Former pool star is still on the ball in business

SARAH Ellerby hardly ever picks up a pool cue any more.

“I just don’t have the time,” says the self-confessed workaholic.

Sarah left the UK in 2000 when she was a professional pool player and ranked seventh in the world having won no less than 76 titles.

Having changed her playing name from Velvet, a nod to her horse-riding background, to the more frightening Ice Maiden, she moved to America aged 25.

Women’s pool was hugely popular on the other side of the Atlantic and it is shown on television everyday. It mean that Sarah could compete in more lucrative and demanding competitions.

But three years ago she decided to hang up her pool cue for good despite being number five in the world at 9-Ball and the number one ranked demale on the International 8-Ball Pool Tour.

“There were a number of reasons,” explains Sarah who hails from near Pickering.

“My passion for the game changed when my strategic marketing and development consultancy started to take off, and my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.

“She’s all clear now, but with her being my number one fan, it really put life in perspective and potting a ball down a little hole really didn’t cut it.”

Sarah now dedicates the time she used to spend playing pool to her promotion and marketing business, L Squared.

For a relative newcomer to the tough world of business in the United States she already boasts an impressive client list which includes Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm.

“I developed a multi-million dollar sponsorship platform for Jordan’s Celebrity Golf Event in the Bahamas and an Event Recap for the Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra Soccer Challenge. Securing two iconic brands, both Nike and Gatorade Athletes, really propelled my consultancy,” explains the 36-year-old.

She now lives in Orlando and although she only gets to visit home and her mum once a year ideally she would like to spend more time in the UK.

“I really miss Yorkshire,” she admits. But at the moment America, and particularly Orlando is where it’s at for Sarah, who is having as much success in her business career as she did pool, having been named one of the top ten entrepreneurs of 2011 to watch out for.

She believes her love of marketing started when she was playing pool.

“Both me and my brother were playing pool and my dad was a race horse trainer and I used to think of ways to promote us and myself to people like Mercedes Benz,” says Sarah with the natural enthusiasm and energy which has helped her reach the top.

“I think I just had a natural flair for self-promotion and marketing. I was a female in a minority men’s game, it was quite hard to promote yourself.”

Sarah took up pool at 12 when she and her brother Robert were given a pool table by their parents and she started trying to play but always got beaten by him.

Being the competitive type, Sarah refused to give up.

“I just went right on playing and I began to get a bit better,” she says, although it could all have been very different.

She was a very keen swimmer as a schoolgirl but when she injured both her hands, one in a riding accident and one while swimming, she had to give ths up along with judo, for which she also had a talent.

“That’s when I decided to try pool at home and Robert always used to win,” says Sarah.

She went along to watch him play for the North Yorkshire county team one night and was asked to play for the women’s team at the last minute as they were short of a player. She won her match and six months later won her first major title, the Croydon Classic.

She remembers getting up early and playing for two hours before cycling to school, then rushing back at lunchtime to play more pool and then two hours in the evening after school.

“Whatever I do I want to be the best at it and that is what you have to do to be the best.At the time I didn’t really think about it; I was doing something I loved. But once you stop putting those hours in, you don’t do as well and then you realise it is time to stop.”

She seems to have transferred that work ethic to every element of her life.

As well as her business consultancy she has a passion for healthcare.

Her consultancy has launched Biotech companies, launched minimally-invasive surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando and Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies, developed national campaigns. She has also developed strategic partnerships with The Golf Channel’s number one reality show, Big Break, and Casa De Campo Resort amongst others.

She now heads up the marketing and development for an umbilical cord bank and processing company called, Lifeforce Cryobank.

“I am passionate about healthcare and always have been,” says Sarah.

“But my mum’s ill health made me even more determined to get into that field.

“I find that I transfer the skills I used to use in pool into the boardroom.

“When someone sets me a problem then I map it all out in my head, like I used to do on the pool table. It is something that I don’t really realise I am doing, but people point it out to me.”

As if that wasn’t enough she has been appointed  executive director for the Orlando-based charity Kids Beating Cancer, which she successfully relaunched in March this year.

“When my mum was first diagnosed with breast cancer I was in Canada. When I moved to America I really wanted to do something so I got in touch with Kids Beating Cancer,” she explains.

“I was still playing pool at the time and thought I could do something to raise awareness of the charity. I met a little boy of about eight called Rowland and he was in need of a lung transplant, but because he kept getting infections he kept having to wait.

“He talked like an old man, he had so much knowledge about his condition and that he knew without the transplant he was going to die. It really moved me.

“Since then the relationship with the charity has gone from strength to strength. It is very different to England.In America we have children waiting for bone marrow transplants because they can’t afford them. That is heartbreaking and where the charity comes in.”

But putting as much time into her business as she used to do in to her professional sporting career can take its toll, and people have warned her that she does face burning out. Sarah realises that she needs to get more of a work-life balance.

“When my mum comes out she makes me take time off, turn off the phone and computer and go out fishing on the lake.

“I do realise that I need to do more of that but I do find it difficult. I like to give 110 per cent to my clients. My business has gone so well over the last few years and I am now looking to the emerging markets like China, it really is becoming a global business.”

But she says she does try to have a little “me” time.

“I do like to keep fit. I have a gym in my house and I work out twice a day.”

And in this hectic business world it seems there is no time for the pool which once dominated her every waking hour.

“I just don’t play any more. I do play golf though which I think is a great game. Although my friends laugh at me because I am so competitive and have to be the best.”

It seems the Ice Maiden has not disappeared completely.

The reign of the ‘Ice Maiden’

Sarah Ellerby began her billiards career at the age of 12 and claimed her first title at age 14. She was soon lauded as one of the best female billiard players in England. From 1992-1999, Sarah represented her country as an England International earning the titles of World Team & European Singles Championship. In 2001, she moved to the US. In her rookie season, Sarah earned the #1 ranking on the LST Tour and climbed from #48 to #13 on the WPBA Classic Tour in 2002. She retired in 2008 at No.5 in the world at 9-Ball and No.1 Female on the International 8-Ball Pool Tour.