Player Spotlight: Pool Player Scott Simonetti is Beating the Odds

Scott Simonetti shows off his new mechanical bridge

Story by Jerry Tarantola, Photos by Alison M. Fischer

Veteran pool player and grinder Scott (Scotty) Simonetti has been one of the tri-state area’s strongest players for some time. Scotty is best known for his big break, aggressive shot-making approach, huge heart, and fiercely competitive nature. To those who know Scotty, they admire his fearless spirit and unique gift to never give up, no matter the score or the challenge he is facing.

Knowing Scotty personally for over 15 years, I have seen him take breaks in the game, and always bounce back by knocking the rust off very quickly.  In my opinion, his uncanny natural talent for the game of pool is up there with some of the greats in the game.

It has been said that when the game of pool gets in your blood, you can’t stay away from the game for long. Scotty was never able to commit to the game 100%, due to focusing on his career, but it was clear that no matter what was going on in Scotty’s life, his heart would always be with pool. Scotty has followed in the footsteps of his father, and became a New Jersey police officer in the Belleville Police Department, where he has worked for 16 years, climbing the ranks to sergeant of patrol.

After having taken a long break from the game, Scotty came back to place fourth in an open Tri-State Tour event at Master Billiards with a tough field in March of ‘08. Since coming back, Scotty’s passion for the game has been palpable.

This is where Scotty’s story takes a very mind-boggling turn. Between March 5-6th this year, after playing at another Tri-State in Queens on a Saturday afternoon, Scotty caught a pretty bad roll.

After a few hours at the pool room, Scotty began to sweat like he had the flu, and mentioned to friends that he felt off. He was home by 11pm that night and thought he was probably just run down from playing so much pool and juggling a hectic schedule. The next day, he felt worse and decided to stay home and take care of himself, while waiting out the flu-like symptoms was experiencing.

Scott Simonetti playing in the Tri-State Tour in December 2008

On following day (Monday), Scotty was dealing with a 104º fever and in his words, “I started to fall apart.” The day was passing by, and he was considering trying to fall back asleep, but felt like his feet were very cold and numb. He knew he was dehydrated, but it felt like his feet were in the snow, while having the flu like symptoms at the same time and got nervous. Scotty decided to drive to the Clara Maass Hospital in Belleville, NJ to get checked out. (http://www.saintbarnabas.com/hospitals/clara_maass/index.html)

When he got to the hospital, they couldn’t believe that he even drove to there in his condition. Scotty would come to find out that he had obtained a rare staph infection which caused his blood to become very, very thick… like motor oil or molasses. The doctor said that if he stayed home for another two hours, his body would have seized up from the thickness of his blood. He would come to find out that the type of rare infection that fell upon him had a death rate of 95%. That night, Scotty abruptly slipped into a coma that lasted two and a half weeks.

Scotty recalls that even after he awoke, he would slip in and out of consciousness for a total of a month, while enduring feeding tubes, ventilators, and catheters. At one point, Scotty had 17 tubes in him to help him stay alive.

Throughout this process, the doctors were very straightforward with his family and close friends, and let them know that things were not good.  There were a few nights where they were told to not go anywhere, because he may not make it through the night.

The hospital called in a priest on two occasions for last rites, and while in ICU, he had flatlined several times. As Scotty was telling me this story, it put chills down my spine to hear that the heart monitor had made the sound as if he was dead several times. While Scotty was in “la la land” during this process, his family, closest friends, and girlfriend Cheryl, were dealing with the pain an uncertainty of the situation.

There was also talk of Scotty having brain damage, since he had gone without breathing for several minutes. The doctors couldn’t tell because they couldn’t do any tests. Showing a true warrior’s spirit, Scotty was hanging on to his life by thread. A few days later, his eyes weren’t reacting to light, and the doctors told his family that they couldn’t be sure, but he might be blind. You can image the grief and pain that his family and friends were experiencing during this time, and Scott had many well-wishers and visitors throughout who were constantly anticipating any changes in news.

To add to the array of challenges that Scotty was facing, he experienced total kidney failure, and dealing with a “yo-yo”-type body temperature that would range between 87 degrees and 104 degrees.  Scotty continued to fight and overcome these amazing obstacles in that hospital in Belleville, NJ and overcome all odds.

Since the rare infection turned all of Scotty’s blood into sludge, he was on a number of lot of blood-thinning medications. The combination of the blood thinners and the infection caused his left leg and left arm to turn black and had a lot of dead tissue. He was then faced with the reality of needing to get strong enough to be transported to a hospital that could amputate the damaged parts of his left leg and arm.

At this point, it didn’t look good for Scotty to get well enough to even get to the hospital, and things were pretty grim. This rare infection would have easily killed anyone who didn’t have the kind of heart that Scotty had, or wasn’t in the mental and physical shape that he was in.

All of the years of playing pool and building his mental strength and confidence in himself were paying off, as Scotty started to slowly recover. It turned out that Scotty was not blind, and did not have any brain damage, but was still extremely sick.

After 35 grueling days in the hospital, he earned a nickname “The Walking Miracle” around the hospital.  Scotty was finally able to be seen by the doctors at NY Presbyterian, which is renown for amputation surgeries. http://nyp.org/health/amputation.html

Scotty mentioned that on the day he left the Belleville hospital, was told by the doctors that he was the sickest person to ever leave the hospital. This inspired Scotty to stay focused on getting healthy and keep on fighting… and face any upcoming challenges with courage and faith.

Through this ordeal, Scotty lost 40 lbs that he did not really have to lose. Scotty was 135 lbs when he first arrived at the Belleville hospital, and left a frail 95 lbs. Scotty told me, “After having lost all of my muscle mass, I he looked like skeleton.”

Finally strong enough to travel to NY Presbyterian, Scotty made the trip, but relapsed once he got there. Scotty slipped into a coma for two weeks, suffering trauma to the body. After waking, the only thing that was keeping him alive were the machines building up his strength enough to have the amputation surgeries.

Once strong enough, they completed the surgeries… and after two weeks, he was released. From there, Scotty went to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilition (http://www.kessler-rehab.com), in West Orange, NJ, to begin rehabilitation. Kessler is one of the best physical therapy hospitals, and is famous for treating Christopher Reeves. While Scott could see the light at the end of the tunnel, his journey towards rehabilitation was just getting started. He had to deal with a very painful rehab as well as the discomfort of the incisions and staples from the surgery.

Through this whole ordeal, it was Scotty’s girlfriend Cheryl who was his rock. Scotty always put on a positive, upbeat, and pain-free exterior, but only Cheryl really knew how hard things were. Cheryl maintained a very positive attitude herself, and provided amazing support for Scotty through this life-changing journey. This support from Cheryl proved to be integral in Scotty’s recovery, through an amazing display of unconditional love, patience, and empathy.

After a long and dreary five weeks of rehabilitation, Scotty was released in a wheelchair, and all he could think about was visiting his favorite pool hall, Castle Billiards, to see some of his friends. While he now had only one full leg and one full arm, he was curious to see how he could get by playing pool. Cheryl took him down to Castle to say his hello’s, and ended up hitting some balls with one hand, just messing around.

After several conversations with long-time friend and custom cue maker, Paul Fanelli, about his struggles playing pool, Paul was drawn to find a way to help Scotty out. For those of you who don’t know Paul Fanelli, he is a master at woodworking, and a creative problem-solver. Paul was more than empathic of Scotty’s situation, and he was kept up at night trying to figure out a way to help his longtime friend be able to play pool again.

Paul would speak to Scotty about his challenges, then stay up at night thinking of what he could do. Paul took measurements of Scotty’s remaining left arm, and would ask questions like “How long of a bridge would you like off of your arm?”  Paul Fanelli’s major definite goal was to get Scotty Simonetti back on the table.

Shortly after a little back and forth, Paul came up with the first prototype for a wood bridge that would be attached to his arm to enable him to play pool. Scotty was blown away with Paul’s creation, and gave him feedback on the prototype’s strengths and limitations. Some of the limitations at the time were an inability to shoot off the side rail, or over a ball, and Paul continued to work tirelessly to find a solution that would work.

Three versions later, Scotty now has the ability to play comfortably on the table, over a ball, and off the rail. Paul built a special wooden lip that locks in the bridge off the side rail, and also has a lift system that allows Scotty to gain extra height.  You can see below some of the functions of Scott’s new mechanical bridge.

Scott Simonetti Shooting off a Rail

Scott Simonetti demonstrates the functions of his mechanical bridge made by Paul Fanelli

With Scotty’s prosthetic leg, and with the addition of the new bridge, he is again passionate about playing pool. Scotty is quick to give an enormous credit to Paul Fanelli for his brilliant creation, and his unwavering desire to see Scotty back on the table. Scotty also mentioned that there is no question that without Paul’s creation, he would not be able to enjoy the game again.

Not only has Scotty’s passion for pool been renewed, but thanks to Paul’s invention, he is even playing competitively. Scotty mentioned that he never thought he would be playing run out pool ever again, and is proud of showing off his new tool to those who can appreciate it.

While he may do things at a slower pace, and is limited on certain power power shots, he has impressively rebounded to be a major force on the competitive landscape of pool in the tri-state area.

Scotty had previously been an A+ or Open level player, depending on who you ask, which would be considered a semi-pro level.  Since coming back, the tours he plays in have dropped his handicap to about a B+ level to help him remain competitive.

Scotty was released in June, and the fact that he is already playing run out pool is a truly an amazing accomplishment. Not only is Scotty playing great pool, but he has also been tearing up the local competitive pool scene, in both the Tri-State Tour and the Predator Tour.  Wow… when I first heard of the news of what happened to Scotty… never in my wildest dreams did I think he would be playing at such a high level ever again.

Scott Simonetti is still playing as fiercly as ever.

On November 7-8 2009, at his home room Castle Billiards, Scotty had a breakthrough performance at the Predator 9-Ball Tour.  He battled through the field to meet myself, Jerry Tarantola, in the finals, knocking on the door of winning his first tournament since his illness. Scotty came back from the one-loss side after losing to me “Hill-Hill” in the winner’s bracket semifinal, and returned to avenge his loss.  Click here to read the story on the tournament.

We had another great battle in the finals, and he showed a lot of heart as he came back from a 8-6 deficit to tie it again at “Hill-Hill” 8-8. I was fortunate to break and run out at double-hill to win my first Predator Tour stop, denying Scotty the win.  Being longtime friends, Scotty and I had a beer together after the match to celebrate a great tournament, and had a long conversation about his amazing journey.

Scott with Tony Robles and myself, Jerry Tarantola after the Predator Tour finals at Castle.

However, Scotty would return to Castle the following weekend, November 14-15, to take a shot at the Tri-State Tour.  This time, he did not let anyone get away with a match win, and went undefeated to win his first tournament since his amputation.  Click here to read the story about his win.

For anyone to be in the finals of two consecutive pro/am tour events is buzzworthy accomplishment, but when it’s done by a guy who was given a 5% chance of living just a few months ago, it is miraculous. Scotty has made a full recovery, and is playing with a humble swagger in his step, even after having lost most of his left arm and leg.  Myself as well as most of the people that know Scotty are inspired by his story of a grinder unwilling to quit, no matter how daunting the odds may seem.

When we talked about his learning experiences during this whole ordeal, he mentioned that while he has been dealt a bad roll, there are so many people in worse situations and he has put things in perspective. Scotty mentioned that he has spent time with people who had 95% burns on their bodies and double amputees at the hip, and that these people would give anything to be in his shoes.

Scotty told met that his learning lesson was that no matter how bad things seem, there are always people worse off than you, struggling beyond belief. When Scotty first found out about his situation, the first thought that ran through his mind was, “Man… how am I ever going to play pool again?”

While he couldn’t possibly perceive how things would unfold, Scotty says he feels blessed to have the ability to play the game that he loves, with a new perspective on life.

Since Scotty has returned back on the scene, he has been welcomed with open arms and an open mind by both his friends and family, along with the billiards landscape in which he is a part of.

Scotty Simonetti is, in my opinion, an inspiration, not only for what he has gone through and how he has bounced back, but for his overall all paradigm in life. He stays optimistic and charismatic and continues to elevate the mood of the room once he enters it. Having an abundant paradigm, he also looks to give back to those who he sees has the recognizable heart and passion that needs can be nurtured.

Along with showing passion for his own game, Scotty has also been teaching up-and-coming women’s phenom, Annie Flores, who was named the Tri-State Tour’s Female Player of the Year for the ‘08-09 season. Scotty has been teaching Anne at her home room Castle Billiards since November of 2008, after her telling Scotty that she was ready to make the commitment to improving her game. Annie Flores has impressed Scotty with her dedication and love for the game, which has made him passionate about teaching her.  Knowing that Annie is working hard at school to become a nurse, and paying her own way to enter and travel to tournaments, Scotty decided to teach her free of charge.

Annie Flores competing in the Tri-State Tour at Comet Billiards

When Anne first started working with Scotty, she was a low “C” class level player not knowing how to play safe or use English effectively. He started showing her a couple of safes and drills and was amazed at how quickly she was picking up the game. He mentioned that they have a great rapport and he enjoys contributing to her to her success.

When looking at some of Anne’s accomplishments since working with Scotty Simonetti, they have been impressive to say the least. Along with earning recognition as The Tri State’s Female Player of the Year with a 2 to 1 points ratio over the second place finisher, Anne also finished 2nd in the U.S. Amateur Nationals, and won a WPBA Qualifier back in May on the J. Pechauer Women’s Northeast Tour (JPNEWT).

Accomplishing her major goal of winning a qualifier sent her to the WPBA Tour’s Colorado Classic to her feet wet with the big guns in Colorado, that overpowered her giving her a quick exit, two and out. However, in her next event WPBA event, the Pacific Coast Classic, Annie turned the tables to amaze Scotty by winning her first two matches and cashing in her second pro event. Anne defeated tour veterans Janet Atwell and Jennifer Barretta, turning heads and letting people know she has what it takes to win.  Be sure to stay plugged into this rising star’s career, as she continues to earn seasoning and fan support on her journey.

While I was speaking recently with 15-year-old junior champion “Kwikfire Kid” Jonathan Castillo, at the Predator Tour, I asked him who his top idol in pool is. I was expecting to hear something like Tony Robles, Shane Van Boening, Johnny Archer or the like, but he replied, “Scotty Simonetti.”  When I asked him why that is, he said, “He taught me how to have heart and never give up.”

Scott shows Jonathan a few shots at Castle.

It was interesting to see that he was matched up next to play his idol in the hot seat match at Castle during the Predator Tour event, where he placed 3rd after losing to Scotty in a close “Hill-Hill” battle.

Scott Simonetti vs Jonathan Castillo

I have learned that the lessons that Scotty has instilled in both Jonathan and Anne are to look at the competition as your peers and not feel below them. Scotty has taught them to know that even the top players have “off days”, and as long as you do your best to stay aggressive and hungry, you can capitalize on those mistakes, and beat anyone in the world.

I believe that Scotty has a unique quality that each player has to cultivate: the ability to train yourself how not to lose. When I spoke with Scotty, he said that to him, the game isn’t about beating the other person, but rather not letting yourself lose. “If it’s a race to 9, and they don’t have 9, that means that you haven’t lost yet,” said Scott. “If your opponent doesn’t make a mistake, shake their hand and be a sportsman. If your opponent misses, you have to apply pressure, and let them know that you won’t make those mistakes. You have to earn their respect.”

The leadership and character that Scotty embodies is an inspiration to me, as well as all those who meet him. He is a grinder and competitor who leads by example, and his heart, passion, and determination are something that we can all aspire to, in pool and outside of pool. Scotty’s story shows that we can all have the ability to dig a little deeper to find the potential we never thought we’d had–and overcome challenges we never thought we’d face.

Scott's mechanical bridge

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