Dragon Promotions is pleased to announce its newest member of the DP Family, 19 year old Yu Ram Cha. Yu Ram(prounounced You Dom) is the current #1 Ranked player on the Korea Pro Womens Tour. She has won 3 stops this year and was also runner-up to Jeanette Lee in the televised Ultimate Trickshot Challenge on MBC ESPN. Yu Ram finished 2006 as the Korea Pro Tour Championship Champion and became the 2006 Womens Player of the Year. Yu Ram has entered into an exclusive appearance and management contract with Dragon Promotions.
Cha started competing in international pro events at age 14 traveling to Japan and around Korea. Her older sister Bo Ram Cha was also a up and coming player that trained and traveled with her. Both sisters were originally groomed as tennis players but later their parents turned their focus onto pool. At 17, Yu Ram turned full time professional and finished 4th on the 2005 Korea Rankings. At 18 she finished 2nd at the 3rd Annual Korea International Championships making her national TV debut. Less than a year later she moved into the #1 position on tour with 3 pro tour stop wins including her first international win at the 2nd Annual Korea Pro Pool Tour Championships. She is currenty ranked #1 in Korea.
2006 was a big year for the young Yu Ram as her live TV appearances in the Empress Cup and Ultimate Trickshot Challenge drew record audiences in the TV ratings. Because of her stand out beauty and angelic face, most people thought she was a TV or movie star making a special appearance, not a professional billiards player competing. She became the #1 topic on all Korea internet search engines for a week and her homepage went from #800 to ranking #1 of all celebrities in the world (above Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie, Angelina Jolie,etc) . Since then, there have been three seperate 1 hour special documentaries on her life that were produced and aired on three major networks in Korea. An estimated 80% of the population knows who she is and what she does in this country of 50 million people.
This overnight sensation will be joining an elite family of players managed by DP including Thorsten Hohmann, Rodney Morris, Mika Immonen, Mike Davis, and Charlie Williams. Yu Ram is a perfect role model and admired and loved by her peers and was voted 2006 Best Sports Woman in Billiards. Shy, quiet, and focused, Cha wants to earn her respect and place in the pool world and not just by her looks. Yu Ram says about herself, "My goal and desire is to be a great player. I never thought of myself or asked to be a celebrity or beauty symbol. I have a competitor's heart and spirit."
And those are not just fancy words for Cha. Yu Ram and her 21 year old sister Bo Ram will be traveling to the West for the first time in their lives. DP has arranged a 2 month stay in the US including 1 month of training and coaching by Stan Shuffett, father of junior champion Landon Shuffett. The Cha sisters will then spend time in Orlando FL with US pro Charlie Williams and later travel to Europe for additional training including a month with Michael Wahl, the coach of 2x World Champion Thorsten Hohmann.
"The first time I saw Yu Ram, I could see the intensity and desire burning in her eyes. Behind that pretty face, she's a killer." says Charlie Williams. " She knows how to win and she works hard. She doesn't mind putting in 10 hours of practice in a day. Plus she has a look that's super marketable and already has movie star like status...and she's only 19 years old! I don't know if any other player has ever been in the shoes she's in. She has a long, long future in the game."
Yu Ram's full appearance schedule and bio can be found online. For more information on Yu Ram goto www.dragonpromotions.com and click onto her players link. Or goto http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=165770786
