Megan Smith is one of the top players on the highly competitive Northeastern Women's Tour and is currently attempting to break onto the WPBA tour. In her column, Megan will discuss her experiences as she strives to make it as a professional pool player. Megan's regular column for the NEWT tour can be found at www.susiecuebilliards.com/Tournaments/WPBA/MegansNews/megansnewtnewslist.htm. You can email Megan at megan@azbilliards.com
	Shooting for the Stars By Megan Smith Hello, everyone! Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Megan Smith--full time student, health nut, fun loving 23 year old, and aspiring professional billiards player. With the help of everyone here at AZBilliards, we've decided to put together some memoirs, if you will, of my thoughts and experiences as a young and aspiring player. Perhaps this will give some other hopefuls out there an idea of what it is like to be a touring semi-pro, and what a dream like this entails. Or, if nothing else, maybe my recollections will at least serve to entertain some of you pool junkies out there. I, like every player, have a story. Humble beginnings, if you will. And I guess the best place to start, is at the beginning....... I picked up a cue about five years ago, with no grandiose intentions whatsoever and like many of you out there, I became afflicted with the infamous pool bug. For nearly a year and a half I played aimlessly, until I had the epiphany which has changed my life in so many ways. It happened at the Valley Forge SuperBilliards Expo of 1996. I purchased my ticket to get into the women's pro arena and wasn't even aware that I had exchanged only eight dollars for enough hopes and dreams to last a lifetime. Maybe it was the pressure filled arena, or the applause of the fans, or the awesome ease with which these ladies dissected the racks of nine ball. Whatever it was, I knew right then and there that I would be there one day. I said to myself, "Whatever you ladies can do, I can do. And one day I'll do it better." The really strange thing was that several people approached me for autographs thinking I was a pro player. I was really embarrassed to say that they had mistaken me for someone else, but nevertheless, I kept saying to myself, "Someday...". That was four years ago, and only in the past year did I decide to really bear down and make a run for that dream. At first, I played for three seasons on the Northeastern Women's Tour, playing in qualifier after qualifier but not seeing any real improvement. I lacked confidence and experience and grew disappointed in my lackluster performances on this difficult amateur tour. Last April, I decided to ask my friend Bob Maidhof, owner of Drexeline Billiards in SE Pennsylvania, if he would sponsor me on the tour. He did so , and gave me free table time and advice whenever I asked for it. After a month of steady practice and preparation, I won my first pro qualifier in Binghamton, NY. Since then, I've won three more pro spots in NEWT qualifiers, managed to attain the number one ranking on the Northeastern Women's Tour and been invited to the 1999 Pro Nationals as well as the 2000 BCA Open in Vegas. The most recent big event I've played was the Amateur Nationals where I came in 7th/8th, (more on that later), and next weekend I'll be playing in the Baltimore WPBA pro event at the Corner Pocket. The icing on the cake for me in this great year was when I won the spot for and subsequently played in the Valley Forge Cuetec Cues Classic WPBA event. It was like a homecoming of sorts, as you can imagine. And the way I see it, folks, these humble credentials all mean virtually nothing. The past is exactly that, and what I'm devoting my energies to right now is getting my professional status which can only be earned through placing in the top half of the field in a pro event. I get one point for a top half finish and I need four in one year to get that big "P" by my name in the rankings. Hopefully next weekend will see me gain my first.... There. I feel better now that you all know a little bit about me. So, in the upcoming installments of this column, I plan on taking you with me, or at least giving all who care to peek in, a look at these pro tournaments (and perhaps qualifiers) that I will be playing in on my little journey. And remember, I feel that there is no sense of absolution at the end of this long road, (if there is an end!) but it is the journey itself that counts. So join me next time..... Good luck to all, Meg Smith   All copyrights are owned by Megan Smith. No duplication is allowed without her permission.