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Making My Zumba Comeback

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Ching under Community, Zumba.

Guess what, friends. I’m gearing up for my Zumba comeback. As you know, I started teaching Zumba over ten years ago and, at one point pre-COVID, was teaching nine (9) classes a week. I started dialing it back after I discovered my passion for pickleball in 2019 and then really cut it back after COVID to the point where, for the majority of this year, I’ve only had one regular class – my Wednesday night Aqua Zumba at the East Harry Genesis Health Clubs location.

We eventually canceled that class as of October 1, 2023 due to low numbers (I could never get my 21st and Woodlawn regulars to come over, so I would have people between both locations but not enough at either location to warrant keeping the classes going). So as of the beginning of October, I have had zero (0) regular classes each week, which has never ever happened since I started teaching in 2012.

Anyway, the universe knows how much I like to keep busy so I was presented with an opportunity to sub a couple of Missy and Todd’s classes while they were on their two-week Panama Canal cruise a few weeks ago. I ended up subbing a class for each of them. I hadn’t taught land in nearly four years. I’ve been stuck teaching Aqua Zumba because they could never find anyone licensed to teach water but we had a plethora of regular Zumba instructors who could teach land so I ended up giving up my Monday night Zumba class to help cover Monday night Aqua Zumba and it ended up eventually becoming my regular class, which I eventually gave up to make more time for pickleball. But I digress, getting my playlist ready for subbing (pretty much starting from scratch because I hadn’t had a regular Zumba class for years) rejuvenated my passion for Zumba and so now I’m ready and actually kind of excited to get back at it.

I attended Missy’s Halloween weekend class a couple of weeks ago and cameo’d three songs. I’ve been so obsessed with pickleball the last few years that I had forgotten how fun and exhilarating it is to let go and just dance like no one is watching. I think it’s the jolt I need to find a new regular Zumba gig.

I’ve been talking to the leadership at West YMCA and it seems like they will have a spot for me there so I am now going through the process of getting rehired. I’ll share updates as things progress and, of course, I’ll be sharing my schedule and promoting my classes here and everywhere. Until next time, GNG.

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Backyard Pickleball Invitational 2023

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

I have so many ideas and not all of them actually come to fruition so I was really happy when we pulled off Backyard Pickleball Invitational 2023 last month. I think the first time I thought of this was on a rainy day a few months ago. I was at Chicken N Pickle playing with Jenny Corley, MariAnn Heeren, and Fong Witte when it dawned on me that all three of these ladies have their own private pickleball courts at home. Each of them typically have a “go to” group of players that they play with and they just play at their own courts. However, with a single court, you can’t really have too many players. Usually, you just grab three other friends for a scrimmage. So then I thought to myself, “How do we bring all these private groups together?”

Zach Nguyen is another friend I have who has a pickleball court in his backyard. He actually doesn’t live too far from me so, after playing at his house one of the times, I pitched the idea. What if we could have a pickleball tournament where we host the pool play at various private courts in the morning and then we all met up somewhere in the afternoon for bracket play? We brought Fong and Jenny into a group text and started talking about it. Then we were like, okay, what weekend would work well for this (because everyone is so busy with tournaments and travel and stuff). We originally thought about playing the bracket at a park like Seneca or Edgemoor but then another friend suggested we play the bracket at Jeff Bally’s because he has two private indoor courts at his property. He just recently completed this project so what a perfect opportunity to break it in.

Anyway, I’m busy with tournaments and stuff because there was the PPA Kansas City Open and Tulsa Pickleball Classic and Shangri-la Open and then maybe some other things in between there so like a couple of weeks before the date that we kind of tossed around they were like, “Hey, are we still doing this thing?” I’m glad they stayed on me because it is very easy for me to get distracted and just let things fall through the cracks if people don’t really seem interested. Anyway, I’m like, “Yeah, yeah. For sure we are still doing it. I’ll the registration form link.” I totally added an entire page of liability waiver in there and made people agree to it as a CYA move so none of our court hosts and organizers get sued.

During the planning stages, we were thinking we would have 12 mixed doubles teams but actually ended up with 16 because so many players wanted to play. Instead of just having pool play at Zach’s, Fong’s, and the Corleys, we also had pool play at Jeff’s (our afternoon bracket play venue).

This is the group that played at Zach’s house.

We had another great group of players at Fong’s.

This was our group at the Corleys’.

I don’t think they took a group photo in the morning at Jeff’s but we did take a bunch of pics in the afternoon during bracket play.

Here’s a highlight video I made of the day.

I’m so happy that we pulled this off and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I hope we get to do it all again soon. Until next time, GNG.

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Work Team Building

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Ching under Community.

Our extended work team participated in a team building/volunteer activity at Emporia State University’s Prophet Aquatic Research and Outreach Center (PAROC).

Got reunited with two of my favorite people, Molly Williams and Joy Jackson.

We started at Flint Hills Technical College and then drove to the PAROC site where we would be helping with riparian restoration.

We were briefed on all the various plants that we would encounter and learned how to identify poison ivy so that we could stay away from it. Honestly, even after the presentation, I still couldn’t tell which was poison ivy and which wasn’t. Although, they did say it was everywhere so maybe that’s why I couldn’t tell — because it all of it was poison ivy. LOL.

Despite the heat and despite the risk of getting poison ivy, it was a wonderful afternoon of bonding and team building. It was nice to be able to get together with everyone and connect face to to face. Here’s a picture of our immediate team, followed by a picture of the massive group that participated in the activity that afternoon.

Fun times!

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2023 Wichita Corporate Challenge

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

The 2023 Wichita Corporate Challenge kicked off on Thursday, August 17, with corn hole (bags) and pickleball events at Chicken N Pickle. They had so many more teams this year so, for the first time ever, there were 4 different divisions (instead of just 3 like we have had in the past).

I was excited to be able to compete in the pickleball event with Chris Wilson. I always look forward to opportunities to reunite with Chris because he was my first ever tournament partner. We have played enough together that he knows how I like to play and generally knows what balls to take from me.

Here are some pictures from that day…

Chicken N Pickle competed this year and won the pickleball event in Division 1.

We are normally in Division 3 but, because the event expanded this year, many of the Division 3 teams got moved up to Division 4. Once again, we took second to Koch. Not surprising, considering Koch has such a deep talent pool.

Fong Witte and Ev Kim beat out multiple players every year in their pickleball tryouts. This year, Koch had 40 teams (That’s an astounding 80 players!) compete for their pickleball spot.

Overall, I’m pretty proud of how Chris and I played. We lost to Koch in the main bracket so they were undefeated going into the championship match. We first had to get past Cargill in the backdraw before we could come back up and face Koch for a rematch. We were successful at beating them in the first game but, unfortunately, could not win a second time to take the championship.

It looks like Spirit was third and Cargill was fourth in our division last year. However, Cargill improved on their results this year and took third. Evergy has been second at least 2 years in a row. I’m hoping next year will be the year we actually take it but Fong and Ev are a tough team so stars would have to align.

Besides pickleball, I also got to play in billiards this year because we didn’t have anyone else to do it. We won a close one against a tough NIAR team and then lost to some professional billiard players on the Spirit team and then I think we lost to Cargill in the backdraw. I was not awful and actually sank some balls so I think with a little bit of practice we could probably improve our finish next year. That is, if no one else steps up to play and I get to compete in the event again.

We were short a couple of people to get all the points possible for the 5K walk event on Saturday, August 19, but those of us who came had a great time. They relocated the route to the Exploration Place area and it was a beautiful day for a walk. Some who wanted to challenge themselves actually ran the course.

Those were pretty much the only three events I could help with because my schedule has been pretty crazy but I’m glad I was able to contribute and get us some points. Here’s a link to the current standings. Participation has been low the last couple of years and I am hoping this will change because I would like to see us as one of the top teams in our division in the future. Until next year, GNG.

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Our Dinner with Champions

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

Since all of the younger professional pickleball players were getting all the attention and hype from the pickleball tours, the senior pros created their own league. If you are age 50 or over (49 turning 50 that year counts), then you are eligible to compete in senior pickleball events.

National Pickleball League (NPL) is a professional tour created by champions (aka senior pros) for champions. A couple of weeks ago NPL was at our local Chicken N Pickle for one of their tour stops so I volunteered and got to watch and experience the team event unfold. It was electrifying and inspiring at the same time. If I continue to work to get better and improve my pickleball game, I could be part of this thing in five years (if it’s still around, hopefully – LOL).

When the event wrapped on Sunday, the OKC Punishers celebrated at Jose Pepper’s next to Chicken N Pickle. Brian and I got invited by the two members (now friends) who we were hosting that weekend so we got to spend some time and bond with the team which is currently #1 in the league going into the San Antonio event. Here’s a picture of their amazing team.

Note that their #1 female Beth Bellamy isn’t in the photo because she wasn’t feeling well at the end. Maureen O’Malia actually had to play her final match for her. O’Malia was up for the challenge and played lights out that last match.

Here’s a picture of me and Brian with OKC Punisher Carrina de Vera and her wife Deb. They stayed with us that weekend. They were wonderful guests and event brought a present for Brian and I with various goodies (handmade soap, loofah, lip balm, etc.) from a local soap shop in Ohio which I cannot wait to try.

Here’s a picture of us with Jenny Marcos, #2 female for OKC Punishers. She plays in the top matches with Beth Bellamy. I’ve actually known Jenny for some time through various mutual friends and we got to hang out with her a bit during the US Open this year in Naples. Jenny ended up not being able to stay for dinner because she wanted to drive home that same night and didn’t want to get home super late. We offered to have her stay another night (Carrina and Deb’s flight wasn’t until Monday morning) but Jenny had some lessons or appointments/commitments in the morning that she couldn’t miss.