Pool Pro Banks On Games Center -- Crowds Of Idle Youths Cued Him To Business

Glen Hancock wants to give everybody a break.

So he has opened a new East Hill business, the Kent Recreation Center, crammed with 35 pool tables, three air-hockey games and enough video games to gladden any youth's heart.

``It's really neat - everyone's talking about it,'' said Ron Wilson, 14, who was swatting a hockey puck back and forth with Sequoia Junior High School seventh-grader Mike Staples. ``There's no other place this close.''

Hancock's business is surrounded by retail shops, restaurants and grocery stores. He had a hard time finding a place to rent because landlords feared problems where young people hang out.

``I was turned down by 11 places before I got here,'' he said, waving to his 9,225-square-foot establishment in the Kent Hill Plaza. ``But I tell them it's not just for kids. It's for families, too.''

The center doesn't sell alcoholic beverages, nor does it allow alcohol on the premises. When a haircutting salon moves out next door, Hancock wants to use the extra room for a 24-hour kitchen.

His mother, Dolores Hancock of Kent, is a silent partner in the venture. An electrician, she wires military airplanes for Boeing. Another of her four sons, Leo, 22, works in the new business.

When the business is fully stocked, customers will have their choice of 40 video games.

Seattle businessman Basil Vyzis, managing partner of Kent Hill Plaza in the 25000 block of 104th Avenue Southeast, said recreation centers are a popular attraction in the other shopping centers in which he has a financial interest.

Glen Hancock, 33, began playing pool on a neighbor's pool table as a youngster. When he was in the Army, he won the European all-military straight-pool and eight-ball championships two years running. A little more than a year ago, he said, he pocketed $8,000 by defeating another professional pool player.

``He had 121 and I had 52,'' he said. ``Then I run 73 balls on him and I beat him.''

Hancock still plays pool for money but no longer does he have to do it for a living. The grueling life of a full-time professional pool player is not something he misses.

``You can forget any social life because you have to play day and night,'' he said.

Hancock previously was part-owner of Cascade Family Billiards in Renton. As the proprietor of a billiards equipment company, he also supervised the recent move of the historic 2-11 Club to Second Avenue and Bell Street in Seattle. Brother Leo now runs the equipment firm.

Hancock's new establishment is just up the street from his old high school, Kent-Meridian.

Some nights, he said, hundreds of youths are milling around the area, with nothing to do.

Mrs. Hancock, 56, who also attended Kent-Meridian, said those hanging out around the East Hill burger bars and pizza joints are desperate for a place to go for entertainment.

``The only thing they've got is the theater or the skating rink,'' she said. They used to go to the Renton loop (to cruise), but the police down there give them a ticket for looking cross-eyed.''

Barney Wilson, Kent parks and recreation director, isn't wild about the name Kent Recreation Center because of possible confusion with city programs.

But Wilson's bullish on Hancock's concept. ``The youngsters up there in the Kent area certainly deserve it - it almost takes a nightclub atmosphere these days to attract them. In fact, I have a 21-year-old who would like it.''

Hancock, who expects to run pool tournaments three nights a week in his business, will charge $5 an hour for two or more players.

He figures to get plenty of walk-in traffic - there are 6,000 apartment units within a mile of his new place.