JR Calvert
Publisher and InsidePOOL Magazine Founder
JR Calvert started playing pool at the age of 15. He also started to attend college at this time. With hard work and practice, he quickly honed his game, rising to the top of the local ranks in Pittsburgh, PA, almost overnight. Then, as fast as he had appeared, he quit the game of pool to move his college career to the next level to attend the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering. Several years passed before he was persuaded to play the university tournament by a friend. JR won the event and finished as runner-up in the ACU-I National Tournament. Soon afterwards, JR received an invitation to join the Professional billiards Tour and joined without hesitation. After receiving his degrees from college, he set his sights on the Pro billiards Tour. Within one season, JR earned the distinguished rank of Touring Pro, in which only a handful of other players laid claim. JR won numerous regional events throughout his career but failed to earn that honor on the top professional level. In 1996, JR won the U.S. Open Trick Shot Championship in Chesapeake, VA.
In 1989, JR turned his attention to attention to cuemaking by joining efforts with Paul Mottey. His attention quickly moved to marketing the fruits of their labor. His dedication and professionalism landed him a sponsorship deal with Falcon cues, Ltd. where he acted as the U.S. Distributor for the fledgling company. To market Falcon Cues, Ltd. and his new software company, Definitive Synergy, JR tried his hand at writing. He syndicated instructions columns that he would take payment in the form of advertising with about a dozen magazines. After a few magazines failed that he was contributing to, JR decided to start his own magazine, InsidePOOL Magazine, in September of 2001. He stays dedicated to creating the best magazine that pool and billiards has to offer while having a daily hand in running his software company.
Inside pool Magazine has become the hottest selling magazine while leading the billiards industry in print and online with almost 100,000 subscribers between online and print editions. Recently, Inside pool Magazine started creating a video version of the popular print and online magazine. The videocasts are syndicated to thousands of online locations and the episodes have quickly become among the most viewed billiards videos. The hard work paid off as Inside pool Magazine received a Partner Channel at Youtube.com in May 2008.
