Geelong’s Braydan Jenkins, 21, eyes Slate Pool Lounge’s 2025 Intermediate Championships title, six weeks after mum Tara Baskin’s passing
Braydan Jenkins hopes to fulfil his late mum’s dying wish to have her son win a major pool tournament. But it isn’t just on the billiards tables the 21-year-old is aiming to make his mum proud. Read his incredible story.
Geelong
Don't miss out on the headlines from Geelong. Followed categories will be added to My News.
If Braydan Jenkins could tell his mother anything right now, it would be this: ‘I’m trying to make you proud mum’.
Just six weeks on from single mum-of-six Tara Baskin’s sudden and tragic passing aged 38 at her Winchelsea home, the young pool player will look to honour her memory by winning this weekend’s Intermediate Championships at Slate Pool Lounge in Geelong.
But it’s not just with a cue in hand Braydan hopes to make his mum proud, the 21-year-old, as the eldest of six kids, seeking custody and ready to raise his three youngest siblings, aged 7, 4, and two.
Recalling his shared love of billiards with his mum, Braydan spoke of a moment last year when she funded his entry into a pool tournament.
In doing so, she shared her wish to see her firstborn win a major competition before she passed away.
“Word for word actually … as if she knew,” Braydan said.
“I didn’t end up winning and still to this day, I haven’t won a comp (but) the fact she’s now passed on almost makes me want to win more, as if I should do this for her.”
Now, with a number of years of practice and coaching behind him, Braydan will vie to fulfil that wish at the second edition of Slate’s Intermediate Championships – which boasts a $64,000 total prize pool and $20,000 winners cheque.
It was Tara, a team member at the Little Ryrie St venue who played every Wednesday, who first introduced her son to the game.
Playing together was “just fun” in those early days, when Braydan didn’t care about how he played or how good he was.
But he had natural ability and started winning in lower divisions, eventually joining his mum’s team, where in that first year together, they reached a grand final with Tara as captain.
“To do that with my mum was a really good experience for both of us,” Braydan said.
“We almost shared a bond over pool, as well as her being my mum.”
‘I’m not going to let you down mum’
Tara went to sleep on April 29 and never woke up, Braydan describing finding his mum that next morning, and the immediate aftershock of her passing, as “brutal”.
But it was a moment he revealed he wasn’t unprepared for, having learnt a year earlier Tara had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD),or more commonly referred to as ‘smoker’s disease’.
“I knew she only had about 10 years left, but she passed very suddenly from causes outside her COPD,” Braydan said.
The death certificate is not yet finalised, but Braydan said they believed there was several factors in his mum’s death, including a mild case of pneumonia, which led to asphyxiation.
It’s a passing Braydan finds some peace in.
“Because she had COPD and emphysema, and I knew she only 2-10 years left according to doctors, there was so many worse ways for her to go,” he said.
“It’s part of the reason why I feel so comfortable sharing it … is because she could have been hooked up to some oxygen tank for the next 10 years and waiting to go, but she enjoyed every second of her life … and when she did go, she went painlessly in her sleep.
“It makes me feel a lot better about the situation knowing that she went in a way that was peaceful and not in the brutal way that she was destined for.”
Braydan, who has two younger brothers aged 20 and 16, foresaw a future where he might need to care for their three youngest siblings, 7, 4 and two, the oldest of the three also diagnosed with autism.
Instead of a two-to-three year commitment, it’s turned into at least 16, but there was no question in Braydan’s mind he’d step up.
“I almost knew immediately, looking at them (kids), I was going to take them,” he said.
A life-defining decision for a 21-year-old, it was one Braydan felt immediately “was my load to carry”.
But as he put it: “that’s the price you pay for loving someone”.
It’s work he feels his mum had “entrusted” to him, their close bond and openness to speak about anything from health, mental health and maternity related topics over the years building in Braydan an emotional maturity which belies his age.
“I remember we were driving back from the house with the kids, to drop them off at my place, and I was looking up at the clouds and I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to let you down mum’,” he said.
“As I grew up, she (mum) taught me life is about how you tackle those challenges, because they are going to keep coming regardless of what happens.
“I can’t change that she’s gone, but I can be here for these kids for her, that’s something I can do”.
‘These are the real heroes’
Braydan is grateful for the outpouring of support which has followed his mum’s death, as well as from those closest to him, including partner Haylee, also 21.
An online fundraiser, started in the days after Tara’s death, is still active, with more than $16k raised towards a $22k target.
Meanwhile Slate Pool Lounge owner Johl Younger is organising a fundraiser at the venue for Saturday, July 26, which includes a cash pool competition and raffle, and a significant percentage of bar takings also going to the family.
For Braydan, accepting this type of unconditional support is “hard to welcome often”.
“It’s a tough feeling, because when everyone is trying to help you and give to you, you feel like you owe everyone so much,” he said.
“After a while, you start saying ‘no, I’m all good, I don’t need help’, but you do.
“And it’s those people who still rock up with lasagnes and the food and clothes and toys, and people like Johl who are helping raise funds for these kids – these are the real heroes of the story.
“I didn’t organise anything, I just told people what happened and they went ‘all right, done’.”
- Slate Pool Lounge’s Intermediate Championships starts 10am Friday, and runs until Sunday, with entry free for spectators. A Pro Championship will be held next month, from July 4-6. A fundraiser for Braydan and his siblings will be held at the venue from 12pm-6pm on July 26.
More Coverage
Originally published as Geelong’s Braydan Jenkins, 21, eyes Slate Pool Lounge’s 2025 Intermediate Championships title, six weeks after mum Tara Baskin’s passing
Beyond the Valley festival looking to expand
An annual music festival held to the west of Geelong will add a stage and have its capacity increased if an application made by its Melbourne-based organisers is approved.
Hundreds tune in to vote for terrific tots
The competition is fierce — already almost 1000 people have cast their vote for Victoria’s cutest baby. Have you?