Archive for "Community"
Missing Out Because of Back Issues
Posted on June 12, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
InPickle Nation returned to Wichita a couple of weeks ago with their Under Armour Championship Series the Dink Minor Leagues MiLP v3, three-player team tournament. You might remember the team tournament that I played in a couple of months ago when our friend Jim Tsen was in town.
This is a similar event, backed by the Dink Minor Leagues, but the teams consist of only three players or the same gender instead of four — two men and two women. The game format is the same – rally scoring to 21 – but matches consist of only three games so there are no singles dream breakers.
I was super excited to play in it so, when it was first announced back in March, I grabbed a couple of friends (Anna Le and Chanell Nguyen) and got us signed up with “Whatever” as our team name. Our team name is kind of a joke because when we were trying to come up with ideas for team names, both of them were pretty much like “Whatever is good with me.”
As you know, I have been plagued with all sorts of health issues not the least of which is my back problem that started a little over a month ago, so I didn’t even get to play. But that’s not the half of it. Our team went through so many replacements and substitutions that no original team members actually played come tournament day. We truly lived up to our “Whatever” team name. LOL.
You wouldn’t believe it if I told so I just had to chart it to explain just exactly how wild this roller coaster journey has been.
End of March, we formed our team with me, Anna, and Chanell. Shortly after, Anna’s daughter Sophia is diagnosed with leukemia and so she asked to withdraw. We ended up picking Monica McGehee as replacement.
While I was at the US Open in Florida, I heard from Chanell. She also has to withdraw because our friend Angelynn’s wedding is at 1 PM that day. Obviously, we’re not counting on getting eliminated early so that was a definite deal-breaker. Anyway, I found out that Jen Refschneider’s (aka Chef Jen) DUPR rating had dropped below 4.6 and she was eligible to play in our group. Texted her immediately but didn’t hear back for a couple of days.
I was looking at the team rosters and found that Katie McKee (who was originally interested in playing DUPR 15 level with Molly Spring and Greta Siemens) registered to play in DUPR 13 with Jen Tiano and Susie Ternes. My next text was to Molly because I knew she was interested in play and no longer had a team. I did hear back from her right away so, at this point, our team now consisted of Molly, Monica, and me. I eventually did hear back from Chef Jen and she said she was available if I still needed someone. We had already picked up Molly so we no longer had a vacancy on our team but the division itself still had one team spot left. Jen who was interested in playing, asked me for Jill Reyes’ number, and now the two of them were trying to form a team.
In the meantime, Molly, Monica, and I grabbed Fong Witte as our fourth for a practice session and that’s when I realized that there was no way that my back would hold up to a full day of playing. I couldn’t barely muster finishing one game. We asked Fong if she was available to play on that day and so then it was decided that she would take my spot.
Another team finally entered and took the final opening so DUPR 13 was full up. Chef Jen and Jill’s team didn’t get it in time. Tami Racine, Krista Crawford, and Huyen Nguyen (aka my first pickleball daughter) were also trying to enter but there was no spot for them either.
I did find out later that Cindy Egan ended up picking Chef Jen to replace Megan Nighswonger, who had also gotten invited to Angelynn’s wedding. Susie Ternes had to replace Jen Tiano due to a knee injury and ended up grabbing Jill, so in the end, Chef Jen were both able to play — just on different teams.
A couple of days before the tournament, Molly told me that her father was throwing a surprise retirement party for her mother-in-law that same day and so now she had a conflict. Anyway, I knew that Huyen wanted to play because she was part of a team that couldn’t enter due to our sold-out situation, so tapped her to replace Molly. In the end, team “Whatever” consisted of Huyen, Fong, and Monica — none of whom were original team members. Wild is an understatement.
The event was super fun and the ladies really showed out. We filled all 12 courts with 24 teams in the morning. There were 8 teams each competing in DUPR 9, DUPR 11, and DUPR 15.
Take a Chill PLL (Parrish Gumeringer, Liz Ellison, and Laurie Newton) took down DUPR 9 division.
Soy Milk (Uyen Dang, Senda Vu, and Abbie Welu) took down DUPR 11 division.
We’ve Got JoKeS (Jill Reyes, Katie McKee, and Susie Ternes) took down the DUPR 13 division.
Be Like Water (Khan Pham, Doan Nguyen, and Michael Cheung) took down the DUPR 11 division.
JKS (Branden Stephenson replaced Jason McCutchen, Keith Lietzke, and Saif Khan) took down the DUPR 13 division.
The men started at 11 AM, as the ladies groups were winding down. Despite there being very few mens teams, I think they still had a good team. There was great competition overall.
Of course, I was there all day to assist with the tournament and support Duane with whatever he needed so it wasn’t like I completely missed it. I was bummed I couldn’t play, though. Playing is way more fun than spectating.
Special shout out to our official Regina Pinkston who came to hang with us all day.
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Pickleball Birthdays are the BEST
Posted on June 1, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
I had missed Danae and Jeanette’s birthday bonanza because we had Banana Ball tickets. Thankfully, our friend Dawn organized a pickleball gathering in their honor and I was able to make that one.
Dawn, pictured below with Danae (left) and Jeanette (right), is the best at getting everyone together to celebrate birthdays. She’s so thoughtful.
As for me, I didn’t really have enough time get presents but I didn’t want to show up empty-handed so I bought a bucket of six beers, put a bow on it, and called it my contribution to the celebration.
Danae and Jeanette are so fun.
We had a great time celebrating them.
Huge thanks to Dawn for bringing everyone together to celebrate.
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National Pickleball Month MEGA Fiesta
Posted on April 28, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Did you know that April is National Pickleball Month? If you’ve been following me, then you probably already know this because I am completely obsessed with pickleball and will tell everyone all sorts of pickleball factoids and am eager to celebrate my favorite hobby all month. Much like previous years, I planned some activities throughout the month to bring people together to celebrate.
To kick things off, we decided to host a MEGA Fiesta at TapNPaddles. For those who are unfamiliar with it, I host a Friday Night Fiesta round robin group every week at TapNPaddles. We started it last year and it has evolved over time. We’ve had as many as 16 teams (32 players) on 8 courts but on average probably get about 8-10 teams on average.
Anyway, to kick off National Pickleball Month festivities, we decided to have a MEGA event on April 3. We took over all 12 courts at TapNPaddles from 6 PM to close. Since we had 24 teams, we divided everyone into three pools of 8 teams each. After the round robin matches, the teams competed in a single elimination bracket to determine the winners. Besides the event lasting four hours (instead of the normal 2 hours), we also received a $250 grant from USA Pickleball which we used on some heavy appetizers and finger foods for the players. We also had festive decorations, fun prizes, and drink specials. We brought the sign board back out for people to write “why they love pickleball” and my friend Susie Ternes made an awesome photo booth which was a huge hit. It was a great kick off party overall.
Instead of using the usual king and queen crowns that we use for photos each week, I leaned in to the “fiesta” theme and got these mini sombrero headbands from Amazon to “crown” our winners. They usually don’t get to keep my fancy crowns which we just use for photo ops but they did get to keep these cute sombreros.
I got a bunch of “fiesta” decorations just to be more festive. A few people, like Jeanette Santo and Hai Nguyen, came early to help decorate.
We took some fun photos at Susie’s photo booth.
Susie’s custom photo both props were hilarious!
Bharath Reddiyar and Amy Dupont won the top group.
Karen Fox and Devon Fuller won the middle group.
Taylor Griffin and Rob Adams won the bottom group.
It was a Friday Night Fiest for the ages! Here’s a highlight video I made:
If you ever want to play pickleball on a Friday night, register your team here. Come and fiesta with us!
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Chicken N Pickle Courtside Crew
Posted on April 24, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Chicken N Pickle expanded their ambassador program this year by launching a new group called CNP NET-Work. It’s kind of a scaled down version of the original Chicken N Pickle ambassador program with less emphasis on participating in tournaments and greater focus on building community. The NET-Work is designed for loyal, local fans who embody the spirit of Chicken N Pickle. Mom, dad, and Brian are all part of this program.
Some of the perks of being part of CNP NET-Work include:
- Welcome package with $50 CNP Gift Card, CNP shirt and hat
- 50 BOGO brunch certificates per year
- 4 FREE Court hours per year
- Monthly open play with our staff, NET-Work, ambassadors, kids crew, and campus crew members
- 25% OFF CNP swag in store and online
- 25% off ReserveCNP.com
- Plenty of volunteer opportunities
It truly is a wonderful program to be a part of and, since we moved our monthly open play night to Mondays, I am actually able to organize and participate in the events now. Last year the monthly ambassador open plays were on Wednesdays so I couldn’t attend any of them because my Zumba class. I did make it in time for a few group photos, though.
Our friend Jim Tsen actually got to join us for the one in March while he was in town. Brian and I were also back from the US Open in Florida in time for the one in April because the Courtside Crew Socials (as these events are called now) are on the third Monday of each month.
I just love being part of the Chicken N Pickle family!
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My First Blarney Breakfast
Posted on April 20, 2026 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
The Blarney Breakfast is on its 51st year but I’ve never ever been able to attend because it’s usually on a weekday. This year, however, I managed to squeeze it in to my schedule. Although, I did have to get up super early and go at 6 AM. It helps to have a little bit of peer pressure.
The event benefits Rainbows United and is usually on St. Patrick’s Day (whatever day that might fall during the week). There were drink specials but I couldn’t partake because I had to go to work immediately after. Some of our friends were smart and took the day off, though. I’m thinking I might have to do the same to fully experience Blarney Breakfast next year. What a great way to start the day!
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