BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - For the past two decades, Dave Larson has been playing pool and for the last five, his 12-year-old daughter April has been playing alongside him.
"It started about when I was 7 or 8 years old," recalled April.
It turns out this curly cue is pretty good at holding the cue.
"She's a little shark," her dad said.
It started innocent enough. Dave was half way out the door one evening a few years back for a guy's night at pool league.
"She was getting on mother's nerves little bit, so I said why don't you come to the pool hall with me," he said.
Not only did she come along, she started playing along, he said.
"She's 7 and she can barely see over the table and she's pocketing balls," said Larson.
Soon after that, she started pocketing trophies, almost two dozen of them when she competed with kids her age, but also men her dad's age.
"One guy actually said, he looked back at his teammates and said, am I being punked," he recalled. "And then she started shooting. OK, I get it now."
Larson thought his daughter hit her pinnacle early this year.
"Our summer league, she was the MVP. She was 10-2," he said of her record. "That's with all adults."
That win lead to a bigger one in July when she took home the national title in her age group in Milwaukee and qualified to compete in Germany in an international competition come December.
"So hopefully I bring my game," she said with a smile.
But perhaps this is more than just about the game they love.
"We both love the game," he said. "But the neatest part, we get to spend a lot of time together."
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