A big “Thank you” to Barbara Sutman for being part of the Phoenix TAP League – you have been nominated TAP’s Player of the Month for May, 2010.

Barbara is a great manager and deserves recognition for helping the TAP League with many of the new players who started playing pool at Clicks in Phoenix over the past few sessions.  She agreed to take over as captain of a team of just about all new players - plus, took over as captain of her existing team on another night.  She was the “glue” that held everything together for both teams.

Whenever I had a team of new players in her division, I’d schedule them to play her team first because I knew she would take them under her wing and make sure they were very well informed of the rules and how to fill out the paperwork.  Not only did she share her knowledge…she also made sure they had a good time too!  Good Job, Barbara, you are definitely a “people” person and we appreciate all that you do for your friends, your team, and the league.

May, 2010:  Phoenix TAP is proud to bestow it's "Player of the Month Award" to Elias Maro - one of the nicest team players you could ever have the pleasure knowing.  Here is what a new player (who is also a new captain) wrote about her first experience in the TAP League and with Elias...Thank you Elias for being a good friend and teacher.

"I would like to share an experience that I had with another Captain on a Thursday night team out of Skip and Jans.  It was my first time being a captain of a TAP team and not only was I a new captain but I had all new players on my team as well.  I was a little nervous but there was one person who took me aside and helped my unlike no other.  Elias Maro acknowledged that I was in fact a new captain in the league and stood side by side with me the entire night to make sure that my first night as captain went smoothly.  He guided me through every step, answered every question I had, practiced with me and made me feel as though the transition from player to captain was a breeze.  If it had not been for Elias I probably would have still muddled through my first night but it was because of him that my night was a complete success.  He is a wonderful guy and deserves top recognition."

Thanks for listening,

Karen Brown
Team Captain
Sticks n Stones

Justin Prideaux

TAP's Player of the Month

Congratulations to Justin Prideaux for being nominated Player of the Month for February, 2010.  Justin has played with TAP for several years and has always been a dedicated player and team mate.

One incident, in particular, that happened during league play has earned Justin a “high-five” for excellent sportsmanship.  Justin who is a handicap “5” was playing a brand new player who was a handicap “2.”  The new player had played for several weeks in the league and hadn’t even won a game, much less a match.  The new player happened to end up with a shot on the 8-ball to win a game.  While lining up on the shot, he accidently touched the cue ball with the tip of his cue (which is normally ball-in-hand foul to the opponent)…well, Justin told him that he wasn’t going to take the ball-in-hand and asked him to shoot the shot over…PLUS, Justin even went up to the table and assisted him in making the shot – which he did, and was so very excited that he won his first game.

After the match was over, Justin was thanked for being such a good sportsman and he replied “there’s more to pool than just making balls!”  He saw the value of giving a new player a little assistance so he could enjoy the game and the excitement of a win as much as he did.

Thank you Justin for being such a good sportsman and to have the insight to understand how much it meant to the new player to get his first game win – it’s players like you who make it fun and enjoyable for everyone in the league.