The Quiet Man

Van Boening's ability to bear down made him invaluable at the Mosconi Cup. (Photo: Lawrence Lustig)

HE HIT the trenches in January 2007, slogging through the Windy City Open and Derby City Classic. His game perked up at the Music City 9-Ball Open, where he finished third in the tournament and second in the Midnight Madness event.

He emerged from the rank and file at the EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championships in May. Rising above the 64-man international field, he streaked to the hot-seat match against Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines. He lost, 11-6, but had secured a spot in his first televised match.

After trumping Mike Davis in their tight semifinal, 7-6, he faced Orcollo again in the final. Bottom line, his safety play wasn't in the same league as Orcollo's, and the Filipino continually punished him for leaving open looks. Van Boening also broke dry twice in his three attempts. He lost, 7-0.

Van Boening still possessed a confident air after the match. "You learn and you move on," he said.

Eight days later, he reaped the rewards. At the Predator 10-Ball World Championship, he met Orcollo again in the semifinal. This time he had the focus and fortitude to stay with his opponent, winning 11-9. In the race-to-13 final, he traded racks with Cliff Joyner before pulling away, 13-11, and winning his first pro title.

"It's probably a good thing that I lost to Dennis [at the EnjoyPool.com event]. You always learn when you lose. That is the key to winning," Van Boening said, repeating the lesson from his mother. "I learned how to be more focused, how to have confidence."

Van Boening's key to 2007 was ignoring his opponent and simply playing the table, Timi Bloomberg said.

"When you think about how good your opponent is, you're half-beat when you get to the table," she said. " And Shane has finally realized that he can be the one that everyone's talking about."

Entering the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship in October, Van Boening was both the crowd's and odds-makers' favorite. And he played with a sense of inevitability that carried him straight through the winners' bracket to the final. He approached the table with measured pace, loose limbs and quiet poise. When he wasn't dispatching opponents, he practiced obsessively on the arena's starkly lit TV table, honing his break so he wouldn't suffer another repeat of the EnjoyPool.com final.

In the U.S. Open final against then-reigning world 9-ball and 8-ball champion Ronnie Alcano, Van Boening used newly developed defensive skills to pull ahead. He won a crucial safety battle in the 17th rack, forcing Alcano to foul twice. Leading 10-9, he executed an expert jump-kick safety that buried both the cue ball and object ball, forcing another Alcano foul.

Building a 12-9 lead, the obviously partisan crowd roared with approval. It didn't seem to register with Van Boening, who wore the same straight-line expression throughout the match. Only in the last rack did a grin begin to creep up one side of his face. At the zenith of his season, after sinking the final ball in his 13-10 victory for $50,000, he briefly held his cue overhead and then slouched back into his seat with a soft, bemused smile, as if waiting for the next contender.

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