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Brown vies for first junior national championship
Lewisville’s Stephen Brown will be competing for the fifth time at the Billiard Education Foundation’s Junior and Collegiate National 9-Ball Championship in July.
BY JUSTIN THOMAS, Staff writer
With each passing year, Lewisville resident Stephen Brown is gaining more experience on the billiards table.
And in each of the past four years, Brown has taken his skills and experiences to the annual Billiard Education Foundation’s Junior and Collegiate National 9-Ball Championship.
This year is no different, as the 17-year-old Brown, for the third consecutive year, will be competing in the 19-and-under division July 8-13 at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
But, the recent Lewisville High School graduate feels this could be the year he wins it all.
“I think I have a good shot because I’ve been there a couple of times before,” Brown said. “The older players aren’t as nervous and I think I’ve gotten over that hump. I don’t really get nervous anymore. That’s a big part of it. The first couple of times you are playing somebody one-on-one and there are 30 or 40 people watching can be intimidating.”
Brown, who plays competitively three to four times a week, in addition to the time he spends playing with his friends or while watching television, qualified for the tournament by winning the 19-and-under division of a national qualifier tournament at Slick Willie’s Family Billiards in Houston a month ago.
The format for the Junior National Championship Tournament is a double elimination, 9-ball, race-to-nine format, meaning competitors play an opponent in 9-ball, with the first player to win nine games advancing.
“I prefer to play 9-ball,” Brown says. “8-ball is too easy. In 9-ball you have to be perfect every shot.”
Brown said last year there were about 60 competitors, but this season there will be more than 80 players who qualify. Should Brown finish in the top-3, he will advance to play in the world championships.
Brown said while playing he doesn’t worry about his opponents. He just focuses on his own game.
“I don’t worry about that because you are really playing the table,” Brown said. “If you never miss, then you don’t have to worry about your opponent.”
Brown was introduced to pool by his father Stephen when he was 12 years old.
“My dad bought me my first cue,” Brown said. “I would play around with my friends and realized I was kind of good. So he took me to a little tournament and I won like 20 bucks and I thought ‘whoa, this is pretty cool.’”
Brown also says he considers his dad a coach of sorts.
“I would say he is more of mental coach and provides support,” Brown said. “I don’t really have a coach, I just pick up things here and there from watching and playing in tournaments, but pool is 80 percent mental and he helps there.”
Brown said while playing in Dallas, he hasn’t created many rivalries or common opponents, but he has been playing in competitions with Nick Dafoya of New Mexico since he was 12.
However, it was against Dafoya’s brother where Brown had one of the highlights of his career and made his name known.
“I was playing his older brother in a tournament and nobody was really watching,” Brown said. “I was a huge underdog and they just thought he would whip me. But, I beat him 9-6 and people began to take notice. My dad was real proud.”
Brown also credits his experiences in other sports as a positive influence.
“I used to play football and basketball but I gave that up to get more serious about pool,” he said. “But, it’s all competition and it helped give me the desire to always want to win.”
When Brown began playing, he didn’t imagine he would end up playing in national tournaments, or even collegiately, but that could all change.
Brown, who graduated June 8 from Lewisville High School, has been invited to play for the pool team at the University of Texas at Dallas. He said it is the first time an incoming freshman has been offered a starting position.
But, for now, Brown’s mind is on the junior national tournament. And, even if it doesn’t work out this year, he still has two more years of eligibility.
“It’s the biggest tournament of the year,” Brown said. “People play all year to get ready for this one and I think I am.”
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