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Cueing up for Pool
Photo
Nick Amodio of Liberty shoots on a Diamond brand table at Ice Breakers in Austintown. The pool hall has seen traffic rise from a Pilot gas station across the street as well as an influx of construction workers, both at the new racino and with the gas and oil industry in the area. Below, Mike Mousie, general manager of Ice Breakers, stands with a pool cue inside the 7-foot table section of the pool hall. Ice Breakers has been open since 2008 and now runs about 60 leagues during the week.
Ice breakers offers amateur pool players quality tables
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
The Mousie family took a chance when it invested in a pool hall six years ago, but business has thrived from using higher-end tables that appeal more to amateur players.
Michael Mousie, who shares the same name as his father, said Ice Breakers, 5516 W. Webb Road, opened at the start of 2008 behind the Icehouse Inn, a bar his father and uncle have co-owned for years. The Icehouse Inn, just north of the Pilot truck stop on Canfield-Niles Road, has been at its current location since the early 1990s.
Ice Breakers opened in January 2008, and the Beach Shack, a building between the two that
opened four years ago, is open only during the summer on Fridays and Saturdays.
Mousie, 27, said they bought the top brand of tables — Diamond — about six months after Ice Breakers opened. With higher-quality tables, pool leagues that play at Ice Breakers went from 20 to 40 and now are about 60. Mousie said they began to see a lot more traffic once they invested in the brand-name tables.
“Once we got the Diamonds in here, people really started to want to play in here,” he said.
He also said more people began to frequent the hall when the Pilot truck stop was built, and they’ve gained more customers with construction projects in the area such as the racino and the gas and oil industry. He said some truck drivers who come through weekly on routes stay at Pilot and play pool at Ice Breakers.
The hall features four 9-foot tables and 10 7-foot tables, which are more amateur-friendly, Mousie said. “We cater to the player that’s not trying to be professional ... the amateur who plays twice a week,” Mousie said. “We’re not going to survive without catering to amateurs.”
Jack Irwin of Youngstown agreed and said not as many people play on the bigger tables anymore, and those are what filled pool halls before. Now, the trend is more smaller tables such as at Ice Breakers. “A lot of people can play fairly well on a small table,” Irwin said.
He said the area has had many pool halls open and close since he began playing pool in 1962. He said there used to be a lot along Market Street in downtown Youngstown, but he said what really hurt pool halls was more bars having pool tables. Irwin added that it’s tough financially to keep a pool hall open, as high prices can keep customers away. “It’s tough. You can’t charge too much an hour here,” he said.
Three leagues play at the pool hall: the American Poolplayers Association, the Billiard Congress of America and Valley National 8-Ball League Association, Mondays through Fridays. Tournaments take place on the weekends, and once a month, there is a cash-prize tournament with a $50 entry fee per person. Mousie said that a few weeks ago, the cash-prize tournament had 108 entrants.
Mousie and Irwin agreed pool has lost some popularity over the years. “It’s come a long way now. ... Pool today is a whole different way now,” Irwin said. He said before, pool halls were full of tables and a pay phone, no music or liquor. He also said when he began playing pool in 1962, there were no female players, but now, there is a professional league for women.
Mousie is general manager and, along with his sister, works among the three Mousie-owned businesses. Besides league play and weekend tournaments, Ice Breakers charges $3 an hour per player on a 7-foot table and $4 an hour for 9-foot tables, with only two people being charged at a time per table.