Shelby Lunte is a master of myriad math topics: geometry, statistics, calculus and algebra. During the day, she uses her knowledge in the classroom, taking dozens of U-High students through intricate lesson plans and problem sets. Outside school, however, she uses her expertise in combinatorics and angles for something else: playing pool.

“There are angles all over the place,” Ms. Lunte said. “The angle that you hit the rail should be the angle that it comes off if you hit it straight. But then you can put all kinds of spin on a ball, so that is not always true.”

Ms. Lunte is currently the co-captain of five different pool teams and has qualified for the APA’s Las Vegas tournament seven times — including one qualification as an individual player. In 2023, one of her teams, El Cappy Tan, won first place in the 2023 championship.

“No one goes to Vegas expecting that you are going to get first because there are hundreds of teams that you are competing against,” Ms. Lunte said. “I mean it’s really exciting. The smile just does not leave your face. You are like, ‘Wow, we just did this.’”

Ms. Lunte first picked up a cue when she was only a child during summers at her aunt’s house and continued to play for fun as an adult at pool halls around Chicago. She started playing competitively after former information technology director Curt Lieneck sent out an email to the entire faculty and staff, requesting players to join his team.

While she has been on many sports teams since she was a kid, what Ms. Lunte appreciates most about the pool is not its physical challenges but the mental ones.

“I like the challenge of pool, because not every game is the same,” she said. “You come across the same shots a lot, but the layout is always different.”

She compares pool to solving a puzzle, and considers herself a strategic player.

“You should be thinking a minimum of three balls ahead,” she said. “I don’t try to kid myself — I can’t make every shot that’s on the table. So I am really good at playing defensively, because then you can get the ball in hand. Once I get the ball in hand, I can run out all of my balls.”

As a teacher, Ms. Lunte has to balance her pool-playing and work lives. She does not attend every practice, so she makes a point to be very efficient at work and prepares her lessons ahead of time. Ms. Lunte said that the patience she has learned from teaching students translates to her pool playing.

“I am an incredibly patient player,” she said. “If I am playing against someone and they play a lot of safety, that doesn’t frustrate me. You know it’s going to make the match longer, but I’m just like, ‘OK, I can do this.’”

While pool is mainly an individual sport, Ms. Lunte said her style of playing pool is influenced by all of the people she has played with and been mentored by.

“I show up because of the people. If I didn’t like the people that I was on teams with, or the people in the room, I would not show up all the time,” Ms. Lunte said. “But when I actually start playing, I play to win.”