Playing Pool is Her Passion

12/3/03

PLAYING POOL IS HER PASSION

Marguerite Perfett

8 ball clipart It’s eight o’clock in the morning, and 72-year-old Loreen Ratzloff is out shooting pool with the guys again. She probably won’t be putting her cue (she owns her own) down until noon. It’s how she spends her week.

“Playing pool is my passion,” she says, “and the boys are really nice about having me around…but I’m careful to wear a high-necked blouse.”

About two and a half years ago, Loreen and long-time friend Jo Unruh were searching for something in Halstead, KS, to fill their retirement hours. They decided pool presented the challenge they wanted. “We taught ourselves back then,” Loreen explains.

Describing herself as a self-styled “tomboy,” the diminutive 112-pound woman craved a little more competition and began “hanging out” with the boys. “They didn’t have any wise cracks about my shooting with them,” she says. “They even helped me take the cover off my table and showed me how to rack the balls properly.”

Coached by fellow competitor, Otto Adrian, Loreen began perfecting her bank shot and the “combination” shot, which Otto believes is the most difficult to make. “If you don’t hit it right, you’re in trouble,” he says. “You don’t know where the balls will wind up.”

A retired Licensed Practical Nurse (she went back to tech school to get a degree at 50) Loreen balances her sharp pool skills with those of an artist. She has completed oil portraits of two of her seven grandchildren and hopes to paint them all. She is the mother of two sons and two daughters, who she says, have played pool but don’t have the love for it she does.

Even in high school, Loreen was a sports lover, participating in both softball and basketball. Rising now at 5 a.m., she completes a two-mile walk before her “regular” day begins. Her toy poodle, Misty,” is her family at home now.

Women can shoot pool as well as men, Loreen believes, and advises them to learn. She warns, however, if they want to compete, they will have to practice, practice, practice.

“I’ll be playing as long as I can,” she says. You can find her with the boys at the pool table in one corner of the Newton Area Senior Center weekdays from 8 until noon.

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