Andy Camping
Picture this: You’re a female pool player from the Northwest and you sign on to compete in the 2025 season opener of the Northwest Women’s Pool Association Tour; April 26-27 at Bobalou Billiards in Roseburg, OR. Having previously signed on and finished ‘in the money’ at previous stops on the tour, you peruse the 42-entrant list, or hear it from ‘room buzz’ that Molina Ortiz and a strong contingent of Canadian competitors will not be competing. Remembering or just knowing that Ms. Ortiz has won 11 stops on the tour over the past four years, this is probably good news. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll be successful at this particular event, but it likely sets the ‘hope’ bird in you flying.
Keeping that ‘bird’ from flying too far and too fast, you step to the table, cautiously optimistic about your chances at this event on this day. You face your first opponent and lo and behold, you shut her out and get an adrenaline-boost of confidence, as that ‘hope’ bird starts tweeting its beak off. “I’ve got this. . .”
You step up to face your second opponent and she shuts you out. That ‘hope’ bird takes a bit of a nose dive, as you absorb the disappointment of a shutout loss and become aware of just how many matches you now need to win just to reach the outer edge of the ‘payout’ field.
For Andy Camping, looking for her first regional tour title last weekend, the shutout that sent her to the loss side made the number of ‘matches to go’ to reach the lowest cash payout was three. To get a shot at whoever was going to eventually occupy the hot seat, the number was seven. A winners’ side trip to the hot seat would have taken five wins. Going undefeated to win the season opener would have taken six and now, earning the event title was going to take seven in a loss-side row and the final. Unbeknownst to her at the time she lost her second-round match (probably for the best), coming back from that loss to even have a shot in the final was going to require that she face the woman who’d shut her out, Aimée Wilson-McDonnell, again. Not only that, but it was going to be a semifinal, double-hill match, also probably for the best that she didn’t know.
But she did all of it. Came back from the shutout loss to win seven in a row on the loss side, defeated McDonnell, double-hill in the semifinal and then, fought a third straight double-hill match to claim the event title over hot seat occupant, Tamara Parlette. It was not a task she could have accomplished had she let the disappointment of the shutout loss get to her, or let that ‘hope’ bird and confidence get too far ahead of the ball-by-ball, game-by-game, one-match-at-a-time job in front of her. By any standard, a noteworthy accomplishment with a lesson she’ll likely remember for a long time; don’t get too high, don’t get too low, steady as she goes.
After shutting out Camping, Wilson-McDonnell advanced, defeating Sophia Tran, double hill, and drew Sara Moore in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Parlette, in the meantime, gave up only four racks in 22 games to get to the same place, downing Doreen Butler (2), Debi Hollander-Haney (0) and Elizabeth Morales (2) to pick up Linda Massey in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Parlette fought and won a double-hill battle against Massey and advanced to the hot seat match, where she was joined by Wilson-McDonnell, who’d sent Moore to the loss side 6-4. Parlette claimed the hot seat 6-4 over Wilson-McDonnell.
On the loss side, Camping was holding her own, so to speak. She won two 5-3 matches against Diana Whitaker and Lacey Earl, with a 5-2 win over Amy Burdick in the middle. Then, Nicole Donisi (the NWPA’s Media Maven) tossed her a double-hill ‘curve ball’ that she successfully turned into a win and picked up Sara Moore, fresh off her loss to Wilson-McDonnell. Massey joined the loss side and ran into Shiela Carney, who’d lost her winners’ side quarterfinal match to Moore and then defeated Hollander-Haney 5-2 and Sophia Tran 5-3.
Camping advanced to the quarterfinal 5-3 over Moore. Massey eliminated Carney 5-2. Added to the list of things that could have been daunting had Camping known they’d be coming was a quarterfinal, double-hill match against Massey. That happened, too. Camping won it and there it was, right in front of her. A single match away from the finals against the woman who’d shut her out and doubled the number of matches she’d had to play.
Camping chalked up her second straight, double-hill win, eliminating Wilson-McDonnell and likely had to put a leash onto her own nerves. So doing, she turned her attention to Tamara Parlette, waiting, presumably patient and, undefeated to that point, confident.
Not too high, not too low, steady as she goes. Camping embarked on her third straight (fourth, overall) double-hill match to claim her first regional tour title. By this point, it seems likely that her nerves and confidence had been waging a constant battle against each other since Camping had stepped into her first loss-side match a little over 24 hours earlier. She’d had the benefit of a night’s sleep after defeating Amy Burdick late on Saturday, returning on Sunday, after 2 p.m., to face the six matches ahead of her.
Confidence has a way of keeping one’s ‘mental game’ steady, while the occasional and always-present jolts of doubt keep battling for dominance. Neither of them moves the outcome ‘needle’ in a sure-fire direction of absolute certainty. This all played out in the final match of the NWPA’s season opener. Camping and Parlette played out their double-hill drama, which was heightened when, in the final, deciding rack, the 9-ball ended up sitting on the edge of a pocket, leading to several ‘combo’ attempts to put it in a hole early. Eventually, the 9-ball was moved off of its precarious edge and finally, Camping dropped it to claim the event title.
A Second Chance tournament was held and won by Marian Poole, who defeated Raquel Minjarez in the finals. Kira North finished in 3rd place.
Tour representatives thanked Robert “Bobalou” Gering, his partner/sister Sheryl Snow and their Bobalou Billiards staff for their hospitality, which included food carts, a beer/wine garden and massages for the players. The tour also thanked their official tour sponsor Littman Lights, their ‘stop’ sponsor Diamond Mine NW and ‘stream’ partner Hill-Hill Productions.
The next stop on the NWPA Tour, scheduled for the weekend of May 31-June 1, will be hosted by the Silver Star Saloon in Vancouver, WA. Members are reminded that they can register for the event now, while non-member entries open three weeks ahead of the stop. For further information, you can reach out to the tour at http://www.playnwpa.com
