Taylor Coffey, 12-year-old Jacob Hyatt split top prizes at 5th Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial
Taylor Coffey earned his place in the headline of this tale by going undefeated to the hot seat at the 5th Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial, held this past weekend (April 12-13). Coffey ended up splitting the top two prizes with 12-year-old Jacob Hyatt, whom Coffey had defeated in the opening round of play and went […]
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Jacob Hyatt & Taylor Coffey
Taylor Coffey earned his place in the headline of this tale by going undefeated to the hot seat at the 5th Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial, held this past weekend (April 12-13). Coffey ended up splitting the top two prizes with 12-year-old Jacob Hyatt, whom Coffey had defeated in the opening round of play and went on to earn his spot in the headline by winning nine on the loss side for the right to be in a final that didn’t happen. It was the second year in a row that the youngster had split the top two prizes with the occupant of the Anthony Mabe Memorial hot seat. Last year, he’d split with Christy Norris, one of the original organizers of the memorial event. This year’s $1,000-added event drew 47 entrants to the new Breaktime Billiards in Clemmons, NC.
The youth of any generation is generally the recipient of the large-scale successes and failures of the presumed ‘adults in the room’ when they’re young. So, as we move on to specifics about this year’s Anthony Mabe Memorial, let’s, all of us, bear in mind that their eventual success or failure at this, or any other sport for that matter, depends a great deal on us and how we choose to prepare them. As pool edges its way toward recognition as an Olympic sport, opening the doors to corporate sponsorships that fund training systems for American Olympic athletes, we are the ones who’ll be making choices that will influence the current crop of junior competitors. Not just for a life in the sport itself, but in their growth towards being adults, learning the benefits of honest effort, good sportsmanship and the joy to be found in doing anything to the best of one’s abilities.
Like Hyatt, last year’s Anthony Mabe Memorial champion, Christy Norris, was sent to the loss side in her opening round of play, losing a double-hill battle to David Shipman. In her opening, loss-side match, she ran into another of the event’s junior competitors, 15-year-old Jas Makhani, son of Breaktime Billiards’ owner, Sundeep Makhani. Makhani eliminated her 8-3. Meanwhile, Taylor Coffey and Chris Coleman set out on their separate roads to the hot seat match.
After a bye and sending Jacob Hyatt to the loss side, Coffey, racing to 5 throughout, downed Scott Largen (3) and Jeff Little (1), to draw Josh Dowell in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Coleman’s trip to the same place (racing to 6) began with a bye as well, advancing to chalk up wins versus Onyx Stinson (1), WPBA veteran Janet Atwell (3), and Jody Musselman (3) to pick up Jeff Howell in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Coffey defeated Little 5-1, as Coleman and Howell were having a double-hill debate over who’d advance to meet him. Coleman won that debate and then lost the next one to Coffey, who claimed the hot seat 5-3.
In races to 4 on the loss side, Hyatt used three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7 to defeat his first opponent, Don Lilly 4-4. Over the next three matches, neither Joseph Johnson, Jamie Hackney, nor Randy Canipe was able to get more than two racks against Hyatt. Johnson and Hackney got one each and it was Canipe who got the two. At that point, Hyatt drew two Q City 9-Ball Tour veterans in a row. Thomas Sansone put up a double-hill fight, but with three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7, Hyatt advanced to pick up and defeat Josh Heeter 4-6 (Heeter racing to 9). At that point in the loss-side drama, Hyatt drew the recently-arrived Jeff Howell.
Josh Dowell arrived on the loss side and picked up Jody Musselman, who’d followed his loss to Coleman with a win over Joe Hyatt, Jr. (Jacob Hyatt’s older brother) 6-3 and survival in a double-hill victory over Onyx Stinson.
In a straight-up race to 6, Dowell advanced to the quarterfinals 6-4 over Musselman. With another three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7, Jacob Hyatt eliminated Howell 4-2 and joined Dowell. In a race to 6, Dowell awarded Hyatt only two ‘beads on the wire’ and Hyatt defeated him 4-2 in those quarterfinals.
The three remaining competitors – Coffey, Coleman and Hyatt – went home for the night and returned to battle on Sunday. Coleman, also giving up two racks to Hyatt in the semifinal race to 6, battled the youngster to double hill, before giving way (4-5) in what proved to be the last match of the 5th Annual Anthony Mabe Memorial.
Q City 9-Balll Tour Director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards’ staff for their hospitality (and food quality) along with sponsors BarPoolTables.net, Break Time (Clemmons), TKO Custom Cues, Realty Group One Results, CHC Undeground, Digitalpool.com, Dirty South Grind Apparel, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and AZBilliards.
The Q City 9-Ball Tour will take a week off and return to the felt at Janet Atwell’s Borderline Brunswick Arena in Bristol, TN on the weekend of April 26-27. It’ll be a $250-added Open event for ‘7s and under.’
