Multiple U.S. open titles, world Championships, and numerous Mosconi Cup appearances.

These are just a few highlights from one of America's top pool players.

Shane Van Boening turned pro in 2006.

He's not only brought home a lot of hardware, but also earned praise and respect from pool players around the world.

Shane says that his success comes from a lot of hard work.

After competing in all these tournaments, I decided that, you know, I had to work harder for myself and dedicate myself.

To practice and to get to where I'm at right now is take about 6 to 8 hours a day, seven days a week.

I work real hard, I dedicate myself and just wanted to be one of the best pool players in the world.

Shane was nicknamed early on in his professional career by his fellow competitors.

All of a sudden I hear people going, oh, there's a kid from South Dakota.

He plays pretty good.

And, every time when I walk into a pool room around the country.

They don't really know my real name.

They just know, that I'm known as the South Dakota, kid.

Van boening has been playing pool all of his life growing up in Rapid City.

Shane learned early on that he was destined to be the best.

As a child, I used to sit in a baby chair & watch people play pool in the pool room and, I watched my family play pool, and I watched my friends.

This kid was so entertaining.

Like I said, two years old.

He just seem to know everything that you should be knowing when you're 18.

And he just immediately picked up by watching.

Gary Bloomberg, Shane's grandfather, owned a string of pool halls when Shane was young.

Although Shane's love for pool probably started there, it was a gift from his grandfather that seemed to catch his eye.

At Christmas time, I bought him this miniature table and he had all his toys out there.

And when he got to the pool table, which was wrapped up the minute we tried it, he dropped all of his toys.

I handed him the cue with the balls and the table, and then he made his first shot and he's been making them a lot since, believe me.

Shane and his grandfather attended local trade shows where they performed trick shot exhibitions.

This is where Gary knew that his grandson was meant to play pool.

To me, that was so cute.

I bought him a little suit, put the tie on him.

He was so proud.

He couldn't wait to get up there.

People would gather around.

He couldn't wait to get to the table and shoot the shots.

He just loved it.

I always had to drag him away from the table.

Shane's mother, Timi Bloomberg, was an outstanding pool player herself, dominating the state tournaments with her sister and her mother.

The whole family made pool playing a big part of their lives, and Shane was no different.

Or was he, when he was just 16 months old, Timi's friend noticed something about Shane that would change their lives forever.

A friend of mine came over and she asked me where Shane was, and I stomped on the floor and I yelled his name.

and she looked at me and said, why did you stomp on the floor?

Said "I didn't."

Yeah, you did.

And then I started.

She said he can't hear.

Shane was born with near total loss of hearing in both ears.

A normal conversation like this would be at around 30, 30 to 40 and without hearing aid, Shane hears at 80 and 85.

So with his hearing aids, I think it brings it down to about 30.

So there's still that lower part of a conversation, though.

It wasn't easy growing up with a hearing impairment.

Shane found comfort in the game of pool.

My hearing impairment when I go in school is there were a lot of bullies.

In my days.

And when I go play pool, it's a different world for me where I don't have to worry about that.

In grade school, the school district wanted Shane to use an FM system to pipe the teacher's audio into Shane's ears, but Timi thought that would label him as handicapped and wanted him to learn and function by himself.

We had different battles while he was growing up because they wanted to treat him handicapped, and I wanted him to be functioning normal.

The way he articulates now, I think is pretty good, as severe as a hearing loss that he has.

Shane says this helped him learn how to speak and communicate with others, but where he really learned to communicate was at the pool hall.

What helped me the most is that when I grew up in the pool room, is, I grew up with my friends, and this is where I get my better communication with people.

Otherwise, most hearing impaired people out there, you know, they don't really speak very well.

Some say the hearing impairment was an advantage during a pool match.

He's so focused, it wouldn't make any difference, really, if he was hearing or if he wasn't.

A lot of professional pool players are complaining that I don't hear anything when I'm playing pool, and they do.

And a couple years ago, they, made a rule where, you know, it's not fair.

And last couple of years, I leave them on that way.

You know, I don't feel bad for other people.

I just try to make it fair for everybody.

Being a role model isn't something Shane aspires to do, but something he has grown into because of his hard work, his attitude towards others, and the respect from his fellow competitors.

He's also a role model for the hearing impaired, something he looks forward to pursuing into the future.

The role model thing that he's got going on with that.

It's not just that all little kids can look up to him and go, oh, I want to be a world champion like him.

But all the handicapped kids that can look and go, you know what?

I don't have to be handicapped.

I can actually function normal and do normal things and utilize a disability so that I have more ability in some other area.

So Shane's a great role model for things like that.

I want to help other hearing impaired kids and have them have a good future for themselves, and let them know that you can do whatever you want.

And I think that's important for me.