Air time awaits pool pro Nelson Madawaska graduate to be seen on ESPNs

Longtime Maine resident Tiffany Nelson is enjoying a banner year as a professional billiards player, and her success isn’t going unnoticed.

The 1998 Madawaska High School graduate will get some solid air time on ESPN and ESPN2 in July after finishing second in the Women’s Professional Billiard Association’s Great Lakes Classic. ESPN will air Nelson’s 9-ball semifinal match against Vivian Villareal at 4 p.m. and her championship match against Allison Fisher at 5 p.m. Saturday, July 9. ESPN2 will repeat the championship broadcast at midnight on Friday, July 15.

Nelson, who played varsity soccer at both Madawaska and Thomas College in Waterville, where she earned a business management degree, has been a full-time member of the WPBA Tour for the last six years. She turned pro 11 years ago at age 14. She’ll be 25 later this month.

Nationwide TV exposure on a network like ESPN should help Nelson earn more sponsorship interest and money. It’s that kind of exposure that has made Fisher (the Duchess of Doom), Jeanette Lee (The Black Widow), and Karen Corr household tour names. Not counting this year, Nelson has accumulated $51,735 in prize money in six seasons.

When not on the tour, Nelson, a four-sport athlete who helped lead the Owls to the 1997 Class C state soccer championship, runs a pool hall in New Jersey.

ESPYing the awards

With more than 5 million votes already cast online, the 13th annual ESPY Awards figure to attract some attention. This year, New England sports fans may have a keener interest, or maybe just an interest at all in the annual two-hour awards show as the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots each have award nominations.

To start, the two teams are going head to head for the “best team” award along with USC football and Baylor women’s basketball. The direct rivalry extends to the teams’ coaching staffs as Boston’s Terry Francona and New England’s Bill Belichick are two of the five nominees for “best coach-manager.” The others are former Patriots and current USC coach Pete Carroll, North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Even players are involved directly as the Patriots’ Deion Branch and Red Sox’s Curt Schilling are finalists for “best championship performance.”

The other categories the New England championship teams are finalists in are as follows: Best game (Red Sox for American League Championship Series game five), best record-breaking performance (Patriots), best MLB player (Red Sox, Schilling), and best NFL player (Patriots , Tom Brady).

Another category of interest locally might be best upset, in which the Vermont men’s basketball team’s upset of fourth-seeded Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament is one of the finalists. Maybe the Catamounts will fare better than former star forward Taylor Coppenrath did in the NBA Draft. He wasn’t selected.

To vote for your favorite moments, players or teams, fans can log onto EPSN.com or ESPNDeportes.com. Voting will continue through July 8.

Under new management

Since Major League Baseball Advanced Media began managing and operating MiLB.com, Minor League Baseball’s official Web site last April, MiLB.com has experienced an increase in visitors to the site of more than 300 percent and almost a 500 percent hike in Web page views. MLBAM is also the official statistics company for Minor League Baseball.

The Web site has been drastically improved with much more statistical, trivial and contact information; is much easier to navigate; and offers plenty of interesting feature stories and profiles as well as easy-to-use links to other baseball sites.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net