Savannah Stripes

Savannah Rose Arbëreshë was born in Santa Fe and endured losing both of her parents by age 11. But she grew up to cement herself a place in the history of eight-ball pool. Learning the sport from her stepmother and math teacher, she first attracted attention in the niche sport by winning state and regional competitions before moving onto national and international events. She has assumed the nickname of “Savannah Stripes”, a name that comes from her preference for the striped pool balls (9 through 15) and which she has even trademarked.

Savannah’s father was a second-generation Albanian-American. His family had lived in Boston ever since his parents immigrated as late-teens from Albania to first Spain in 1958, and then America in 1960. But in 2002, he moved to New Mexico, fearing he could be harassed or attacked for his heritage after 9/11 since Albania was a mostly Muslim country. Santa Fe was where he met Savannah’s mother in a bar, and they married in 2005 because of her pregnancy with Savannah.

Savannah’s mom died in 2007 during the childbirth of her younger brother Finn. This initially left their father to raise the two children on his own. He met another woman, a mechanic named Kelly, online in 2011. They married in 2013, making her Savannah and Finn’s stepmother.

But in January 2016, their father was driving on I-25 when at mile marker 268 northbound, a speeding power company truck lost control and hit his car on the driver’s side. Four hours later, he died of his injuries which included 21 bone fractures. The Arbëreshë siblings were changed forever and once again facing life under a single guardian. 

At school, Savannah’s math teacher Mrs. Vance quickly noticed her massive change in personality. When Savannah revealed having lost both of her parents to Mrs. Vance, she became something of a therapist to her. She counseled her at lunchtime and became a very close friend. Mrs. Vance suggested one day that Savannah relieve her depression with a game of pool. Playing at a table at a gas station near the school, Savannah quickly caught onto the game. With each game, she became noticeably more and more skilled and cunning.

During parent-teacher conferences, Mrs. Vance told Savannah’s stepmom that pool was working well for relieving Savannah’s stress. It was after this that her stepmom got her her own pool table: one with pink felt. After some games of pool in which Savannah won nearly every time, her stepmom suggested she start taking the game more seriously. 

She started her pool career at some local parties, where she won resoundingly all the time. This drew the attention of a recruiter for the Billiard Brats tournament that was being held in Phoenix, Arizona. Taking a road trip down I-25, I-40, and finally I-17; Savannah was so ready to prove her amazing pool skills to the world. She won this tournament, talking home prizes of $3,000 and an iPhone 14 Pro. It was at this point that Savannah’s therapy and hobby became a career for her.

Savannah went on to win the Flux Pacific Series at the age of 18 on August 26, 2023. This is perhaps the most competitive and high-stakes pool tournament anywhere west of the Mississippi River in America. In the final round, she beat Kyle Walker, age 31, in a stunning game in which he still had five solid balls left by the time Savannah pocketed the 8-ball. Savannah took home the $50,000 grand prize.

With help from her status as an up and coming pool legend, Savannah has also done some advocacy. She is an ardent opponent of things being subscription based, especially features in cars or consumer goods. She also supports homeless rights, animal welfare (but not PETA), and the BDS movement.

Savannah is a slightly tall girl with straight rose blonde hair. She has green eyes and her face is clear of any moles or freckles. Her skin is a fair, rosy shade. Savannah’s favorite outfit is a pink hoodie and leggings. On her hoodie are several patches for her interests, things she advocates for, and feats in the sport of pool. She always wears her hoodie zipped all the way up or doesn’t wear it at all; there is no in between (I.e. no wearing her hoodie unzipped). She actually owns two of this same hoodie: one with patches and one without. Usually under her hoodie is a white D’Illedaux sports bra. The leggings are a very slightly different shade of pink and include an optional chain. Savannah completes her favorite outfit with a pair of white shoes with 8-balls on them.

Savannah, Finn, and their stepmom live together at Savannah’s childhood home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The siblings are 20 months apart in age. Finn has no involvement in Savannah’s pool career, caring only about his PS5. When he turns 18, he wants a Kawasaki sport bike. He has dealt with the guilt that comes from his mother dying giving birth to him.

The family has 3 pets. Even two of them have been named after the two sides in pool. Solids is Savannah’s cat. She is solid black except for the tip of her tail which is white. Solids loves her toys and spends most of her time with the stepmom. She catches the occasional mouse and always leaves it in the exact same spot in front of the TV for some reason.

Stripes is Savannah’s Argentine tegu. He lives in a large enclosure on one side of Savannah’s room. Under the tank itself is a cabinet with cleaning and veterinary supplies. On the other side of Savannah’s room is her bed, personal pool table, small bookshelf, and desk. Savannah or her stepmom feed him anything from chicken livers to eggs. These are very smelly but luckily for her stepmom, the garage is right next to Savannah’s room. This is where Stripes’ food is kept in a freezer. 

Stripes is an adventurer, riding on Savannah’s shoulder while driving and even coming to some small-time pool games with her. Because Argentine tegus are very smart by lizard standards, Savannah has potty trained him and even taught him how to press the play button on her stereo equipment and click a computer mouse. Of all the music he has been exposed to, mallsoft is his favorite as far as Savannah knows. Savannah has utterly spoiled Stripes, buying him multiple collars, many tags, and some clothes.

Finn’s pet is a ball python named BJ. His frozen mice are kept in the garage freezer along with food for Stripes. Finn feeds him a mouse every Friday morning. Savannah and their stepmom also interact with BJ. Although BJ gets along okay with Solids, Stripes is very hostile to him, maybe because Stripes sees BJ as prey.

Savannah’s room is cramped with her bed, pool table, gaming PC, audiovisual equipment, and her pet tegu Stripes’ enclosure. The pool table is in the center, with her bed being in the back corner and her desk being near the foot of the bed. On the opposite side of the pool room is Stripes’ enclosure and by the door is the TV and some stereo equipment.

While her brother Finn is a console gamer, Savannah prefers PCs. Her own PC is a Timsah Alif-4, which was made by Timsah Design, a case builder in Dubai. The Alif-4 costs $2,200 and comes as an aggressive-looking case available in several colors, of which Savannah chose pink. Timsah gave the machine a Ryzen 9 7900 CPU with an AIO cooling system. Its graphics power comes from an RTX 4070 GPU. There are 32GB of RAM and 8 TB of storage.

Savannah uses her PC with a pink monitor with cat motifs. The screen itself has 6K resolution and a 160Hz refresh rate. Another, much smaller screen is on the left side of her keyboard, which also has a set of G keys on the right side. Her mouse is also pink with vertical and horizontal scroll wheels and a small makeup mirror. She has a set of four orb speakers with programmable aquamarine LEDs.

Savannah’s favorite board game is Snakes and Snipers. This is a tabletop RPG where one player assumes the role of one of various SWAT or military units and the other player one of various venomous snake species that have invaded the in-game universe from another dimension.

Savannah owns some stereo equipment that she keeps on a cabinet right under her TV in her room. The centerpiece of her stereo is a pink Pamplón S-250 receiver that transmits to her large pink Bertram speakers. Piled on the receiver is her turntable and cassette deck. Under the receiver is her DC-314 CD changer, which can hold 14 discs. She has a collection of mixtapes she has made and CDs, but only a single vinyl: Eternal Sunshine by Ariana Grande. One of her mixtapes contains “Out of Touch” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, among other songs. Stripes the tegu loves this tape. When the lost song “Ulterior Motives” was finally found, the first thing Savannah did was make a mixtape of the found recording followed by several versions that fans had made before the actual song was found.

Savannah’s car is a pale pink DDR Grullon GT-8, a kit car that looks like a McLaren F1, but you have to assemble it yourself. She and her stepmom decided to buy and build the kit with some of the prize money from winning the Flux Pacific Series. They ordered the car in August 2023 and received it in November. Her stepmom bought a 97-04 Corvette crate engine at the junkyard and got a friend to help her and Savannah install it. The transmission is a Getrag 6-speed manual transaxle from a 2000-04 Porsche Boxster. In this case, the transmission was from a Boxster that got flooded, so Savannah’s stepmom was able to get it for only $1,000. But this meant she had to replace every single fluid, electronic component, and wire in the transmission.

They had it ready for the road the following March after spending a total of $38,000 (76% of Savannah’s Flux prize money) but the car still has some loose ends such as not yet having passenger side interior door paneling. Savannah’s Grullon has the New Mexico license plate 8AVANNAH. Along with the GT8 and stripe decals that came with the kit, she has added decals of her Clapper and Instagram handles by the upper vent to the rear engine bay, and causes she stands for on the fenders. In the event women’s rights in the US deteriorate to a dangerous level, Savannah has also talked about using her car to help women escape to Mexico. She is pretty sure it can outrun a border patrol truck as long as she times her shifts correctly.

Savannah’s stepmom, despite being a mechanic, has a beaten up Chrysler minivan which has a mismatched door and has gone through two previous transmissions in its life.