Captain’s Log, January 31st, 2016 

20 years ago on January 28th, I arrived in San Diego to start up the SDAPA pool league. It’s been an amazing 20 years that has created a lot of long lasting friendships, better quality of play and brought the entire community together as one very large social group that likes to play pool. Our SDAPA pool league went from zero teams and very few people who knew ball-in-hand rules to over 400 teams and includes a $25,000 National Champion in the 8 ball team format in 2002. We have people that are still playing APA that were part of the first divisions ever created, and we have members that are nearing 2500 matches played over those 20 years. The idea of being a League Operator for the APA was pretty simple for me. I was in a management position in the printing industry in Champaign IL that was converting to computer graphics and phasing out the craft workers and I fell into that class. About all I had to look forward to was my Tuesday night APA 8 Ball team every week. I played in that league in Champaign for nearly 7 years before learning that I could actually be a League Operator for the APA. I called them up and they sent me a tough test. First I needed to be able to prove I could handle the move financially. APA has an approval process you must go through to prove that you are a good candidate to represent their league in the market you are requesting. That was easy. The hard part was being asked “Have you ever been in sales before, and what makes you think you can sell this league to prospective members?”. That was a tough one. I never sold a thing in my life. I never even considered a sales job, as I couldn’t even give a speech in my high school class room without getting tongue tied. I was scared to death of speaking in front of my own classmates, so you can imagine how scared I would have been speaking to complete strangers. But, after carefully looking at the question, it was pretty easy to answer. I wasn’t selling something I didn’t know. I was selling something I loved more than just about anything else in life at the time. APA was amazing to me. My teammates and I looked forward to league night, and we closed down the bar after league amongst ourselves, with either our own challenge games or practicing or a little 3 ball. I only missed two nights of league in those 7 years because of 2 concerts that fell on Tuesday night, our 8 Ball night in the quiet town of Champaign IL. So in answering the question, I responded that I never sold a thing in my life, but if there is one thing I can feel confident in selling, it’s something I believe in. And boy did I ever believe in APA. And I believed in it the very first time I played, as I took over as team captain the 2nd week of my APA experience. And I still believe in it today. Of course, I could never have accomplished all of this myself. Jill became a part of the SDAPA in 1998 and Lindsay joined the office in 2004. Over that time, we have had more than 15,000 people play on an APA team in San Diego and we have sent more than 1,000 to the APA National Championships in Las Vegas. It’s not always fun and games in the office. It’s rarely fun and games, actually. There is a lot of work that needs to be done with league administration, web site updates, phone calls and emails. And the worst is when we get the phone call that one of our beloved members has passed, and it becomes our job to inform everyone else of the sad news. It’s even sad when they move out of the area. But, I look them up in our database and find pleasure that they found an APA team where they moved to. Tournament production is where it gets fun. We love to see the happiness we create when a team or player makes it to the APA National events. 2002 was so amazing because within about 2 hours, we watched our Masters team win the Masters Championship and then one of our 8 Ball teams win the 8 Ball National Championships. The 8 Ball team didn’t get to have the full effect of their win because the opponent scratched on the 8 Ball to end the match, and they sat quietly out of respect for the opponent and until they were officially announced the National Champions. It was a very proud moment in our 20 year history. I think I have another 20 years in me to keep running the SDAPA. Thanks to our SDAPA Board of Governors and the numerous volunteers that have helped us over the years with referees, singles board helpers, junior program instructors, table set up crew at SWC, etc… Without your help, we wouldn’t be nearly as successful as we have been. Special thanks to all of our host location owners, who have not only provided the necessary pool tables to play our league, but have promoted our league to many of their patrons. We also thank the APA National Office for making all of this possible. Terry Bell and Larry Hubbart created an amazing pool league. Thanks also to Brandon Gramse at Billiards Direct and Dave Whitsell of Quality Billiards for their awesome support. And most importantly, to all of the league members that make this league the best league it can be. We can only hope that you have received the satisfaction that playing APA brought me back before I became a League Operator. Thanks for the last 20 years. Here’s to the next 20 years!

We are still taking sign ups on a number of events that are coming up in the new month or two. Our successful Junior program sent two members to the Junior Nationals last year and we are currently in the last qualifying session to send Juniors to this year’s National event. If you have or know someone with children between the ages of 8 and 18, give us a call. February 20th is the deadline to get your junior into the program for this session.
 
The Bonnie and Clyde tournament that we run every year is not limited for entries this year, but it’s been a full field of 64 teams every year that I can remember doing this event. It’s handicap races based on your skill level as a team. The handicap limit per team is 10, which allows a 7 to pair up with a 3, 6’s to play with 4’s and 5’s to team up together. Your handicaps must be a combined 10 or lower on the day of the entry deadline in order to compete in the event. So far, we have 20 teams signed up. Please be aware that once the deadline passes, we will not take any more entries. The entry fee is $30 per team and added prize money is $1280 based on 64 or more teams. We need your entry fee by the deadline, which is February 8th. The tournament takes place at the Locker Room Billiard Café on February 13-14.

We have lots of teams signed up for the Southwest Challenge tournament, but we still have room for more. Grab your APA friends and play in this fun tournament in Las Vegas. We have our regular 3 person team event and have added a 9 Ball Scotch Doubles event to this March 17-20 tournament at the Westgate Resort. The entry deadline for this one is February 13th. While it may be possible to get into this one after the deadline, there may be extra administration fees depending on how late you enter. Also, once the spots are taken, it may be too late to enter. Call the office or see the flyer on our web site for more information about these events. It’s a great weekend getaway tournament and the Westgate (the old Hilton Casino behind the Riviera) is a really nice resort/casino. Entry forms for the Southwest Challenge are going out this week if you are already signed up to play in either the 3 person 8 ball event or the 9 Ball Scotch Doubles event, so keep an eye out for them. You can have us email one to you if you don’t get yours.  

This week we had to take all unpaid members off their teams. The web site should show them on the team for week 5 for handicap purposes, but they won’t be on the score sheet when it arrives in your mail box. Teams can add these players back to the roster and play them as long as they pay their membership fees, and only if the team isn’t qualified for City Championships. Qualified teams are not allowed to make roster changes of any kind after week 4 of the Spring Session. Anyone added back to the roster of a non-qualified team and played without paying the membership fee will have the team become responsible for the payment of that added player. We will mark the team past due for that player’s membership fees and bonus points will not be awarded  until membership is paid for that player. Please do not add them and play them without collecting. It happens every session and we give ample warning not to do it. 

Qualified teams that did not submit memberships in the first 4 weeks for everyone on their roster and didn’t actually drop those players will have those memberships marked paid (rather than dropping them) and the team will become past due for those memberships. 

APA has renamed many of their National events. The 8 Ball and 9 Ball Team Championships are now called the World Pool Championship and the Singles Nationals is now the APA Poolplayer Championship. The Preregistered events keep their names, but they now fall under the group name Showdown Series.  

San Diego will be hosting the Spring Regionals at Locker Room Sports Café in Kearny Mesa on the weekend of March 5-6. You must have won a Single’s Board between June 15th and December 1st of 2015 to be eligible for this event. We have 146 participants from all over Southern California competing in this event. 8 ball qualifiers will play on Saturday and 9 ball qualifiers will play on Sunday due to the amount of participants, so plan your time off accordingly. And good luck to our San Diego participants!

Shoot Pool Good!