UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Enter the Hetzel Union Building (HUB) on a Sunday afternoon and you’ll find that the eateries are closed and most students have retreated to their dorms. But that’s not the case for Penn State Billiards Club president Rudy Haluza. The engineering science junior is likely busy in the Break Zone, fine tuning his pool-playing skills.
Haluza said he first got interested in the sport in high school when he and his friends would play for fun. But once he came to Penn State, the Long Island, New York native started taking it a little more seriously.
“I found out there was a competitive billiards team that travels to the University of Michigan to play in tournaments, and I really wanted to be part of that team," he said.
Last year, Haluza became president of the club and had the opportunity to go to Ann Arbor for the University of Michigan Team Pool Championship Tournament, an intercollegiate competition. The Schreyer Scholar noted, “Penn State came in third out of 16 teams.”
In addition to helping plan the biannual trip to Michigan, Haluza organizes Sunday afternoon pool tournaments in the HUB and social events throughout the semester.
He said his leadership responsibilities have given him a chance to make some friends that he may not have otherwise met if he wasn’t involved in the club.
“It’s a great mix of about 40 undergraduate and graduate students from all majors, and more students are showing interest every week,” he said.
Haluza added that he’s been able to relate principles from his engineering courses to different aspects of the game. For instance, the book for his E MCH 212H: Mechanics of Motion class included a chapter about momentum and used billiards in its examples.
“I told my professor I was the president of the billiards club, so then I got called on in class a lot more to answer questions like, ‘Are all the balls uniform or are they made of different materials?’” he laughed.
Haluza also collaborated with two classmates to incorporate concepts from the class into their final project, a presentation that explained how top spin, velocity, linear momentum and angular momentum affect a pool shot.
Overall, he said he enjoys the engineering science major because he learns a little bit about each type of engineering.
“All the projects we do integrate different engineering disciplines,” he said.
After a busy week of classes, Haluza noted, playing pool often helps him unwind.
“Sometimes it’s about being competitive, but other times it’s a good way to relieve stress and just have fun with friends,” he said.
Haluza will travel to Ann Arbor Nov. 7-9 to compete again in the University of Michigan tournament.
“We’re really hoping for a first place finish this time.”