He’s raising money for tournaments!
An 11-year-old Maryland pool player is taking the country by storm, Fox 5 DC reports.
D’Angelo “Jawz” Spain was only four-years-old when he started playing pool. His father, Frank Spain II, said it all began when the family decided to purchase a karaoke machine.
“One day we went out to go try to get a karaoke machine or something like that. [My wife] was like where are we gonna put it at? I said we can make space,” Spain recalled.
“The only place we had to put it was in our living room, so we had to take our couches out, move them all out, and we did get a pool table. He did talk me into it,” D’Angelo’s mom Angela Spain added.
The rest was history. Their son really took a liking to the game of pool, perfecting his craft over the years. Now at age 11, he plays at Center Pocket in Bowie, Maryland, where he lives up to his nickname Jawz.
“My dad gave me that nickname because I was killing people on the pool table,” said D’Angelo.
The locals are impressed by his craft at such a young age, the other players agreeing that he’s definitely one to look out for. While he practices at home in Bowie, he travels all over the country, participating in various tournaments across cities, including in New York and New Orleans. Currently, D’Angelo is the top-ranked player for the 13-and-under division of the Junior International Championships.
D’Angelo said his goal is to eventually make it to the pros, where he can beat some of the best players. But no matter how far he makes it, his dad says his son most enjoys beating him.
“When you lose to him one time you feel like you lost to him 100 times because he’s gonna talk trash. He’s gonna rub it in. He’s gonna make you lose sleep over it,” Spain exclaimed.
Currently, the family is raising money to help support D’Angelo and his 9-year-old sibling Franki, who also plays pool, so they can cover the cost of travel, tournament fees and lodging. So far, they’ve been paying out of pocket, something they say isn’t cheap.
“We are raising money to help with travel expenses for the remainder of the junior season and to help with travel next season [and] this will help to keep them on their journey doing what they love,” a statement on their fundraising site reads.
To support the Spain family, visit their GoFundMe. We’re rooting for you, D'Angelo and Franki!
Photo Courtesy of The Spain Family/GoFundMe