At just age 11, D’Angelo “Jawz” Spain is taking America by storm as a pool player. His impeccable playing skills led his father to nickname him the “Jawz” because he barely has any competitors at the Center Pocket in Bowie, Maryland, where he plays.
“My dad gave me that nickname because I was killing people on the pool table,” Jawz told FOX 5. He started playing the sport at the age of four, according to his father, Frank Spain II. “One day we went out to go try to get a karaoke machine or something like that. [My wife] was like where are we gonna put it at? I said we can make space.”
“The only place we had to put it was in our living room, so we had to take our couches out, move them all out, and we did get a pool table,” said Jawz’s mom Angela Spain. “He did talk me into it.”
Since then, the 11-year-old Maryland pool player has not looked back, managing his way up to the top of the indoor sport. As the days and weeks went by, Jawz kept improving his pooling skills. He is the top-ranked pool player for the 13-and-under division of the Junior International Championships.
He hopes to play professionally one day and compete with some of the best. However, for now, he is happy always beating his father.
“When you lose to him one time you feel like you lost to him 100 times because he’s gonna talk trash,” Frank laughed. “He’s gonna rub it in. He’s gonna make you lose sleep over it.”
Going professional does not come cheap because he would need money to travel to compete with some of the finest out there. His next big tournament is the International Open in Norfolk Virginia in November 2022. Currently, the family is raising money to sponsor him to cover the cost of his travel, tournament fees and lodging.
“We are raising money to help with travel expenses for the remainder of the junior season and to help with travel next season [and] this will help to keep them on their journey doing what they love,” a statement on their fundraising site reads.
