Events

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Dream Team Doubles — Over and Under

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.

Last year we had a couple of Dream Team Doubles team tournaments at Riverside Tennis Center. This time Noi wanted to do something different. He wanted to include a population of player that usually gets left out of team events. The twist on this recent team event is that at least two of the members of the four-person team had to be 55 and over.

I always enjoy running these events because it gives me a creative outlet for creating some tournament worksheets, which kind of my jam. I shared about it in the ictpickleball.com site.

Here are a few pictures from the event…

Noi Sourinthone – the main pickleball guy.

Erica Case and Cindy Egan

Patti’s Ballers (Wanda Ballard, Dustin Herman, Brady Randall, and Patti Mackey)

JB and the Dinkers (Nathan Peters, Erica, JB West, and Kari Steffy)

NOIsy Picklers (Steve McKinney, Noi, Shelley McKinney, and Katelyn Goldsmith)

Paddle CERJ (Robert Mansfield, Jenny Corley, Cindy Egan, and Ed Egan) — They were the champions of the event.

Left: Team KSBS (Scott Wolford, Becci Young, Kay Schierling, and Stephen Wilson)

Right: Let’s Taco ‘Bout It (Parrish Gumeringer, Ramon Lozano, Fernando Martinez, and Dawn Hazelwood)

These were the top three finishers:
1) Paddle CERJ
2) Team KSBS
3) Let’s Taco ‘Bout It

What I love about this event is seeing a diverse group of players of all ages come together and play as a team. It was so much fun to run and so much fun to watch.

Erica generously hosted an after party at one of her restaurants. It was me and Brian’s first time at Hurricane and we really liked it. It’s clear on the opposite side of town as us but we’d likely go back.

Here’s a highlight video I create of the pictures and video clips from the event.

Anyway, it seemed like everyone had a great time. Can’t wait until the next team event! Until then, GNG.

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Updates are So Behind Because – Life

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Life.

Fifteen years ago today, we moved from the old Protection One building (now the LUX) on Main to the Ruffin Building on Douglas and Broadway. We have since moved again. Now we are at the old KGE building on East Central.

We left behind so much — my old whiteboard (which I am a little bit sad about), Zumba VHS tapes (I had donated them to our wellness center when we first moved and realized we would have our own fitness area — I didn’t want these back), and fax machines (who still uses these things, anyway) — but the memories we will forever take with us.

Besides moving offices, there was also the Leadership Wichita alumni reunion hosted by the Wichita Chamber at the IMA rooftop. I wish it hadn’t been cold that day so we could enjoy the rooftop terrace but, either way, it was nice to see some of my classmates. At least those who made it from the class of 2014.

Then there is the pickleball. Lots and lots of it.

So many DUPR sessions (because I try to squeeze them in whenever I can). We also had a Dream Team Doubles Over and Under event at Riverside, which I will write a separate post about but you can read about it some here. My friend Katie’s birthday weekend (also to be covered in a separate post). And then driving up to Kansas City to have some practice games with Parker yesterday.

I was coming up for a DUPR Waterfall event but they canceled the 4.5 Division because of lack of sign ups and they wouldn’t let Parker play down because he is too good. Anyway, I ended up going up and was able to get some good practice games in so it was a productive trip. The best part is Parker showed up with the exact same pickleball bag as me. He didn’t know I had this bag (I literally had just gotten it a few weeks ago) and he just got his two weeks ago also. We just happened to order the exact same bag. Crazy! All I can say is — great minds think alike!

If you want the exact same bag for yourself, you can order it from Just Paddles here. Then we can all be matchy matchy.

There’s so much to write about. I’m hoping to find some time this week to get caught up before life gets completely crazy again. Until then, GNG.

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Kevin Coccetella’s Birthday Dinner

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Food and Drink.

A new friend (Kevin Coccetella) I met through another new friend (Tim Satterfield) invited us to join his birthday dinner at Red Rock last weekend. I met Kevin at Tim’s 40th birthday celebration at Chicken N Pickle last October, which happened to be the same day as the pickleball cookout at Sedgwick County Park. There are no lights at Sedgwick County Park so we wrapped up pretty early. Brian and I drove separately that day so I could swing by Tim’s party on the way home.

Kevin, who is a long-time friend of Tim’s, organized the birthday celebration at Chicken N Pickle, so that is how we met. The funny thing is, I met Tim through another friend I met through pickleball. So it’s kind of an infinite cycle — pickleball is a gift that keeps on giving.

I really didn’t know who else would be coming to dinner, other than I knew Tim would be there. Normally, I would avoid going out to dinner with a bunch of strangers because, believe it or not, I am somewhat anti-social; however, (a) Kevin is a nice guy and it was a good opportunity for Brian to meet him, and (b) Brian and I hadn’t been to Red Rock in a long time so it was as good an excuse as any to go.

The food was great as always. Here are some pics…

Kevin ordered some appetizers to share and he also ordered a couple of these amazing desserts. I remember it was one of our favorites too and really the main thing we liked about Red Rock when they change up their rotisserie chicken salad. Our table ended up eating all of our dessert and the other table’s dessert too.

As it turns out, Tim wasn’t the only person I knew. Braden and Stephanie McCurdy both attended the dinner also. Brian and I met them through Coley and Gina Cole. It was great to see them as we hadn’t seen either of them in ages. Stephanie and I used to attend Gina’s Zumba classes religiously ten years ago. Wichita is such a small world!

Anyway, I’m glad that we went to the birthday dinner. Kevin is such a nice guy and worthy of celebrating. Until next time, GNG.

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Missouri Work Trip

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink, Travel.

Made a trip up to Raytown a couple of weeks ago for an in person team/staff meeting and also we had a surprise baby shower for Alex. Here are some of the pics from that trip.

It was so nice to have everyone together to celebrate Alex. Specially, since many of us haven’t seen one another in person in such a long time.

After work, a few of us got together for dinner after work. Alex took us to this cute place in Lees Summit that’s only six minutes from our hotel.

Originally, it was just going to be me, Carmen, and Alex but as luck would have it, Alicia was meeting Julie and Nikki at Third Street Social too so we ended up with all six of us hanging together at dinner.

We were there in time for the tail end of happy hour so we got to enjoy some happy hour food and drinks. Here are some pics.

They made a fun, tasty mocktail for Alex.

They had $5 burgers on Mondays!

Julie ordered these cookie sandwiches and they were so good!

Anyway, Third Street Social is super cute. Food and drinks were great. I would highly recommend it to anyone who happens to find themselves in the area. I’m not sure when I’ll ever be back that way but this is a spot I would likely visit again.

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New Year’s Eve

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.

New Year’s Eve was super fun. We started the day with the One Last Dink team tournament at the Pickle Club. This is my second team event with Ramon Lozano and Katie Merrill (the first one was the DUPR Teams event at Northland Racquet Club last month) and my first one with Jared Smart. Last month our fourth team member was Kyle Rinck.

When we first talked about playing in team events, Tanner Rice was going to our fourth team member but he missed the DUPR Teams event last month due to a hamstring injury and then couldn’t play One Last Dink because he was spending the holidays in Las Vegas with his family. Kyle and Jared were both amazing teammates and definitely complemented our team well.

Here are some highlights from One Last Dink:

Brian was such a trooper. He spent the entire day with us to help me run the event so I could also play in it. He even went to grab lunch for a few of us so we didn’t have to leave the venue. Brian proves time and time again why he deserves the title of “Best Husband Ever.”

We rang in the New Year at Egan’s. Since Molly and Cory Sager were staying with them, Cindy decided to host a small gather for NYE. We had a ton of fun playing games with everyone. Coincidentally, Levi Hobart (one of Brian’s former employees at T-Mobile) and his wife stopped by to return a suitcase to Cindy. They happen to be neighbors. What a small world!