Archive for "Community"
Rotary Club Changes, Events, Etc.
Posted on August 24, 2021 by Ching under Community.
The Andover Rotary Club board put me in charge of putting together our programs this cycle so I hit up some friends to come visit and present to the club. Matt Mayfield came out last month to talk about the Senior Services of Wichita.
I’ve also hit up some old friends from the Twitter days to come and speak. Last month we had Suzanne Perez (KMUW) talk about the annual #ReadICT reading challenge and then last week we had Denise Neil (Wichita Eagle) come out to promote her new book “Classic Restaurants of Wichita.”
One of the major changes for this year is relocating our meetings to Butler Community College. For as long as I’ve been a member (about seven years), we’ve always met at Terradyne Country Club. I was told that the meetings have always been there since the club’s founding in 2003. Anyway, there were several factors that led to the move and it took months of deliberation. However, as of August 2021 and, for the foreseeable future, our meetings are officially at Butler Community College. I made all the updates I could make to both our club website and also our Facebook page. It’s not perfect but all references to meetings at Terradyne Country Club have been, for the most part, removed.
Despite this major change, some things remain the same. Haus of Brews will still be our premier fundraising event and it’s back this year! We couldn’t have it last year because of the pandemic and everyone missed it. This year we are having the event on September 25 at Treescapes (same venue as always). I feel like everyone is excited and ready to have this event again. In fact, we have already sold a few tickets. Early bird tickets are available online for $35 through September 10. After September 10, tickets will be $50 each. If you buy yours online, put “Ching Brubaker” in the member referral box so I get credit for the ticket sale. Hope to see you all then!
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Charity Tournament at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on August 17, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
The Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club held a super fun charity tournament at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday. It was a full day affair with competitive teams in the morning and social teams in the afternoon.
Erica and I reversed matched with our Electrum tanks.
Here are some pictures from that day. Above pic is with my partner Chris Wilson and Karen Fox. Karen played in the social but came early to hang out and watch.
Here’s another picture of the three of us with Lesli Toubassi.
Here are some action shots of one of my favorite pickleball couples, Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance.
Here are some action shots of Greta Siemens and Ramon Lozano.
Here are some action shots of Hanbeen You and Kim Knotts.
Here are some action shots of Lori and Dave Belew.
Lesli, Jenny Cole, Scott Wolford, and Tiffany.
Even after we were eliminated from the tournament, we hung around and watch all of the awesome matches. Here’s Chris with Dave Belew (and his wife Lori Belew in background, deeply concentrating on something).
Many of us stayed to watch the championship match.
Scott did a great job of recruiting teams. Lots of really good pickleball players came out to play in this charity tournament which is not usually the case. It’s pretty rare that benefit tournaments attract real pickleball players. You usually end up playing with mostly beginners and maybe a couple of teams who know how to play. I think that’s why the matches were so fun to watch.
I didn’t end up staying for the afternoon portion because Brian and I had plans that night (dinner and baseball) so I didn’t get to watch Karen and her partner Ian Carr take down the championship of the social (drink in hand) tournament. Janelle Lindeman and her partner Devin Hansen took second.
I think everyone had a great time overall. Kudos to the Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club for putting on such a wonderful event. I would totally do this again. Until next time. GNG.
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Friday Night Fun
Posted on August 16, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
I know my definition of fun is probably way different than most. Brian likes to play video games for fun. Some people like to drink for fun. As for me, I just want to play pickleball. And so that’s exactly what I do on Friday nights every weekend.
I keep a pretty predictable schedule. Every Friday I try to hit the open play at Nahola before our 7 PM private group reservation that way I can get almost four solid hours of play on the weekends.
This past Friday, my friend Ramon was in town. There were also several others who don’t normally come who played. It was a busy night for open play.
I didn’t mind it too much because I knew that I would have my two hours after open play when it’s just our group of ten. I like this format because, even though we have two players waiting, the wait is never too long. And when I’m winning, I never have to wait because winners always stay and split. I’ve been playing pretty well the last few months to where I rarely ever lose. Most times I win and only lose when certain match ups happen. I can even win with Eric sometimes, which a year ago would never have happened.
I haven’t had any pickleball lessons in months but I have been playing a lot and since I’ve been playing with various people I’ve often found myself just standing around and not getting hit the ball. This used to frustrate the heck out of me before I knew how to help my partner. Over time I started to figure out what to do to ensure that I also get the ball sometimes.
It used to be I would just give up and hope that the game would end as quickly as possible, which was never any fun. With my new approach, I actually get to play some and even win some games too despite being on the weaker team.
So what am I doing differently? I’m sure you’re wondering. Amazingly enough, all I’ve changed is where I position myself on the court. If my partner is getting 80-90% of the balls, then I start putting myself smack dab in the middle at T. Believe it or not, this makes a huge difference because then it considerably shrinks the other team’s target. Now, instead of having half of the court as their target, their target has diminished to a third or a quarter of the court. This helps me and my team because then I get more of the court so balls will actually come my way sometimes and I can get be part of the rally. And, if they do force the issue and continue to target my partner, since their target is much smaller they are more likely to hit the ball out which earns my team either a point or a sideout.
This new strategy has been super effective and I’m actually winning more on Friday nights. Whereas before, whenever I would get paired up with certain people then I would just rollover and take the loss and wait for the next game. Now, the games are way closer and sometimes my team even wins!
The only downside of getting used to playing this way is sometimes I forget to switch back to normal mode when I’m actually paired up with someone good and I’m taking up too much of the court when I should be. LOL. Now that I know what to do when playing with a weaker partner, I just need to learn to adjust when I’m with a strong partner. Rec is always hard because you’re constantly playing with different people. I like it when I get to play with the same people on a regular basis because then I can get used to how they play and they can get used to how I play and we begin to build that rapport and chemistry on the court. There are some people I just cannot play with, though. Like, that chemistry isn’t happening, no matter what. Thankfully, none of those people are in my regular play groups.
This past weekend was special because my friend Ramon came to visit. It’s kind of a bummer that he didn’t get to play in Rocky Mountain Championships but that was good news for me because then he got to spend time in Wichita. He played in the Nahola open play and then hung out and joined us for dinner after.
I don’t usually go out to dinner with the Friday night crew because I have to teach Aqua Zumba on Saturday mornings but I made an exception this time around. It’s okay to deviate from routines sometimes, specially when friends come to visit.
This is all for now but stay tuned for a few more posts from this weekend. GNG.
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Weekend Pickleball
Posted on August 13, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
My friend Debbie Fanning sets up the best pickleball play groups. I still remember when she first invited me to play in her Friday night group. I was so excited! I also owe her for getting me connected with Tom Pham. I had never played with him before she and Dave started inviting us to play mixed doubles in the bubble at Riverside Tennis Center (RTC) a year ago. If it weren’t for these games, I never would have gotten the idea to team up with Tom last year.
We don’t do mixed during the week anymore because our schedules have diverged. Before I picked up additional classes at VASA, I was playing in multiple leagues so it was hard to play during the week nights. Nowadays the main hurdle with playing during the week is my Aqua Zumba schedule. I teach classes every single week night except for Friday. I have a 6:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Harry location on Mondays and Wednesdays and a 5:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Woodlawn location on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This makes it nearly impossible to get in any play groups. Even leagues are tricky. I can’t do a league that starts any earlier than 8 PM most of the time.
Anyway, in addition to our fabulous group on Friday night, Debbie has started organizing weekend play. They usually start at 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning, which is impossible for me to make because I have Aqua Zumba on Saturdays (Woodlawn location) and Sundays (Harry location) from 9-10 AM. There were a couple of Saturdays that I piggy-backed off the 10 AM Saturday group and started my group at 10:30 AM just so I could play with them. And then there were a couple of weeks when it was too hot to play outside and Debbie booked courts inside the bubble instead. On those times, the indoor courts at RTC weren’t available until later so I could actually join the fun.
The one day that has always eluded me is Sunday. They usually play from 9-11 AM at Rolling Hills so it’s impossible for me to join them. However, luck was on my side last weekend. The pools at VASA were closed for maintenance so my weekend classes were canceled. I didn’t find out until the weekend so I was on the waiting list but, luckily, there were a couple of cancellations and I managed to in.
I was so excited to finally be able to play with this group that I begged them to take a group picture at the end. I wanted to remember this forever because I wasn’t sure when the stars would align for me to be able to play with them again.
It’s so amazing that Debbie’s groups have grown so much. Our Friday night group is always a standard 10 players. Her weekend groups have gone from 12 players to an average of 16 players to now 24 players routinely playing a ladder format together. Even with that many players, she still ends up with a pretty deep waiting list.
I just love playing with this group. I wish I could play with them more.
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Ron Ponder Sighting
Posted on August 9, 2021 by Ching under Community.
My friend and favorite ref Ron Ponder was in town earlier this week. I hadn’t played in the morning at Seneca Park since the big fiasco with the “complainers” several weeks ago but I had to make an exception because this guy is pretty special. He was originally not arriving until 8 AM but he left his house in Oklahoma super early so he could play with us at 6 AM. This guy is the real deal and the coolest ever!
I had to wrap up and head to work well before 8 AM but at least I got to play one game with him. I am so grateful to everyone willing to get up early so they can play with me. I can’t play all morning like the retired peeps so, if people weren’t willing to play super early (before work), I wouldn’t be able to play at all.
Bill (who you can’t really tell from this pic because of the sunshine on his head), Lonnie, and Janelle decided to come and play early also. I just love these peeps. They are so fun! It was a great morning for pickleball and probably my last morning (aka before work play) for the season. Until next time. GNG.
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