16 minute read
Teruko Cucculelli-Macklin:
OLD SCHOOL VALUES IN THE NEW EMERGING WORLD OF POOL“When you look beyond Teruko, the pool player, and look at Teruko, the person, you cannot help but see her as a modern woman with an old-world soul, and that is the kind of person everyone should be lucky enough to meet.”
I have been very fortunate to meet many great people as I have navigated the pool world over many years. About ten years ago, through a close friend of mine, I was introduced to someone who immediately became one of my favorite people, and not just because of her pool game. She is always so positive and kind; the word fun was created to describe her. I have watched her play, competed with her locally in tournaments, and sat with her for lunch between matches. I have wanted to do an interview with her for quite some time, and between my schedule and hers, we have not been able to line up some time. Even though she is preparing for a wedding in one week and an event in just a couple of weeks, she was kind enough to squeeze in a few hours to sit down with me and talk. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my friend, Ohio native, and WPBA touring professional, Teruko Cucculelli-Macklin.
Teruko’s parents met in Japan, where her father was stationed. I asked her, just out of pure intellectual curiosity, if she was named after the Empress, the Princess, the female samurai, the scientist, the lawyer, the long-distance runner or the basketball player. It turns out her namesake is someone even better. A very close friend of her mother’s and a close link that I feel she embraces based on her devotion to her family and friends. When you look beyond Teruko, the pool player, and look at Teruko, the person, you cannot help but see her as a modern woman with an old-world soul, and that is the kind of person everyone should be lucky enough to meet.
Teruko was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and had a typical upbringing. She was a cheerleader in high school and had a fondness for basketball. In her sophomore year, she restricted her cheerleading to football after a friend encouraged her to try out for the ladies’ basketball team. Already possessed of a competitive spirit
and being someone who loves challenges, Teruko was setting the stage for what would not only make her one of our areas best but would one day propel her to the Women’s Professional Billiard Tour.
I met up with Teruko in her homeroom, Cushions Billiards & Lounge, as she was chatting with Danny, the owner. It had been a while since we had spoken in person, and we spent a little time catching up. I especially wanted to congratulate her on her upcoming nuptials with Bryan Macklin and let her know how happy we all are for her.
Teruko had a glimpse of the game through her father’s music but was not yet playing the game. He is a blues musician, and she traveled to some of the venues to watch him perform, and of course, many bars and clubs had pool tables in them. However, she was not even a casual player yet. She had been working full-time, and then, when her mother passed away, she suddenly had a mortgage to pay. She was also taking a few classes part-time at Columbus College of Art and Design in the evening. She took a parttime bartender/cocktail waitressing job at Cushions Billiards & Lounge. When her regular job was downsized, she began working full-time at Cushions. It was here that she first started playing the game and eventually immersing herself in the sport. She was trying to decide if the art classes were something she wanted to pursue more or not and thinking about what she really wanted to do as a possible career. The WPBA was on TV while she fell in love with the game. Watching Jeanette Lee, Karen Corr, and Allison Fisher greatly inspired her. Especially Jeanette, as an Asian role model and what she proved could be accomplished as a player. She had a long talk with her father about her struggle with art school, and he told her that whatever she chose to do, she needed really to want to do it every day. She said what she wished she could do every day was play pool. So, he said, “Play pool, but you must put the work into it.”
The first big event that Teruko attended was in Windsor, Canada. She was just a spectator at this event, and she liked what she saw and enjoyed the atmosphere. This was right as she was making the decision that pool was going to be her career path. Julie Kelly was the winner of the event, and that helped spark her drive to compete. Her first step out of the local scene was at the Super Billiard Expo near Philadelphia, PA. This is the annual event put on by Allen Hopkins. She got knocked out of the main amateur event but returned to win the second chance tournament. She took second place in the
following year, and her fate as a player was sealed. She eventually moved to play on a regional tour until she finally got the call to the WPBA.
The learning process from beginner to professional tour player was arduous, as it is for many players. Teruko had to sort out the advice she was getting from other players around her. Many of the things people were telling her were wrong or, in some cases, above her skill level at the time. It made for a lot of confusion and many course corrections. Luckily, Cushions is one of serval pool rooms that mark the central Ohio landscape, and there are several top local players and just as many traveling players that make appearances. Fortunately, she met enough people who could help her navigate the process better and shorten that learning curve. Keeping her working on things that were beneficial to her skill level would help strengthen her foundation so she could move on to the next. Eventually, she came through and became the strong player that she is today. She is still working hard and still looking to improve her game.
In those early days, Teruko was especially driven to compete. There were tournaments in the central Ohio area pretty much every night, and she was there at every opportunity, looking to compete and win. She really wanted to “beat the boys.” She paid her dues, took her losses, returned to the pool room, and worked on her game. Day after day after day. She took her father’s words to heart and put in the work. Soon, she was beating the boys, and she started winning and placing high in these local events.
One thing we discussed was the mental side of the game. She says that she has the little mantras that she tells herself to help her get off to a good start and tries to laugh off any mistakes while maintaining her seriousness in a match. She tries not to let negative thoughts creep into her mind. Staying positive and not letting her conscious and unconscious minds collide to the point where it becomes distracting. Pool isn’t life or death, but the drive to win is always there, and you have to control that drive and not beat yourself up over it.
In preparing her mental game, Teruko is old school and embraces the idea of pressure. Playing with focus when it’s all on the line. Her philosophy is you must love it even when it hurts, learn from the pain of losing, and keep moving forward. When you don’t like what is happening on the table, then learn and work to make it different the next time.
She understands what so many young players today and even some older ones don’t. There are no shortcuts in pool without work. You must practice the right things; you must learn to grind out long sets, and you must learn to lose in order to learn how to win. Another lesson she learned from her father. He taught her to be humble in taking the loss and using it to learn what you must do to win. Learn what you are doing wrong so you can correct the problem. Be honest with yourself and use it as motivation to drive yourself to get better each time. It’s a lesson she is passing down to the next generation in her own family as her stepdaughter competes in her own sporting life.
There is no secret drill or magic cue; there is just you and the table. It’s there if you are willing to get on the slate and work to find it. She says putting in that time and battling tough opponents will teach you about the game, and it’s where you will learn the most about yourself—controlling your emotions, maintaining your focus, overcoming your fears, and embracing the challenge instead of shrinking from it.
I asked Teruko, as I do with most players I talk to, about their practice routine. It’s tough to find time even for those who have chosen pool for their career, perhaps especially for them. With family and travel and those who have to work to supplement their income, it can be difficult to put in the hours you did as a kid learning to play. Especially when guys like me interrupt it with a lot of questions.
Teruko, like pretty much all professional players, tries to get as much quality out of her practice time as possible. She now has a family for the first time and lives a full life. She has to maximize her time. She took a lot of time off during COVID as there weren’t any events anywhere, so she didn’t really play anything for a couple of years. She has also recently switched equipment, and it’s tough retraining yourself to do something different, and frustration is easy. You won’t see her just banging balls around. She practices with purpose, working on specific shots she has had trouble with and improving her break and safety play. Also, she is currently adjusting to her new equipment, trying to firm up her fundamentals, and learning to trust her pre-shot routine and stroke again.
On that note of coming back and some of the things that have affected the game in the last few years, I asked her what she thought was the most positive thing she has seen happen in the last five years. Her immediate answer? Junior players. The junior players
coming up make her more hopeful for our sport than at any other time in the game’s history. The talent they are displaying and the positive attitudes that so many have inspired Teruko and given her evidence that the game is progressing in a positive direction. Before, juniors had no inroads into the sport. Now, with the BEF and the Junior American Series (formally the JIC), local junior programs, and the influx of young talent coming out of Europe and Asia, the sport is starting to become a true sporting option for young people.
With the increase in young players, we talked about coaches and how effective they can be for players. Teruko doesn’t have a coach, but she sees the benefits of having them and how effective they can be, especially to young players—strengthening their foundations and keeping them on track to stay consistent and productive. It’s much like coaches in other sports like golf or tennis. They don’t have to be better than you as a player, but they can see what you can’t see about your play and point you in the right direction to fix issues in your game. Everyone has them; everyone gets a glitch in their stroke, and instead of taking a week
to fix the problem, a coach can help you correct it that very day. She feels it is a personal choice and emphasizes the need to get a good, experienced coach. A bad coach can be worse than having no coach at all.
Another thing we discussed about the young players is how they can gain recognition. It sounds vain, but it’s a necessary thing. With social media, a strong young player may begin attracting sponsorships outside of pool-related businesses. I discussed a recent article I co-wrote about Sam Henderson and his encouragement of other young players to occasionally get into more significant regional events for the experience and to help get themselves into a position where sponsors can see them playing.
Some of the young players that Teruko looks forward to watching develop are Sofia Mast, Savanah Easton, and Payne McBride. She feels there are almost too many upcoming players to choose just one or two, and she is very excited to see these young players grow into future champions and represent our sport.
I touched on the current situation with the bansthat are going on, and Teruko is hopeful that, eventually, a solution can be found where everyone can coexist and that the players will be in a more stable situation where they can play and make a living without worrying about opportunities being unavailable to them. More and more events are being created. As the opportunities increase and the number of up-and-coming players increases, there has to eventually be a stable structure that allows growth and security for everyone involved.
With the Mosconi Cup on the horizon, I asked a question I felt Teruko was uniquely positioned to answer. Based on the history of the Cup, Europe has overtaken US players as the dominant competitors. Asia, of course, has been a dominant force ever since the arrival of Efren, Parica, and Bustamente. Does the same gap exist on the women’s side of pool? She feels that it does exist and a lot of it has to do with developing young players and things like government support for touring play. The mindset that the culture that has developed outside of the US has contributed a lot to raising the talent levels. She does feel that now as America increases opportunities for young players and as they grow and compete with one another, we will start to close that gap. The more successful our young players are, the more likely they are to inspire more young players to try to compete in the future. The connections these players build will indirectly lead to more connections in the future, even if they don’t play much past the junior level. They will introduce their children to the players who have moved on to the next level, and another fan and potential player/ viewer will be created. The more faces we have in the game, the more likely one of those faces will connect with fans, and they tell two friends and so on and so on and so on…
One of the things that I always want to do is offer balance, and while we all love this game, I know how much Teruko loves this sport and traveling and competing. It’s not always easy, so I asked her what are the most challenging things about being a traveling professional player. For Teruko, it’s missing out on so many things with friends and family. She has had some health issues with her back, and with the need to take every opportunity to compete in a sport where there are no millionaire athletes, it isn’t easy to take time off. She now has a family of her own, so she wants to be involved with many things: birthdays, school events, and general family time. With nine-to-five jobs, family life can be tricky; when you are on the road every month and taking time to prepare for an event and making travel arrangements, the complexity of it all increases. The wear and tear on the body alone takes its toll.
With all of that said, I asked what event she most looks forward to every year. She said Soaring Eagle, without hesitation. She loves the venue and the atmosphere. There is a great amateur event that runs alongside the main tournament, and they do a wonderful job all around with this event.
When she is on the road, her main road companion is Brittany “The Bombshell” Bryant. A fine player in her own right, Brittany has won at every level, from junior to professional. Just last year, she was the first player to sweep the Canadian Billiard and Snooker Association Women’s Championship. She also loves hanging out with Caroline Pao, but the reality is she enjoys spending time with a lot of the players. They root for each other even though they compete hard against each other, trying to win. It’s been an evolution for her as when she was first on tour, she was very much a loner, just focusing on competing and not showing interest in making a lot of friends, how time changes us.
Teruko now values the friendships she has made through pool, including the one we forged. It would not have happened without pool. She is a beloved local player here and is respected by her peers, both male and female amateurs and professionals alike. That’s not a guess. I have personally witnessed her interactions with players at every level of the game. She sees the positive impact that pool has had on her life beyond matches and events, and she has had even more positive impacts on others in the game.
She enjoys being home with family and friends when she is away from the table. Home is where the heart is, and hers is always with those with whom she is close. She loves traveling to New Orleans, The Grand Canyon, Florida, and South Dakota. There are grand adventures both in and out of the pool world, and Teruko is living hers.
Teruko has undergone many changes in the sport, both locally and nationally, and her experience puts her in a unique position to view the sport as it is poised for its first real growth into the mainstream since the early 1900s. As the tours expand, the fanbase grows, and young players vault over higher and higher bars of excellence. Players like Teruko will be guarding the foundations and values of the sport, cheering the youth on to brilliant futures, and keeping the spirit of the sport alive for all of us.
