Players from up and down the west coast made their way to the city of Coos Bay, Oregon on May 20 – 22 to compete in the Western BCA May Madness 8-Ball Tournament held at the lovely Mill Casino.
Friday night featured the Scotch Doubles division in which one player could be a Master or Grandmaster level player and the other must be an open rated player. The event drew 24 teams and was won by Washington’s Stan Tourangeau and Madalina Moreno. They went through the event undefeated and were able to hold off the team of Paul Marquez and Kirsten Fery in the finals for the win.
On Saturday afternoon the tables became busy with the Singles divisions starting. Five different divisions were contested and 5 different champions were crowned. In the Women’s Open division, Lora Sharp defeated Kirsten Fery to finish first in the 20 player field. The Women’s Master division featured a strong 9 player field that was won by Phyllis Laderer as a result of her holding off Diane Krause. The Men’s Open B division was won by Chris Jenkins as he avoided the double dip after dropping the first set by winning the second set and the title. The Men’s Open A division was won by Shaun Kouglioulis as he made an undefeated run through the 27 player field, defeating Jeramy Daniels in the final. In the Men’s Master division, Stan Tourangeau rolled through the event undefeated and held off Mike Deitchman in the finals to take his second title of the weekend.
Special thanks goes out to the host, Mill Casino for hosting this great event and for adding $2,500. Also to Western BCA for sponsoring the tournament and adding an additional $1,000 and to the Tioga Pool League of Coos Bay for adding $500 to make the total added money a whopping $4,000! Thanks also goes to Danny Burdick and A-n-B Vending for providing the tables and to Eileen Stephens and Elaine Eberly for taking photographs. Many thanks to Rick and Tina Tillett, Darcy Williams, Nate and Cathy Dunford, and Eileen Madden for working with the casino to bring this event to the players and for the hard work of running the event and making sure everything ran smoothly. Hopefully the Northwest will see more events like this one!