By Jim Cnockaert

Sports Editor / Bristol Herald Courier

Published: June 27, 2009

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Growing up in Abingdon, Va., Janet Atwell and her younger brother liked to hang out at the country store their parents owned, watching customers play pool on a small bar table.

With no quarters to feed the table, the youngsters would wait until a group was on its last rack and then grab each ball before it dropped out of sight into a pocket. Then, after the game was finished, the two would re-rack the balls and play until the balls were all gone.

Her parents sold the pool table after about a year, and Atwell didn’t pick up a pool cue until she was 20. She liked playing so much, she said, it became her daily hobby. But back in the late 1980s, she was the only woman player in Abingdon.

“If I played, I played guys,” she recalled. “When I went to my first pro qualifier [in 1999], it was the first time I’d played a woman in competition. Imagine that.”

Atwell grins at that last thought because from her perspective, so much has changed in the past decade. Now a pro player, member of the Women’s Professional Billiards Association and proprietor of Borderline Billiards on State Street, Atwell knows that when it comes to shooting pool, there’s no difference between men and women.

Area pool fans will get a chance to see that for themselves July 9-12, when Atwell brings the first satellite tournament sanctioned by the WPBA to Borderline Billiards. The 64-person field will feature 21 top-ranked professionals, all of whom have been featured during tournaments televised by ESPN.

“I want to increase people’s awareness of pool and a classic pool room,” Atwell said. “I want to make people aware that pool is not like it was in the 1960s, when women weren’t allowed in a pool room. It’s not a smoke-filled environment. It’s not a place where ladies can’t go.

“I want everyone to feel comfortable here,” she said. “If a team full of women can show up and be comfortable, then anyone local should be able to do that, too.”

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