If you have a heart for teenagers, Prepare to Rack is for you! I don’t have to quote statistics about distant dads or teen suicide—we know what struggles today’s youth face.

My own father died of stomach cancer when I was a boy. As a teen I started drinking and found solace in pool halls. I didn’t grow up to be the father I wanted to be. You could imagine how devastated I was when my own son died at 19 of suicide. Something had to be done.

I gave my life to Christ and gave up drinking in 1984. Yet God didn’t take away my love for the game of pool. In fact, I've been playing pool since 1977, when I started my restaurant management career. During the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s I played pool 40 hours a week six months straight and later for nine months straight. I began playing in pool leagues in 1996 and am now a 40 in a masters BCA league, previously a 6 in APA league.

Now I know why God didn’t take away my passion for pool: God can use it. I envision a pool place called “Prepare to Rack,” designed to attract and support youth in the midst of a very positive environment. I see a place were parents can have “one on one” time with their kids. It could also be an exciting class field trip site and after school club.

I’m writing to school districts (like D11), men's ministry leaders, small group leaders, youth pastors, and Christian school teachers of Math, Geometry, Physics, and Phys Ed., as well as human resource departments of churches and para-church organizations about this vision, a very God-sized vision. 

I’m ready to pour my life into this vision for a wholesome pool club, a ministry cleverly disguised as a pool hall were the live entertainment alternates between Karaoke and Musicians. A pool hall with a teaching environment that includes Web Cameras, High Def. TVs, and TiVO to replay and review shots. On each pool table's counter top will be lessons right out of the best books on pool.

I would very much appreciate an opportunity to talk with you about this vision, to glean your insights on how best to proceed, to include your thoughts in making this all it can be—and being used of God to better be there for our youth today.

I am currently seeking a partnership with D11 to open at the facility at 730 N. Walnut.

Lord willing, “Prepare to Rack” will also open a location in 2 years at the Shiloh Mesa on east Woodmen near Marksheffel Road . Please contact me by phone or e-mail. I value your time and appreciate any words of advice you might have for me, that we might truly ensure that “no child is left behind.”

Thank you in advance for your help,

Bruce