RedStrong Red (default) BlueCalm Blue GreenFresh Green

Chose your color scheme.


Archive for "Community"

Mini Tournaments at the Pickle Club

Posted on September 17, 2024 by under Community, Pickleball.    

It’s been a while since I’ve written about my pickleball exploits so I figured it was time. I’m giving you a break from all the restaurant and food posts for a bit. To be fair, there’s not really much to report on the pickleball front as I am currently on my tournament sabbatical year. Unlike in the past when I was sharing my pickleball adventures from the nearly weekly pickleball tournaments I was playing in, I’m barely even playing recreationally these days. However, since we are putting together another mixed doubles mini tournament at the Pickle Club in a few weeks, I thought I should share the results of the series of mini tournaments that we held over the summer.

Here are the some pictures of the winners from all three events…

July 6 – Men’s Doubles

Men's Doubles Winners

  • 1st – Matt Dutton and Derek Pruett
  • 2nd – Dan Chocron and Steve Alvarez
  • 3rd – Kyle Manny and Joshua Schott

July 27 – Mixed Doubles

Mixed Doubles Winners

  • 1st – Susie Ternes and Ryan Kellenbarger
  • 2nd – Julie Pauly and Zach Nguyen
  • 3rd – Lena Quach and Fin Tatum

August 24 – Women’s Doubles

Women's Doubles Winners

  • 1st – Lacy Waugh and Lori Belew
  • 2nd – Anna Le and Lena Quach
  • 3rd – Jen Tiano and Monica McGehee

For all three of these events, we limited sign ups to six teams max because there are only two courts at the Pickle Club. There would be way too much waiting around otherwise. The format was round robin pool play plus single elimination bracket with a bonus third place game for the losers of the semi-final round.

Round robin games were one game to 11, win by 1 (to limit the wait). Each team played all the other teams so each team got five pool play matches. The single elimination bracket play format was best 2 of 3 games to 11, win by 2. Everyone got lots of play. All results were sent to DUPR after the event so the events are great for building up your match history and DUPR rating reliability.

These tournaments are a great value and specially since you get to pick your own partner (unlike the InPickle Nation mini tournaments that we have weekly). It a slightly different flavor. Anyway, highly recommend grabbing a partner and joining us for this one. Registration will open this weekend on the Pickle Club website.

No Comments

Parking Changes Coming to Wichita

Posted on August 26, 2024 by under Community.    

I’m taking a break from catching up this super behind blog to talk about the parking changes that are coming to downtown Wichita in 2025. A few weeks ago someone posted about the parking changes because the changes that were being implemented on January 1 were extending beyond just downtown. It was also impacting Delano district. Delano is where the Senior Services of Wichita and Seneca Park (across the street) is located. They were concerned about how the parking changes would impact parking in the area and how this would create a hardship for seniors, not just financially but also because we all know that many seniors are technologically-changed.

When I saw that there were a couple of meetings at Senior Services and one of them was at 5 PM on a Thursday, I decided to attend that one. I had to reschedule a waxing appointment to do so but I had to know what was going on. I stole the photos below from the Senior Services Facebook page and they are from the Monday morning meeting. They’re better than my photo from Thursday so I decided to use theirs instead.

Untitled

Untitled

Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson came to address the group, which mostly consisted of people who are very upset about the parking changes. As you would expect, the people in the community in favor of the changes or those who are indifferent, didn’t really feel a need to attend. I fall under the indifferent category and mostly attended out of curiosity.

In all other cities that Brian and I have visited, we’ve had to pay for parking in the downtown areas, so I am neither surprised nor against the idea of paying for parking. It seemed to me that the parking rates/fees would be reasonable and that the monies collected would go toward maintenance and upkeep of parking and would benefit the immediate area overall so I don’t mind having to pay. As a consumer my main concern was whether it would be convenient, e.g. will there be an app and multiple options to pay for parking because if it’s a pain in the neck then, no matter how cheap it is, people will be discouraged from going to the area just because they won’t want to mess with parking.

As a pickleball player, another concern I had is of the impact to parking around Seneca Park. It’s currently free to park all around the park and also along the street in front of Senior Services. None of the information I had seen showed that this area would be affected by the parking changes but I wanted to know for sure.

Anyway, let’s share some background information first. Here’s a parking report presented by Health ICT back in 2018.

Troy also mentioned this video about the high cost of free parking which supports the notion of moving towards charging for parking in certain areas of the city. Having traveled to other places where paid parking is now the norm, I completely understand why the city wants to move in this direction; however, it’s been really nice having free parking available in our city.

Untitled

At the meeting at Senior Services on Thursday, we got to see a sample parking payment kiosk and we got to see the maps of impacted areas.

Parking 1

The map above depicts the area that they’re looking to implement paid parking starting on January 1. The picture below is a closer look at Delano. It looks like paid parking will be mostly along Douglas and there might be some paid parking along Walnut, Handley, Osage, Oak, and Sycamore also (but I’m not quite sure what all the color-coding actually means).

Parking 2

It looks like the area around Seneca Park will be largely unaffected; however, I am worried that people who don’t want to pay for parking along Douglas and Walnut will end up parking on the street along Seneca Park and walk to wherever they’re going thus, making parking more limited for pickleball players who frequent the park. It’s possible but we don’t really know for sure what will happen and how people will behave until they implement the changes. I do know there are quite a few people who are vehemently against the idea and they were quite vocal at the meeting I attended last week.

There is another meeting happening tonight at Nortons Brewing Co. If you are at all interested in the changes that are coming, I highly recommend attending.

No Comments

Christie Pink in Wichita

Posted on August 19, 2024 by under Community, Pickleball.    

This post is dedicated to my friend Christie Pink who I first met over three years ago when Erica Case (then Lopez/Davis) played in the Middle States regional pickleball tournament. I think, at the time, this was my first every regional tournament experience.

Untitled

That tournament was in May 2021 and then I saw her again in January 2022 when I traveled to St. Louis for the Dink In the New Year pickleball tournament with Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance. I played women’s doubles with Tiffany and mixed doubles with Devon Fuller. We arrived a day before the tournament and we ended up connecting with Christie and her crew at Missouri Pickleball Club.

Untitled

My next notable Christie sighting was at the Minto US Open in April 2022. It was my very first US Open experience.

I got to play against Christie again in the 2022 Middle States Regional, and I think we’ve been at the same tournaments a few more times during the two years that I was playing a ton of tournaments. She was a skill level above me in women’s so, except for that first year, I hadn’t really had to face off against her in women’s but I tended to “play up” a division in mixed so I was more likely to run into her there.

Fast forward a couple of years later, she ends up going to Wichita on a business trip and reaches out to me out of the blue. She was so gracious to let Tiff, Donnie, and I play with her and her friends at MPC all those years ago so this was my turn to return the favor. She arrived on Sunday and, to make the most of her visit last month, I arranged for a couple of play sessions for us.

Untitled

Our first stop was Chicken N Pickle for mixed doubles with Ramon Lozano and Ryan Kellenbarger.

Untitled

I purposely chose Ramon because they had met before at the 2022 Middle States Regional. He was my partner when we played against Christie and her partner in that tournament, and so I figured they would remember each other. I invited Ryan because I needed someone who would be fun and balance Ramon.

Untitled

Our next stop was open play at the Pickle Club from 5 to 7 PM with Susie Ternes and Greta Siemens. Neither of them had met Christie before but I thought they would be a good fit, and they both just happened to be available. Schedules can be difficult to coordinate sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago, when Christie was back on another work trip, her visit coincided with PickleCon, PPA Kansas City Open, OKC Picklemania so the folks that I got to play with us on her first visit were all out of town but the nice thing about Wichita is that we have an abundance of fun pickleball players so it’s pretty easy to put together a great group.

Untitled

Not to be left out, Karen Fox decided she would host her own PickleCon at the Pickle Club. LOL. Our group that day consisted of Chris Wilson, Mark Armstrong, Donnie Lesperance, Tami Racine, Kimberly Howe, Tiffany Lesperance, Karen Fox, and Janelle Lindeman.

Untitled

Brian brought us some Wichita Brewing Co. pizzas and a cooler of bevvies so we ended up hanging out and having a little picnic afterward which was a nice end to the evening and play session.

The next day, Christie and I had a mixed doubles session at CNP with Dustin Herman and Noi Sourinthone. For dinner that night, Brian and I took Christie to Stearman Field in Benton (sounds far but it’s really not that far from Wichita) and then we drove out to the Keeper for the Plains for iconic Wichita photo ops.

Untitled

Untitled

It’s been such a pleasure entertaining Christie on these two visits. I can’t wait for her return trip!

No Comments

2024 Wichita Heart Walk

Posted on August 13, 2024 by under Community.    

Untitled

I got invited to do the warm up for the Wichita Heart Walk this year. I remember doing the warm up for them over ten years ago so I was excited to do it again. There was a bit of miscommunication because the warm up wasn’t on the script. They had the walkers preemptively line up so we didn’t have a lot of participants but KAKE News’ Deb Farris and Jay Prater were good sports and did the warm up with me.

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

The best sport of all was Brian. He is the real MVP. He took me to the ballpark so I wouldn’t have to worry about finding parking. For his good deed, I took him to his favorite breakfast place. We had brunch at HomeGrown after.

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Here are some pictures of our breakfast that day.

Untitled

Untitled

I think I got a little drunk on my breakfast beverage because I talked Brian into taking a photo of me with the Naftzger Park sign. I couldn’t help it because my outfit matched!

Untitled

No Comments

2024 Picklepalooza

Posted on August 13, 2024 by under Community, Pickleball.    

Pictures from this year’s Picklepalooza charity event benefiting Senior Services of Wichita. This year we had me, Chris Wilson, and Jeff and Anita Harris (as usual), and we had some new participants — Margie Happy, Ian Bosmeier, and Michael and Tish Habbart. I didn’t get photos of everyone but I did get a few.

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

No Comments

« Older Entries «