Ratkowski Takes New Year's Youth Championship
IRONWOOD - Saturday, January 05, 2008 - The Knight Club Billiards and Arcade, downtown Ironwood, hosted the New Year's Area Youth Championship 8-Ball Singles Tournament here Saturday. There were 48 players entered into the tournament. The top quarter of the field qualified for prizes.
The top finishers were: (1st Place) Mat Ratkowski, Saxon, Wisconsin; (2nd Place) Denver Sharrow, Ironwood, Michigan; (3rd Place) Al Traczyk, Ironwood, Michigan; (4th Place) Kyle Ofstad, Saxon, Wisconsin; (5th Place) Colton Fontecchio and Aaron Paulson, both from Ironwood, Michigan; (6th Place) Brittany Pertile and Devon Frank, both from Ironwood, Michigan; (7th Place) Clayton Schimke, Kimball, Wisconsin, Sebastian Fyock-Williams, Ironwood, Michigan, James Jewess, Bessemer, Michigan, and Levi Watkins, Ramsay, Michigan.
Click Here to watch the final match between Denver Sharrow and Mat Ratkowski.
Several of the players from Friday's doubles tournament returned Saturday night to see how well they would fare as singles. The winner of Saturday's tournament, Mat Ratkowski, along with his partner, Aaron Paulson, finished in second place on Friday. Aaron finished tied for 5th in singles competition.
Second place finisher in the Saturday's singles tournament, Denver Sharrow, finished third along with partner, Colton Fontecchio on Friday. Colton also finished tied for 5th place in singles play.
Sharrow was red hot in the early going. He swept the winner's side of the double elimination event without a loss. Ratkowski's only loss was to Sharrow in the fourth round of play. Ratkowski's loss to Sharrow sent him to the loser's side of the board, but Ratkowski was not about to give up. Mat continued to win on the loser's side determined to get back to the final match to face Sharrow. After defeating Sharrow 3-0 and then 3-1 in the finals, Ratkowski had this to say about Sharrow, "Well that first match that I played him, I lost. It was unfortunate, but I came back and he put up a fight and I ended up beating him in the finals. So, it turned out pretty good for me. I don't know, he's a good shot though, he stuck with it!" Sharrow said after the tournament, "I was just going to say, I did by best, and Mat shot well too!"
Alan Traczyk, who came in third made this statement regarding his semi-final loss to Ratkowski, "Well, I was a little disappointed with myself on that last match. I feel as though I should have beaten Mat. He wasn't at the top of his game, but I choked on a few crucial shots and it cost me the tournament!"
Kyle Ofstad, co-winner of Friday night's doubles tournament made the following comments about ranking his team against other tournament players, "I'm not going to rank us because we could have lost to any of the players! Everybody played good! We just had confidence and we played our game!"
"Yeah, Colton stepped up his game. Denver's helping him get his game going, but Denver is really showing us what he's got!" Ofstad said when asked how he felt Colton and Denver have been performing lately. Who is the best new player on the block, according to Ofstad?
"Him (Colton) and Denver play a good game, but I think Aaron's got more experience!"
Experts agree that one of the best ways to improve your game is to practice and compete in tournaments and leagues. Playing for money puts added pressure on players. Generally new players tend to play only their circle of friends. They rarely improve because there is no real reason to improve. First time tournament player Levi Watkins said Friday, "Well, I'm decent at pool, but, from the looks of it, they're pretty good themselves, so I'm very nervous." When asked if he believed tournament play would improve his game, he said, "Definitely. It'll definitely make me want to play more and better so that I can play in more tournaments."
"It's a lot different shooting when you're actually shooting for something that is worth money!" said Colton Fontecchio.
When asked if they had anything to say to our Chronicle audience, most players had basically the same thing to say. "Yeah, come out and play some pool!" were the words of Kyle Ofstad. "Come out and start doing it. It's a lot of fun! There's a lot of guys!" said Brittany Pertile.
"This place is a really nice place, you know?" said Levi Watkins, "Good environment, good music! I will definitely come here more!"
Jim Albert
Photos by Steve Frank