Derby City Bank Champion, U.S. Bar Table Champion, and two-time NYC 9-ball Champion Stevie Moore began playing pool at the age of twelve in his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. And, it didn't take long for Stevie to learn that he was quickly falling in love with the game of pool. Stevie's combination of natural talent and dedication for learning and competing at an early age led to his first tournament win when he was only thirteen. In that moment, Stevie experienced the feeling of being victorious in competition, and began to be drawn onto the path of competitive pool/billiards.
Fast forward to 2011, Stevie Moore is now a full-time professional pool player, and has risen the ranks to become a world-class player. While Stevie's destiny is to fulfill his calling as an international competitor, he has also fallen into a new role which has added a new dimension to his game. The player who goes by the nickname "The Blade" has sharpened another tool in his arsenal… the art of teaching the game he loves.
Stevie began working with Stan Shuffett of JustCueit.com, who has helped him improve his game while instilling the love of teaching in the standout player. Stan Shuffett is a professional instructor who has created the CTE / Pro One Aiming System. Stan has made headlines by helping his son Landon Shuffett, who began the game at five years old, rise the ranks as a junior phenom. Landon has won three Billiard Educational Foundation (BEF) Junion National Titles, as is a five-time BEF Academic All-American, on his path to become part of CSI's Next Generation Team.
While Stevie Moore is a passionate endorser of the CTE / Pro One Aiming System, that is not all that he learned from Stan. Stevie also got bit by the teaching bug through Stan's influence, and is most passionate about teaching our youth. In order for any major sport to grow, the great players, coaches, and those who lay new ground, must lay the foundation for the youth in their respective sport to flower and grow, and Stevie has now begun taking on that role for the youth of pocket billiards. The youth of today's game will, after all, be our stars of tomorrow.
Recently, when Stevie Moore was in Brooklyn for the NYC 9-Ball Championships, which he had won the two previous consecutive years… he teamed up with the host room Skyline Billiards to lead a team of passionate school kids who come twice a week. Stevie was impressed to learn that the owners of Skyline… Rob Pole and Sammy Wu, hosted approximately sixty kids from Midwood High School, who earn credit while learning to learn through the game/sport of pool. Midwood High School has received very positive feedback about the kids going to play at Skyline, and have been doing so for approximately four years. They were blown away by some of the cool shots that Stevie "The Blade" Moore was showing them, and couldn't wait to try to get on the table to do some magic themselves.
The complete attention of the kids was gripped when Stevie mentioned that he has been on ESPN several times, and played pool professionally. He also went on to mention that the more he teaches kids and today's aspiring talents of the game, the more he knows that he is on the right track to continue to build his skills as a teacher, and fine-tune the different ways to resonate with each person in an influential way.
Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences lends toward the potentiality of seeing talents in today's youth in a different way, than our current educational system approaches it. It can open up limitless untapped potential within the individual. Howard's work talks about the multiple intelligences, being as follows: Spatial, Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic, and Existential.
These skills seem to be more in alignment with how kids can be more effectively judged, and that the sport of pool can be an awesome vehicle for self-exploration and mastery in many of those areas. Standardized testing has a number of limitations, and does not comprehensively serve as an accurate judge of a person's intelligence and capacity. The game of pool, which integrates a number of different types of intelligences in a fun and interactive way, could be a dynamic addition to curriculums of schools at a nationwide level.
The BEF, BCA, and ACUI Collegiate Billiards Championships are doing a lot to keep the sport central in the heart and minds of today's youth… but there is still a long way to go. Justin Tuck from the Giants is also doing a lot to inspire our youth, and provide them with the tools to succeed, and is using billiards as the medium to bring people together in a purely social and inspirational way.
There may be a trend starting that is inspiring more kids to play pool, as witnessed in an article in New York's Time Out Kids publication which recently had over 30 kids get together to play pool at Amsterdam Billiards. With great people doing great things to help grow the sport at a grassroots level, there is plenty reason to remain optimistic about tomorrow's youth learning more about what makes this sport "everyman's game".
While it's clear that kids have a lot more information to process, and are connected in a way they have never been before to each other and technology… there reality is if people are truly social, they continue their "online" relationships…. "off-line". Whether a parent offers their kids their own game room to entertain their friends, allows them to visit one of their friends who has one, or takes the initiative to bring them around and involve them in the appropriate activities that draw them to the game, are good for the future health of the billiards industry as a whole and beyond.
Stevie Moore's selfless contribution and willingness to donate his time was appreciated on many levels from many people, and helps bring positive favor to the sport we all have come to love. Be sure to stay plugged in to Stevie's progress as a professional player on NYCgrind.com as well as a tournament near you. To learn more about who currently sponsors Stevie or, if you are interested in learning more about how you can support him make a greater impact, Click Here!
Or email Stevie Moore at: Stevie's Email
