Archive for "Community"
Tournaments are Back
Posted on April 22, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events, Family, Hobbies.
After a year of no events or gatherings of any kind, tournaments are finally back. It seems like there’s pickleball tournament every weekend this month at Chicken N Pickle. There were even two back to back last weekend, one on Saturday and one Sunday. Now that people are getting vaccinated, it seems everyone is getting more comfortable with being out and around other people.
Creating Tomorrows hosted a pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle a couple of weeks ago which I attended as a spectator because I didn’t know about it until last minute. We were at dinner at Carrabba’s and Joe just happened to mention that he had donated several prizes to this tournament. I normally play pickleball at noon at Nahola but made an exception because I wanted to support a cause that’s meaningful to my friend Joe.
I didn’t get to play but I got to do the next best thing — write the bracket on the whiteboard. I love when Michael let’s me do it.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the tournament champs Mason McCanless and Caesar Naftzger who played as Big Caesar’s Pizza.
After the tournament, I went home to get Brian and we both drove to the outdoor courts at Mulvane to surprise dad. We gave him a card and some gift cards for his birthday, which he always tries to keep on the DL.
It was a beautiful day for a drive and we had a nice visit with mom and dad and the entire Cannady clan who were all there playing with them. We didn’t get to play with them that time but I’m hoping we have more nice weather ahead and will have another opportunity to play pickleball with the family very soon.
Until next time. GNG.
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Linwood Recreation Center
Posted on March 26, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
After two solid years of playing pickleball, amazingly enough, I’ve still never visited all of the locations that offer open play in our area. I think what happens is that, now that I’ve found places that fit my schedule close to me, I don’t ever venture out to new places any more. Once established, it’s always hard to step out of our comfort zones. That said, I’m going to try really hard to hit (and take pictures) of the various places on our Wichita pickleball open play schedule.
First stop: Linwood Recreation Center. I visited the rec center for the first time ever a few weeks ago. With rec centers, you never know what kind of surface you’ll be playing on. Most of the time they have wood gym floors. Occasionally, you’ll run into vinyl tile floors like at Linwood when they use a multipurpose space.
At Linwood they have room for three pickleball courts and play using temporary portable nets. Similar to the format used at Edgemoor, everyone lines up on the chairs set up at one side of the room and they use a “four on, four off” rotation. As each game finishes, the games shift toward the furthest court so that they’re always feeding into the nearest court. This limits the need for players to walk back and forth and interrupt play.
I’m not a huge fan of the “four on, four off” system because sometimes you get stuck playing with the exact same people for the entire open play but it does keep things moving and, even when there are over twenty players there, the wait time is limited. Groups do get mixed up a bit when there is an odd number so there’s opportunity to play with different people.
The player demographic at Linwood is similar to the player demographic at most rec centers. There’s more older people than younger people but it seems like, unless you’re playing at Chicken N Pickle, that tends to be the case with pickleball because the sport was popular with the retired folks before it became mainstream.
On the Saturday that I went to check out Linwood, I ran into some people I knew like Ken (above) and Bill (below), and others who I’d never met before.
I also met a new friend, Phil, who recently discovered pickleball and, just like all of us, is now completely addicted.
Anyway, I’m going to try to make it out to all the other locations to take some pictures and videos and meet some pickleball players. If you’re looking to play, here are two things you must do to get started because open play options on the weekend are usually quite limited:
- Join the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group.
- Sign up on PlaytimeScheduler.
The Facebook group will help you connect with other pickleball players so you’ll get invited to play outside of the regularly scheduled open play. PlaytimeScheduler shows you an open plays arranged by people at the parks (or other locations) that are outside of the normal schedule.
As far as the normal open play schedule goes, here’s what typically happens on the weekends:
SATURDAY
- Linwood Rec Center – 10 AM to 12 PM
$2 per person, limited to the first 25 players- Edgemoor Rec Center – 1 PM to 3 PM
$2 per person, limited to the first 25 playersSUNDAY
- Nahola – 12 PM to 2 PM (competitive)
$7 per person for non-members- Edgemoor Rec Center – 1 PM to 3 PM
$2 per person, limited to the first 25 players- El Dorado Rec Center – 2 PM to 5 PM
FREE open play- West YMCA – 4 PM to 7 PM
$10 per person for non-members
Now that I’ve been to Linwood, I can saw that I’ve been to all of these places. Now I just have to check out all the other locations which is a bit more challenging because I work during the day. I will do my best to get it all done this year, though. Until then, hope you have a great time playing. See you all on the courts soon!
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Wichita Pickleball Patches
Posted on March 15, 2021 by Ching under Community.
As you know Gregg Smith has been the primary fundraiser for the “Light Up Edgemoor” effort. He has been selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and even hosted benefit tournaments with the sole purpose of raising money for lights at the park. This year he came up with the idea of selling “Wichita Pickleball” patches for $5 each. They are fabulous patches and well-made. The only complaint I’ve received is they are sew-on rather than iron-on.
I’ve sold a few of these for Gregg to help with the fundraising effort. I paid $50 for 10 patches and Gregg gave me one for free — to keep or giveaway to a junior pickleball player or someone else deserving. I decided to keep my free one and put it on my Vulcan tour bag so I can promote Wichita Pickleball everywhere I go.
I couldn’t figure out how to iron it on so I decided to sew it on myself. Not bad for someone with limited sewing skills, right? It really wasn’t that hard so I don’t know what people are complaining about. I think it was just an easy excuse to not buy one. However, I did get a roll of iron-on patch adhesive so I could give some free to those who have purchased patches but don’t want to sew them on.
Brian used the iron-on patch adhesive to jazz up his new travel backpack but the corners were loose so he had me sew the corners down for him. Maybe the iron-on method is not the best way to go? LOL.
Gregg is also selling a sticker version of this same design for those who would rather not sew or iron anything. He’s always coming up with with these fundraising ideas. I often get asked how much money is needed and how much money has been raised so far and I really have no idea. I just help support the cause by buying whatever it is that they’re selling or even helping sell things sometimes. Gregg has all of the details. After at least three years of solid fundraising, I have to believe we are getting close. I hope this is the year that we finally get lights!
You can help us speed up the fundraising effort by sending a donation to the “Light Up Edgemoor” effort directly to the city of Wichita. Here’s the check needs to be made out to and the mailing address for which to send it. Please remember to write “Light Up Edgemoor” in the check’s memo field so they know that your donation is specifically for this purpose.
The Wichita Parks Foundation
PO BOX 3439
Wichita, KS 67201
Thank you to everyone who has bought something, made a donation, helped sell things, supported the tournaments by playing or volunteering, or contributed in some way. You’re making a difference and helping us get closer to our goal. Next time I see Gregg, I will be sure to ask for an update.
Until then, let’s keep playing. See you on the courts! GNG.
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Buy Us Some Coffee
Posted on March 10, 2021 by Ching under Blog, Community.
I’m experimenting with a new service called Buy Me a Coffee as a way to get a little bit of revenue from the blog. As you know, we kind of phased out our weekly coffee chats over a year ago when I really started getting into pickleball because we no longer had time to devote to it. Well, we are thinking of bringing it back for a limited audience. I’m still trying to figure out the logistics but I’m thinking that starting a BMC coffee club would be a step in this direction. Once we know how many people are looking for this content, then we can get to work on it.
We will also start posting members-only content (blogs and pictures) on our BMC page so you may start seeing fewer posts here and on social as we move our activity to the new platform. We always welcome your feedback so let us know if you have suggestions or ideas. Stay tuned because changes are coming.
Until then, you may click on the little coffee cup in the corner of the “Give us some love” button on the right. GNG.
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Happy 2nd Birthday to Wichita Pickleball
Posted on February 1, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
Happy second anniversary to the Wichita Pickleball facebook group!
I brought cake to league that night in celebration of our group’s anniversary and also as a belated happy birthday to Tiffany. That night also happened to be “newbie night” for the month of January. The event had a great turnout.
Check out these pics.
Since it was Tiffany’s belated birthday, she had the honor of cutting the cake.
Karen doesn’t like a lot of frosting so she had a very specific request. She wanted a middle piece and, more specifically, the part with the word “ball” on it.
It’s great to see so many new people being introduced to the sport. Our Facebook group has grown a lot since it started a couple of years ago also. It’s definitely worth celebrating! I can’t wait to see what the future holds. Until next time. GNG.
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