A touring professional pool player for 20 years (retired 2004) Shari Stauch launched Pool & Billiard Magazine with Harold Simonsen in 1983, the original monthly magazine of the sport. 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 has 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 negotiating the tour’s first TV contracts, launching a PR and marketing division, and developing sponsors, including sales of all industry sponsors and the tour’s first-ever non-industry sponsorships (Gordon’s Gin and Vodka). She continues to handle PR for major events on the Women’s Pro Billiard Tour and will produce the tour’s 2011 Media Guide.

Media appearances include Entertainment Tonight, ABC National News, ESPN, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily Herald, For Your Money, The Dennis Prager Show, Country Music Weekly, WGN A.M. News Live, WGN T.V., CBS Chicago, AOL national news and Lowcountry Live. 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. In 2009 and 2011 Stauch was named a “Power Up” winner by Center for Women and the Charleston Chamber of Commerce.

Stauch is the author of four books, Precision Pool 1st and 2nd editions, and Pool Player’s Edge 1st and 2nd editions. (Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL c. 1998, 2003, 2007, 2010), written with fellow pro player Gerry “The Ghost” Kanov.

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. In January, 2011, Veronica Walsh lost her battle with Ovarian Cancer, but not before making a huge contribution to awareness in the lowcountry.

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, just coming off a successful 2010 conference that included award-winning authors Tim O’Brien, Heidi Durrow, Rebecca Wells and Simon Mawer. In 2011, Words & Music will feature a theme of Literature & Life in The Global Village and include several Pulitzer Prize winning authors. Shari is the 2011 Center for Women president, and works to promote successful women in business in the low-country, conducting seminars for C4W on everything from Website Know-How to Company Branding Strategies and marketing via social media to How to Beat the Boys at Pool!. She has also begun working with LILA: The Lowcountry Initiative for the Literary Arts, and will teach at the 2011 South Carolina Book Festival, in addition to guest instructor classes at the Charleston Art Institute.

MILE MARKERS

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 “Power Up” award by Charleston SC Chamber of Commerce
• 2010 Book release, 2nd edition Pool Player’s Edge
• 2010 Elected president of Charleston’s Center for Women
• 2010 Elected to Board of Trustees, Billiard Education Foundation
• 2010 Elected to Board of Directors, Lowcountry Initiative for the Literary Arts (LILA)
• 2010 First-runner-up Faulkner Wisdom Competition Essay: Anti-Social Media”
• 2011 Named a “Power Up” winner by Charleston Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Women.
• 2011 Elected President of the Center for Women.