Break it open: Sarasota man heads to pool championships

Rich Henderson always thinks one step ahead.

As the dispatch manager for ITN SunCoast, Henderson makes sure the company’s senior customers have their rides depart and arrive on time. He knows where each of the 80-100 rides he manages each day are going to be, and schedules drivers, all of whom are volunteers, to assignments accordingly. Many of these rides are scheduled to occur after Henderson goes home, and he spends his off-hours worrying about whether everything will go smoothly without him on call. The company is always looking for more volunteers to carry their expanding client base, another worry on the mind of a man who deals with enough already.

To clear his head from work thoughts, Henderson indulges in his hobby, one that he’s held since 1983, when he was in the Navy. One that requires the same forethought and execution that his day job does, only in a much different context.

Henderson plays pool, and he’s good at it. Not good like the guy who frequents the local watering hole and takes money from overconfident young rascals who have never seen him play (though he does like playing at Entersection, his neighborhood bar), but actually good. He and partner Craig Wyckoff are in Las Vegas as you’re reading this, playing in the American Poolplayers Association 9-Ball Doubles Championship at the Westgate Hotel and Casino. More than 250 teams will be joining them, all for a chance to win $3,500.

Henderson and Wyckoff decided before the event that they’re going for more than a good time.

“It’s all or nothing,” Henderson said. “We shoot as well as we did on March 10 (at a qualifying tournament in Venice the pair won), we shouldn’t be able to be stopped.”

For Henderson, the championships are also personal. He’s played in them once before, in the 1997 8-ball singles division. It went poorly, he said, without revealing his exact finish. He’s had redemption on his mind ever since, and this time he’s feeling confident. He’s been practicing 9-ball for the majority of the time since 1997, he said. There’s more strategy to the game: Players have to strike balls in numerical order rather than 8-ball’s world of disorder.

If Henderson does find success at the championships, don’t expect to see his celebrations go viral. Henderson doesn’t believe in trash-talking his opponents, he said, even if they taunt him first, which they often do.

“There’s no place for that in any sport,” he said. “I let my game speak for itself.”

Henderson said there’s no secret to how he became a championship-level player. He plays two matches a week (he’d play more if he could), practicing every aspect of his game. He believes that players can always get better. He’s watched last year’s 9-ball championship final on YouTube four times, he said, to get a feel for how players at the top approach the game. Henderson’s holy grail would be a pool table of his own, so he could practice on a whim, but for now that dream has to wait.

There are some players, Henderson said, who were born with talent, like Ohio’s Corey “Cash Money” Deuel. Henderson loves his technique, his maneuvering of the cue ball and how he carries himself. But other players, like Henderson himself, never possessed that natural skill. If people want to give pool a shot, Henderson said, they should go for it.

“Go to local clubs and inquire,” he said. “People will help you get started.”

It’s thanks to people like Steve and Anina Meyers, the directors of the local APA chapter who helped Henderson way back when, that he’s in his current position. The kindness of others, plus Henderson’s own hard work, have given him a shot at redemption. Now it’s up to him to call his shot and sink it.