CHATEAU ELAN MEN’S BILLIARD LEAGUE

... a little history and a huge thank you to Bob Kindelberger for starting such a fun tradition in Chateau

We started the Pool League in the year of 2003. Dana Dow, Gary Adams and myself were conversing at the Legions Clubhouse about what do you do during the winter months. Dana mentioned that he used to play pool in a league at his old neighborhood. Gary said that he likes to play pool and owns a table. I told them that I grew up playing pool.We can start a pool league. Dana had some rules that they used. Our goals of the league was to meet your neighbors, have some fun with light competition. I mentioned that I could write the software to manage the league. So it began, we had 24 men who played in our first year, 4 teams of 6.

After a few years of keeping score on paper and using my Microsoft Access program, we decided to spend some of our money on crafting a website from my programs.That changed everything.The league grew from 24 to over 100 men very quickly. In fact, we had a draft, in which each team picked men for their team from a pool of 70 new members. There were many men who helped contribute their time to this league. Allen Hughes, John Pennebaker, Bob Baccus and Todd Hall.

Before the Covid year, we had 150 men playing in our league. Covid hit and we shut down for a year. Many decided to drop out because of Covid, but are gradually coming back.This year we had 131 men play on 14 teams.

In anything, where you have a bunch of people trying to have some fun, there will always be a few who do not like the way it is run. I realized, many many years ago, that you cannot make everyone happy. The key is to make most happy.

I was at a wedding breakfast in the Village one morning, Sally Beggs home.Was talking about the pool league and this lady overheard our conversation. She mentioned that her husband plays pool. Her name was Queenie, at least that is what her husband called her. He wasn’t there, but I asked her if I could get his number and we would make arrangements to play.We got together with Bill Mays, Jim Millar and I. Ben Daniels beat all three of us many times without losing.We have a trophy named after Ben, it is the Highest Achievement, called the Benny Award.

Bob Heckathorn has many talents, one of which he can play a great game of pool. He took over managing a team, the Miscues, when the captain of that team,Woody Hebenstrait, fell down a mountain and died. Bob renamed the team Woody’s Miscues. I joined the team shortly thereafter and we were the very last team to make the playoffs. We ended up winning the Team Tournament that year.With men like Jason Kohler, Bill Bennett and Bob Heckathorn, we were hard to beat. Bob Heckathorn has the lowest handicap ever recorded at .81.

I change teams about every 2 years.The reason for this is twofold:

1) You get to know someone better when you see them every week.

2) I will create a new team when no one else steps up as captain.

We have a lot men that makes this league work well. All of the Team Captains, a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that 3 guys show up for their match.They also show up at our annual Captain meeting before we kick off the new season and talk about how to make the league better.

We have a Rules Guy, who may take a call, while playing pool, to understand the contention of a shot and make a ruling. We have a Financial Director who controls all of the money, pays all of the bills, helps with the Raffle and buys all of the awards.

We have a Billiard Company Sponsor, who gives us a discount on Billiard equipment and helps with the raffle.

We have men in the league who donate stuff for the raffle, like wine bottles, Legends greens fees, Papa Jacks coupons, Paisley’s Dog Grooming, Platinum Salon Hair Cuts, Cotton Calf and Local Station certificates, Chick Fil-A coupons, etc.

Todd Hall is taking over my responsibilities and Justin Norman is taking over his responsibilities as the Financial Director.

In all, it has been one of my greatest achievements in life. Made many friends over the years that I don’t believe it would have happened without the pool league.

Written by, Bob Kindelberger

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