‘Back At It’ earns cash prize, eyeing more
The Back At It Team was doing what it’s name implied at the NOLA City Cup recently when it landed a coveted spot in the regional competition, but then they decided let’s not stop there.
“It was crazy,” said Natalie Tauzin of Luling. “We squeaked out every match and then looked at each other … it was ‘We’re winning.’ It was knowing you could do it. Anybody can win any day and can lose any day, but for all us playing as well at the same time was very fortunate.”
What became going for the win for experience and fun had just become a $5,000 move.
The team, that had recently regrouped to play pool again, had just won the cash prize in the American Poolplayers Association (APA)’s City Cup on Jan. 21. They were in the groove, having beaten 70 teams.
Natalie and her husband, Dennis, are on the team along with Sherry Daigrepont, Chris Tregre, Brent Daigrepont, Erin Anderson, Troy Robin and latest addition Whitney Eastin.
The Back At It team is among three local teams that qualified to go to regionals, and all from the Pit Stop Saloon in Luling, Dennis said. Pit Stop Saloon is the Back At It Team’s sponsor. All three will compete June 8 – 10 on the regional level at IP Casino in Biloxi, Miss., and any winner there will go to world competition in Las Vegas.
The Tauzins are not new to the game, as it helped bring them together as a couple.
“I started playing pool right before going to college and played a good bit in college … then I slacked off after graduating,” said Dennis, who is team captain. “It’s kind of how my wife and I started dating. We’d go out and shoot pool. It’s always been a game that’s challenging both in math and strategy, as well as practice and precision.”
With the APA league, a player is initially assigned a skill level (1 to 7) and Natalie got a 2. She gradually rose to a 3 and was most recently named MVP – that would be “most valuable player” – by the River Parish League. Now, she’s a 4 and won all but one of her matches last season.
“She surprises people with how well she plays,” said Dennis, whose skill level is 6.
For Natalie, she and her husband playing pool again is like dating again. But she doesn’t let that distract her from putting on her best game.
“I’m told all the time I drive people crazy because I think so much about every shot,” she said. “So I play a little on the slow side and that can frustrate an opponent used to slamming every shot. That’s the only way I can play.”
The game is much more than knocking balls in pockets, according to Dennis.
Eight ball requires strategy to beat an opponent, involving slot selection and defensive shots, he said. The winner gets to the eight ball first and sinks it, but that requires skill. It isn’t as easy as it might look, and he points out “That’s where the different skill levels come in” toward managing the whole take and the whole game.
“The most memorable shot I can tell you about was actually coaching a shot,” he said. “We were in a playoff and one of the team players – a 3 at the time – had a shot that was commonly a scratch.”
A three shot-railed was anticipated so the player hit the ball and it bounced off three rails all the way around the table and went into the pocket.
“It’s a very low percentage shot,” Dennis said. “For a [skill] 3, this isn’t a typically guaranteed shot. But low and behold, she hit it and it made it – an eight ball shot.”
The two are competitive, but they both also emphasize they consider the camaraderie an equally attractive aspect of the sport.
“Anytime you have a gathering of people with a shared interest like this it tends to be a gathering of like minds on one subject,” Dennis said. “It’s lot of friendly competition.”
And, for Dennis, the game also allows him to mentor his fellow team members.
“I really enjoy being the captain and coach of the team,” he said. “I tend to play the role of coach more often, along with Brent, and I really enjoy teaching and working with someone who wants to be better at what we’re doing whether that’s pool or anything else. Teaching helps me to be better.”
The two, along with their team, are contemplating the regional tournament, which also is expected to draw an estimated 70 teams. And going to Las Vegas would mean facing the best of the best, which would be a new experience for Tauzin.
“That’d be something incredible,” he said.
Natalie called it “one of those scarier things you do, but you’ve got to play through it.”
Be the first to comment