really worried about what to wear tonight, but I guess I didn't need to worry since you can't even see me behind this podium!"
Part 1
Part 2 (on YouTube since blogger wouldn't let me load it)
Thanks for watching! Next up is the WPBA US Open. The live stream sponsored by PoolDawg isn't going to be running for this one but you can find the brackets on the WPBA website.
wow...sweat is practically dripping down your voice...you sounded N~E~R~V~O~U~S!
ReplyDeletesarah! i cant find your email check your facebook for me! but ya for the speach ment alot to me and Thanks for playing me for the world championships ! hahah fun times
ReplyDeletemy email is sr9ball@hotmail.com and yes, I was VERY nervous! I almost passed out at the beginning.
ReplyDeletehehe...yeah u sounded like it. but it seemed that you got into it more the longer you spoke, and you sounded better as the speech went on (less scratchy throat). just like a 9-ball match. you get that "i need to pee" feeling at the start, then you forget about it as the match goes on, and your stroke gets better.
ReplyDeleteyeah, signs of a pool addict...if you can use pool as an analogy for everything in life, you're probably addicted. :-P