Eagle IQs
Arizona State Champion
BEF · 12 & Under Mixed 9-Ball
A LITTLE WESTERN.A LOT OF COMPETITIVE.
MEET MAVERICK
His own rhythm.
His own shot.
Dancing came first. Dad introduced Austin to two-step and country swing dancing, followed by three or four months of nudging him onto the floor. The more dancing he did, the more confident he became.
People would ask Dad, “How do you get him to dance?” His answer: “I tell Austin if he doesn’t get 20 dances tonight, he doesn’t get dinner!” Austin was usually eating a grilled cheese when Dad said it. Dinner was never really in question.
Line dancing came next, along with learning the popular dances and entering competitions. At Country Thunder 2025, judges from Electric Thunder spotted Austin dancing in the Crazy Coyote campsites and invited him to compete in Nashville that September. So, off to Nashville they went!
His dancing found an audience online, too. Several Instagram and TikTok videos have hundreds of thousands of views. As of this writing, his biggest TikTok has 2.2 million views and ranks among the ten most-viewed videos featuring Pitbull’s “Fuego.”
At Country Thunder’s 2026 “Dance with the Thunder” competition, Austin and his partner, Diamond, placed fifth out of 25 couples. They almost made the big stage!
His path to pool started around age eight with a steel-tip dartboard his grandmother brought home from an estate sale. After missed darts damaged the door behind it, the door was replaced and Austin and Dad switched to playing darts at bars. That’s where the pool tables caught his attention.
Taking pool seriously was Austin’s idea. The challenge of figuring out how to run every ball kept him coming back.
Follow @BootsAndBreaks ↗