Rachel Hurst Interview by Melinda Bailey
Rachel Hurst
is one of those players that you are so thankful to have crossed paths with in your life. And you are proud pool brought you together at some point in both your pool journeys. Rachel was an obvious leader from the first day I met her — always a good head on her shoulders, mature for her age, gave great advice, and had a way with words that you could never, ever forgot. I met her in the mid 90s in Austin, Texas and am proud to still be friends with her. You will see why with her answers below:
Q: How and why did you first start playing pool? Answer: When I started college there was a pool table in the lobby of my apartment building. I was too broke to take advantage of any other kind of entertainment, so I spent my time down
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• April 2017
there knocking balls around until learned to play! Little did I know that pool table would start a 20year obsession ... Q: What is the biggest accomplishment of your pool career? Answer: Externally, it was winning my first National title in college - which ignited my love of competition. Internally, it was learning how to use my emotional challenges in pool to become a better person — how to extrapolate what I learned on the cloth to my day-to-day life. Q: You built cues with Bill Stroud at Joss West in Austin, Texas in the mid-late 90s. How did that happen and what did you love about building cues? Answer: He was looking toward retiring eventually, and he wanted to have a successor — specifically, he wanted a woman to take over the business. I was in the right place at the right time (active in the pool community and so my name came up when he was looking), and I worked with him for several years before determining that ultimately it wasn’t for me. The truth is, I didn’t love building cues (which is why I determined that it wasn’t for me). I loved the creativity of the design process — but I later found many different mediums in which to express that creativity that were much more in line with my personality. But I give cue building a lot of credit for turning me into a successful entrepreneur. It was the genesis of me pursuing my interest in art and design — and it led to me starting a very successful art business that I thoroughly enjoyed for many years. Q: I think people will be very surprised to know you had a very bad accident and literally almost died making cues. Can you tell us about that day and what happened? Answer: I had very long hair at the time — hair that I was very vain about. To be safe working in a machine shop, I always kept my hair in a tight braid. But that one day I had big plans after work and I wanted to look my best ... so I decided to keep my hair in a ponytail instead of a braid so as to avoid the kinks that keeping my hair braided would inevitably create. At some point during the day I was turning shafts — and I was leaning