A touring professional pool player for 20 years (retired 2004) Shari Stauch launched Pool &
Billiard Magazine with Harold Simonsen in 1983. She was honored by the Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) as the 1995 Sportsperson of the Year, given each year to a touring pro for outstanding contributions to the sport.
She is a five-time WPBA President’s Award recipient, and in 2007 was inducted into the prestigious WPBA Hall of Fame.
Her involvement in pool included 8 years as WPBA secretary, 2 as treasurer; 6 years as a BCA board member, heading the BCA’s Long Range Planning Committee; 2 years as founding president of the Billiard Education Foundation (BEF); 3 years as Secretary General of the World Pool-Billiard Association; and 2 years as North American PR Director for the World Confederation of Billiard Sports, that achieved recognition of billiards as an official Olympic sport, and promoted the first-ever billiards competition in the World Games (Akita, Japan 2001).
In addition, Stauch was instrumental in the launch of the WPBA’s highly successful ESPN televised Classic Billiard Tour. Her involvement included the tour's first TV negotiations, launching a PR division, and sponsor development, including sales of all industry sponsors and the tour's first-ever non-industry sponsorships.
Media appearances include Entertainment Tonight, ABC National News, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily Herald, For Your Money, The Dennis Prager Show, Country Music Weekly, WGN A.M. News Live, WGN T.V., and CBS Chicago. Shari appeared in and was a special consultant to the production of The Color of Money (1987), with screen credits.
She has been featured in hundreds of radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews in major markets and in 1999 was named one of Charleston’s Top “40 Under 40” by the Charleston Regional Business Journal. This year, Stauch was named a "Power Up" winner by Center for Women and the Charleston Chamber of Commerce.
Stauch is the author of 3 books, Precision Pool 1st and 2nd editions, and Pool Player’s Edge (Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL c. 1998, 2003, 2007), both written with fellow pro player Gerry “The Ghost” Kanov. A second edition of the Pool Player's Edge in a new size and in full color is now under contract and will release in 2010.
In 2004 she retired from the Women’s Pro Billiard Tour to pursue her role as WPBA's PR arm, where she established increased press attention, local and national, for players and tour events.
In 2007, Stauch teamed with event planner Veronica Walsh and Center for Women's Jennet Robinson Alterman to produce Chix With Stix, a charity benefit in Charleston to raise awareness of ovarian cancer in women.
Shari currently serves as Treasurer and heads Strategic Planning for the Center for Women, and has refocused her energies on promoting successful women in business in the low-country, conducting seminars for Center for Women on everything from Website Know-How to Company Branding Strategies to How to Beat the Boys at Pool!.
In 2008, Stauch signed on as Co-Director of Programming for Words & Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans. The elite writers conference drew international attention with over three dozen speakers, including the legendary Ted Turner, and Michael Lang, creator behind the Woodstock music festival. Shari continues to work with the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society as it prepares its 2009 Words & Music extravaganza in The Big Easy.
THE EIGHTIES
1982 Turned pro, won Illinois State 9-Ball Championship.
1983 Launched Pool & Billiard Magazine with NPCA president
Harold Simonsen.
1985 Was hired as special consultant to film production of
“The Color of Money” with screen credits
1988 Elected WPBA Board of Directors, served six years
THE NINETIES
1990 WPBA President’s Award
1990 Elected to BCA Board, served 6 years
and chaired Long Range Planning
1990 Created Pool & Billiard TV Magazine: Sports Channel
1990 Elected Secretary General: World Pool-Billiard Association
1993 WPBA President’s Award – presented by Vicki Paski
1993 Launch of WPBA’s Classic Billiard Tour: Sponsor procurement,
launched PR division and negotiated tour's first ESPN contracts
1994 Founding President, Billiard Education Foundation
1995 WPBA President’s Award – presented by Vicki Paski
1995 Named Women’s Pro Billiard Tour Sportsperson of the Year
1997 Created/executed PR campaign for World 9-Ball Championships in North America
1998 Book release: Precision Pool
1998 Relocated from Chicago, IL to Charleston, SC
1999 Named one of Charleston’s Top 40 Under 40 by
Charleston Regional Business Journal
21ST CENTURY
2000 Appointed North American PR Director:
World Confederation of Billiard Sports
2001 PR and fundraising for billiards' historic first-ever inclusion
in World Games (Akita, Japan)
2002 Elected WPBA Board of Directors as Treasurer.
2003 Book release The Pool Player’s Edge
2003 WPBA President’s Award – presented by Ewa Mataya Laurance
2004 Named PR Director for Women’s Pro Billiard Tour
2005 Selected as mentor in You Can Do It
2005 Selected as billiard broadcast voice for Chic Sports Radio
2005 5th WPBA President’s Award – presented by Ewa Laurance
2007 Elected to board of directors, Charleston's Center for Women
(the only women's development organization in South Carolina)
2007 Inducted into Women's Pro Billiard Tour Hall of Fame!
2007 Named First Runner-Up in Faulkner-Wisdom Novel in Progress
competition (New Orleans) for novel Chicks With Sticks
2007 Book release, 2nd edition Precision Pool
2008 Produced Chix With Stix tournament in Charleston, SC to
raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer
2008 Launched new www.wordsandmusic.org for Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society;
signed on as Co-Chair of Programming for Words & Music featuring keynote
speaker Ted Turner
2008 Named Essay and Novel-In-Progress Faulkner-Wisdom finalist
2009 Honored with "Power Up" award by Charleston Chamber of Commerce
2010 Book release, 2nd edition Pool Player's Edge
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