Trophy Effects

On my Monday night league, we had our end-of-season award ceremony and then a singles tourney.  This league calls that tournament "The Turkey Shoot."

I kinda felt like a turkey! 

At the awards ceremony, I have to admit it was pretty dang cool!  I wish my boyfriend could have been there to see all this.

My team won FIRST place in the league/playoffs.  Here is our awesome plaque (with our names on it!!):

(click photo to enlarge)

And then the individual awards were given out.  I was SO surprised!  I had no idea I won two awards (and $25 for EACH award!):

Most break and runs for a female and most rack and runs for a female! 

And THEN I was also given a trophy for each of these individual awards!

And THEN our team was given a trophy for 1st place - and I mean, we EACH received a big trophy with our names on it!  (I guess the plaque was for the pool room we played out of.)

I was elated!  I don't have a lot of trophies to my name, even though I've played pool forever.  So, it was so awesome!

Here is a pic of me and the three trophies:

(click photo to enlarge)

And here's how I REALLY felt:

(click photo to enlarge)

I posted the close up on FB and one of my friends said, "You were holding more trophies than Adele after she won 12 Grammys!"  LOL!  Funny funny.... :)

I have written before how I love trophies - it's a symbol or recognition to me.  Some people may have a million of the dust collectors, but I don't have that many.

Then we had the tourney!

Suffice it to say I found out that not only do I have title tournament jitters and ruin tourneys with expectations, I now know I have trophy pressure!

See the two pics above?  See that HUGE trophy in the background on the table?  That was the first place trophy for the Turkey Shoot!  OMG, I WANTED that trophy!  It would have been THE biggest trophy I've ever received in my life!

After I won several matches, I found myself in the hotseat.  I walked over to the new table they put us on, and on the very next table was this magnificent beast!   I think I slobbered a little.  I wanted it SO badly!

Well, I don't know if that was the reason I lost that match, but I did.  Wanted something badly and expectations can KILL your focus on the game in front of you.

I'm not saying that's why I lost, because I mostly felt like I was playing "catch up" the whole time instead of being in control of the match; this short race to 3 Nine-ball!

I barely squeaked by my teammate in the next match 2-1 to have a rematch with the girl I played in the hotseat.

The men were already done - hardly anyone was there watching.  Just me, and all her supporters for her.

I played my little heart out but I was playing too fast.  Even though I am the better player and the whole time there was never a doubt I would I would force a second set, it just didn't happen.  I lost 2-3 AND the dang trophy............

I texted a few girlfriends about it, as they were asking for updates.  Two of them texted back, "We'll MAKE you a big trophy!"

LOL.  Love my friends!