#Female pocket billiards players cracked#
#Female pocket billiards players pro#
#Female pocket billiards players professional#

The growing popularity of pool among women is why Little created a women’s league, 15 Rack, which kicks off 2010’s practices in February.

#Female pocket billiards players pro#

Still, women’s pro billiards is now a regular and prominent fixture on ESPN, and top shooters earn millions of dollars a year. The National Sporting Goods Association reported that about 60 percent of men had played pool at least once in 2007, whereas not quite 40 percent of women had. “When I tell people I play pool, they’re amazed. “I want to prove a woman can play as good as a man, if not better,” she says. The next weekend, she played the men’s Reno Open championship in Nevada and landed ninth place - the highest ranked woman in the history of the 30-year event. Little finished fifth, making history as the highest ranked woman in the men’s event.

“How can you be afraid of a little girl?” she says, before laughing. When Little enrolled in the Sacramento, Calif., men’s pro event in 2007, the other players didn’t take her seriously, she says.

The association reported Americans’ purchases of billiard equipment rose between 19, reaching $263 million in wholesale sales. Among individual sports, billiards showed the second greatest growth in overall participation since 2000, only behind bowling. While Little grew as a player, the sport grew, too.Īccording to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, billiards ranked the 10th most popular sport or fitness activity in 2008. “When I was younger, I was the only female in the pool hall, and all these world-champion pool players, recognizing how much talent I had for being a girl, took me under their wing.

“When I saw ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ I cried. Little started late, but she rose the ranks quickly. The following year, she represented the United States in the world championship. By 1999, she found herself undefeated in the Vegas amateur national champs. The next year, she won the women’s state championship. “I was so determined, ‘I’m never taking third again,'” she says. Two years later, she finished third in the women’s state championship. “My family was like, ‘Please, God, go to school,” she says. She gave college a shot at the University of Colorado, while working on the Hill at the Sink, but she says she kept gravitating back toward the billiard room. They will.”Īt age 17, Little began playing more regularly at a Broomfield restaurant, until she could beat the cooks and bartenders. They don’t even have pool on TV,'” Little says.

#Female pocket billiards players professional#

That’s when she told her mom that she wanted to be a professional pool player and play on TV.

#Female pocket billiards players cracked#

Little cracked her first pool ball at age 14. She went from being chosen last to giving a new definition to “You throw like a girl.” Soon, she was chosen first - always for quarterback. If you knew Little as a kid at Columbine Elementary, you probably remember the taste of her dust she’s always been a fiercely competitive tomboy, she says.īy sixth grade, she rocked the boys on the football field. In fact, that’s part of the secret behind her success.īut before we divulge the tricks, let’s step up to the table and look Boulder’s Viper in the face. The list goes on, and Little rattles swiftly through numbers.