Former President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
In Trenton White’s case, that “big stick” is a pool cue. The Plant City native is not a young man of many words, but his actions at the pool table speak loudly. Most recently, White ended the month of November on a high note: winning the 2016 TAP League national 8-ball championship.
The win makes White, 12, the youngest national champion the league has ever seen.
A GOOD YEAR
White, who has been playing pool for three years, is quickly building a solid résumé for himself. He became the Florida state 9-ball champion in the 14 & Under boys division in March 2015, and successfully defended his title in 2016. He also competed in — and won — the state’s 14 & Under division 8-ball championship this year.
A member of the Bay Area TAP Pool League, White got the opportunity to compete in the 2016 Tap League National Championships in Charleston, South Carolina. Held from Friday, Nov. 18 through Tuesday, Nov. 22, the competition would prove to be some of the stiffest White had faced all year.
He was also the only competitor younger than age 15, though the majority of the field was made up of adults.
Facing players over twice his age isn’t something that fazes White. His regular playing schedule includes stops at Brandon Billiards, Silver Dollar Saloon in Plant City, Wally’s Billiards in Lakeland and Fatso’s Billiards in Tampa, where he normally plays against and gets tips from older players. Every month, he seeks out a larger tournament to compete in, which always pits him against adults.
One more tournament against adults, no matter the stakes, wasn’t going to bother him.
BREAK AND RUN
White entered the TAP League’s 8-ball and 9-ball competitions in Charleston, but the 9-ball competition didn’t go as he had hoped.
“I didn’t do so good,” White said.
The 8-ball competition, on the other hand, went well. Playing two to three matches each day, White worked his way through the bracket and soon found himself playing in the championship round.
The championship format was a best-of-seven series, requiring White to win four matches. It didn’t come so easy.
White quickly found himself facing a 3-1 deficit, and needed his luck to change quickly if he wanted to leave Charleston a champion. He caught his first break in the fifth match, picking up a win, but the script really flipped in the sixth: his opponent had pocketed the eight ball off of the break, which constitutes an automatic loss of game. Tied at 3-3, White had one last chance to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.
He did it on a break-and-run. In layman’s terms, he pocketed a ball off of the break, kept shooting and did not miss. It took a minute for him to realize it, but he had just become the youngest national champion the TAP League had ever seen.
“It was an awesome way to finish,” his father, Thomas White, says.
With the TAP championship in the bag, White is hoping to move on to even bigger things in the future. He’s hoping to compete in Europe as early as next year, but would have to meet several conditions for that to happen: he must keep good grades and either win a junior national championship or receive a recommendation from a professional player. White and his family are confident that he could play his way into that tournament if he has to.
His career is trending upward quickly, but White isn’t used to taking things slow.
“Everybody tells me I need to slow down,” he says. “But that’s the way I shoot — I shoot fast.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.