Members of the Hamilton-based “We Keeps it Real” team display their awards after placing second in the American Pool Players Association National Team 8-Ball Championship at the Riviera in Las Vegas. Pictured are Wilfredo Gonzalez, Joe “Bull” Bulleck, Chris Lewis (Captain), Cecelia Gilligan Leto, Ryan Gilligan, Josh Hill and Joey Galambos. Team member Mike Flynn is not shown.
Mother-sons team from Hamilton wins second in national billiards tournament
Billiards aren’t always seen as a family activity, but a Hamilton Township mother-sons trio has made quite a connection playing pool.
Not to mention a lot of cash.
This summer, brothers Chris Lewis and Ryan Gilligan, along with their mom Cecilia Gilligan Leto and several teammates, competed in the American Pool Players Association National Team 8-Ball Championship at the Riviera in Las Vegas. Their team, “We Keeps It Real,” took second place and won $15,000.
Just a year earlier, Lewis and Gilligan were part of the “Hate Joey Not Us” team that won the national title. Both teams, sponsored by Sportsman Pub, became the highest placing teams from New Jersey in the tournament’s history. The previous best finish from a New Jersey outfit was fifth—and Lewis played on that team as well.
And even though they could not repeat their title this year, Lewis and Gilligan had a great time because their mom was actually on the team this year after missing out last year.
Players are allowed to play for more than one team. Cecilia and her two sons each played together on two teams this year, and they happened to face each other in the South Jersey finals in Atlantic City, so they were all going to Vegas either way.
“It really was a cool experience,” Leto said. “When the boys left me behind last year, they felt really bad about it. I played my match and lost my match and didn’t get to go. They went on with a wonderful team with some great people, and I went out to watch them for a while, and they won the national championship.
“This year there were two teams that played against each other this year and one of them was going. I was on both teams with them, so they couldn’t leave me behind.”
Players can play on two teams that are facing each other since the games always consist of one-on-one competition, so individuals can hop both sides of the table and still compete.
It’s only fitting that Cecilia and her boys got to play together, considering Leto’s background.
A 1976 Hamilton West graduate, she began playing pool at age 19 amid plenty of scowls from the men at the tables.
“Back when I played, it wasn’t something women did,” Cecilia said. “When I first started playing the men were annoyed. I got up, couldn’t make any balls and they were annoyed.
“That made me determined I would play better. Then, I started beating the men, and they didn’t like that. Now it’s cool, it’s preppy. It’s a different time than it was then.”
At age 23, Leto joined the Inter-City Trenton League and played on a women’s team that was sponsored by Peter’s Place.
“We had some good teams,” she said. “We won the championship for 10 years straight. That was pretty cool stuff back in the ’80s.”
A moment that helped symbolize what the family is all about came in 1990, when Cecilia was pregnant with Ryan. She played a match that ended at 1 a.m., went into labor at 8 a.m. and gave birth to her youngest son at 1 p.m.
“Ryan would always say he was born into the game,” Cecilia said with a laugh.
And Gilligan—a former Hamilton West soccer standout—made sure to honor his birthright as he began playing pool at a young age. By that time, Leto had retired from the game but Jay was going into it full force.
“My mom had a table in her house and we would always play there a lot,” said Lewis who, at 33, is 10 years older than his brother. “Jay was very good. From the age of eight years old he could run balls. He did a lot of it on his own. He would practice by himself and got really good.”
“Ryan loved the game,” Leto said. “He started playing somewhere around five or six years old. He’s always been a player. Chris didn’t really get into it until he was a teenager.”
Gilligan said it wasn’t just a case of loving it. He was basically looking for a way to pass the time while being disciplined.
“Growing up I wasn’t the best kid, I was kind of bad,” he said. “I was getting punished all the time so what else could I do? I stayed in and played pool. I kind of taught myself. I always enjoyed the game.”
Lewis never took the sport too seriously until he began hanging out at the Sportsman’s Pub on Lalor Street. Frank DeMarcello, a former Hamilton West baseball standout who is being inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame this month, runs the place and is a long-time friend of Chris.
“I started hanging out there and he had a pool table, after a while I started shooting for more than just fun,” Lewis said. “I got on their team, and when my brother was old enough we got him on the team. The APA was the league that was around, everybody said ‘Yeah, it’s fun, you have the chance to go to Vegas.’
“I jumped onto a couple of teams. I was playing the APA for probably about 10 years before we won last year.”
And it wasn’t until last year that her sons brought Cecilia out of retirement, and she proved she hadn’t lost it.
“I was out of it for a good 14, 15 years, until they decided to say ‘C’mon mom, get back into it,’” Leto said. “I hadn’t picked up a stick in so long, but they thought ‘How cool would it be to get mom in the league?’
“Now I’m referred to by all the players as mom. I’m everybody’s mom.”
And it was tough for Chris and Ryan to advance to the nationals without her last year, but she was thrilled that they won the national title. Josh Hill and Joe Bulleck, members of this year’s team, were also on the squad last year and the team was actually named after Bulleck.
“He used to get a lot of people mad,” Lewis said. “We had him on our team, and people would get upset, and we would just say ‘Hate Joey, not us.’ He embraced it.”
This year the “We Keeps It Real” name came from a TV show, and although We Keeps It Real didn’t keep the national title, it did nearly just as well with its national runner-up status.
The trip to Las Vegas is a grueling one. Each match is a best-of-five affair, with five of the seven team members competing (unless it ends in less than five).
A team must first win the Tri Cup competition in Mount Laurel to qualify for APA of South Jersey finals at Bally’s in Atlantic City. The top two finishers make it to Las Vegas.
“Atlantic City is very hard,” Lewis said. “Getting out of there is as hard as winning the whole thing. Last year our team and our mom’s team played in the same bracket and we met in the finals and we beat them so we had to leave her home. This year we went over to one of the same teams my mother was on last year.”
Although they did not win it this year, We Keeps It Real had another outstanding showing and actually won in Atlantic City.
The brothers have been nothing short of remarkable at the APA nationals, combining for a 39-2 record. Gilligan won 14 matches in a row to get raised to a 7 Skill Level. What’s impressive is that his streak has come under pressurized situations.
Except Ryan feels no pressure.
“To be honest, I don’t even really think about it,” he said. “People play pool and get nervous and anxious and all that. I haven’t thought about nationals since the day we got second. I’ve been busy studying for the CPA exam, going to work.
“I really don’t think about pool. It’s kind of like a stress reliever. It’s something I’m good at and I enjoy it. Some people take it too seriously and put too much pressure on themselves and end up choking.”
And as Gilligan notes, it’s all in the head.
“Pool is all mental,” he said. “You have to go in being confident. How I feel going into a match is that no one will beat me. That’s how I want my teammates to feel too.”
Rounding out this year’s team were Wilfredo Gonzalez, Hill, Bulleck, Joey Galambos and Mike Flynn.
The same crew won’t have a chance for a return trip to Vegas, however, as it had to be re-aligned.
“We could never have done what we did without those other guys,” Cecilia said. “Josh was very instrumental in Vegas, he was terrific. But we had to split up the team because it’s a handicap league, and you have to have a variety of skill levels.
“We just actually made it a stronger family team. It’s a new team now with my husband (Bob Leto) and Chris’s girlfriend (Lynne Reid) on the team. So it’s really a stronger family team.”
It’s part of upholding the family tradition.
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