By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
It’s the busiest program – bar the daily lunch – at countless senior centers in the area. And to find it, you just have to follow the familiar click of ball and stick.
It’s the billiards room – and it doesn’t matter if the facility has just a couple of tables like Belchertown, or a grand, five-table hall like the Agawam Senior Center – you’ll find experienced players and newbies racking balls and making the break whenever the lights are on and the tables are open.
“It’s one of our biggest programs with regular attendance. We have pool players here from open to close – from 8 in the morning to 9 at night,” Michael Squindo, director of the Agawam Senior Center told Prime. He noted that between July 1 and late November when we spoke, 102 individuals were regulars in the Agawam billiards room, accounting for 1,802 Center visits to date.
Squindo said on average, 17 people visit his Agawam facility every day just to shoot pool.
And Agawam isn’t alone in this kind of loyal attendance. When Prime visited the Pleasant View Senior Center in East Longmeadow on a Tuesday morning, five players were already into round-robin games, with more coming in to open the second table during our time there. Most, like 94-year-old Louis Papadopoulos from Longmeadow who learned to play at age six, and Alan Belliveau from Hampden, were regulars who had stopped in for a friendly game or two.
“In the morning, we tease each other and make fun of the shots,” said Bob Davis of Springfield, another regular player. “In the afternoon, it’s serious [play].
“Alan, Larry [Bradley] and Frank [Thetreault] are the best in the league,” Davis continued, referring to two of the regulars playing that day. “That’s why I like shooting against them in the morning, it gets me warmed up.”
Like most senior center billiards rooms, on any given day the mix of players includes those who just stop in for a few games, and others who are part of a multi-center competitive league that travels between the East Longmeadow, Ludlow, Hampden, Agawam and Springfield centers one day a week. Thetreault is captain of one of the two East Longmeadow league teams, and has been playing at Pleasant View since he retired in 2008, back before the remodel when the Center’s single billiards table was in a corner and play took place only one day a week.
“I call in the [team] scores and I call my members to see whose turn it is to bring the donuts,” he joked. Thetreault also provides lessons to newbie players who want to learn the ins and outs of the game.
It’s not just the guys who shoot
Though, at the moment, men dominate the traveling leagues – and you’ll usually find the majority of players taking part in the casual play at most centers are guys – billiards is by no means a men-only activity. At the River Mills Senior Center in Chicopee, Mary Cecile Ryutkowski and her girlfrien
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Donald Grimaldi with Ludlow Selectman Derek DeBarge |
“I can’t do my aerobics anymore, I can’t do my line dancing,” she continued, “ But I can do the [fitness room] machines, and I can play pool three days a week.”
“The only bad thing,” she added, “Is that we only have two pool tables [at River Mills] and sometimes it’s hard to get a table. But we love the game, my girlfriend and I.”
Ryutkowski said neither she nor Fydenkevez had ever played pool before taking it up at the old Chicopee Senior Center. “We noticed one day that the pool table was empty and I said, ‘Let’s try playing’ and she said, ‘I’ve never played’ and I said, ‘I haven’t either’,” but they took a chance, gave it a try and both fell in love with the game.
The story was a similar one for Corinne Person, who now captains Agawam team #1 in the traveling billiards league. She too, had never played pool until a friend invited her to the senior center shortly after her husband passed away. “One day I didn’t know what to do, so I looked around and eventually went into the pool room,” Person said. “My friend said ‘why don’t you try hitting the ball?’ so I started hitting the white ball, then I stated hitting the colored balls,” and slowly, she learned the game. She played on the Agawam team for years, until a problem with her neck made shooting too painful. Now she keeps score for the team, keeping her hand in with the sport she loves.
Carla Roberts, a lifetime billiards player who spearheaded an active women’s program at the Ludlow Senior Center for a number of years, said she’d love to see more women get involved with the game.
“We have women’s billiards on Thursdays at 10 a.m.” Roberts said, adding individuals don’t have to be a member of the Ludlow Center to come play, but only need register when they come in.
She added Ludlow is also looking to restart their woman’s billiards program, with the first meeting to take place in January. The date had not been set at press time, and Roberts urged interested women to call the Center at 413-583-3564 for more information.
Benefits beyond play
Ryutkowski wasn’t the only billiards player Prime spoke to who talked about getting more than just a fun pastime from the game.
Richard Cox, who coordinates the schedules and handicaps for the four-center traveling billiards league, literally found a new passion in life when he discovered the game in retirement.
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Frank Thetrault of East Longmeadow |
“I never played until we moved to Wilbraham and bought this house,” Cox told Prime. “We put in a rec room for the grandchildren with a pool table.”
Even with such easy access, it wasn’t until a friend convinced Cox – who had been a banker before he retired – to take a look at what was happening at the Ludlow Senior Center that he started playing billiards.
“I found there were all kinds of professionals – former superintendents of schools, dentists, and some blue collar workers – all playing,” he said. Cox soon became so enamored with the game, he and a friend traveled to North Carolina to take lessons from professional billiards player and instructor, Allison Fisher.
“[Now] I play every single day,” Cox said. “I have a table at my house and I get up at 5:30 a.m., and while my wife is still asleep, I go down and knock the balls around for an hour or so.
“The wonderful thing about billiards is any sex and any age can play the game,” Cox continued. “They even have wheelchair leagues. We don’t have any around here, but they do exist, and they have special rules.”
Fritz Gerhard, who has been playing at the Ludlow Center for about 10 years, said the game has given him not only a new sport to pursue, but also a great circle of friends.
“I used to play golf, but I got a bad ankle [so] I came here to see what [other things] there are to do and the men invited me to play,” Gerhard said. “It’s a really nice camaraderie.”
Beyond friendships Gerhard – who said he first learned the game in his native Germany where he played with some GIs – noted the many benefits of billiards.
“It’s good exercise, plus mental exercise too. There are many things you can do with the shots, make them go backwards, come forwards” plus figuring the angles to score, he said.
Squindo said he actually has difficulty deciding what type of “activity” to list billiards under when he’s making out his monthly reports at the Agawam Senior Center, because the game has so many benefits.
“It’s a recreational activity, but it could easily be categorized as a physical fitness or exercise [activity] because of the mechanical movements – you’re bending, you’re moving your arms … I think there are a lot of physical benefits to playing pool.”
According to an article posted on the website Fitness Revolution, (www.fitnessrevolution.co) billiards offers no less than 10 health benefits to elders, including: slowing aging in men (by keeping them active); helping to build focus; burning calories (a typical 2-hour 8-ball or 9-ball session often provides 100 trips around the table’s perimeter, which is about equal to walking nearly three-quarters of a mile); stretching and balance work; builds control skills that can help individuals in crisis situations; sharpens the mind; hones good hand-eye coordination; tones muscles; improves cognitive skills; and is simply fun for all ages.
Larry Bradley, a regular at the East Longmeadow Center’s billiards room, said he’s drawn to the sport because it’s ageless.
“One thing that I like about [billiards] it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can shoot. We have guys on teams that are in their 90s; it’s not age-specific like football.”
Richard Gobe, another East Longmeadow regular, said he wouldn’t let an increasingly bad back keep him out of the billiards room.
“I take my pill at 8:30 a.m., come down here at 9, play for a couple of hours and go home to sit on the heating pad,” Gobe said. “The only thing I don’t do [now] is stretch too much.”
Editor’s Note: To see the winners in this year’s billiards competition at the Massachusetts Senior Games, turn to page 17.
