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Picklemania MMXXIII

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

The pickleball tournament fundraiser for my Rotary club just keeps on growing. I remember the very first year we had it. We weren’t sure how successful it would be but we knew we needed to do something that spring because we couldn’t have our Haus of Brews fundraising event due to the COVID pandemic. We planned to have the tournament in May 2021 but then the weather didn’t cooperate so we had to move the tournament to June. It was so freakin’ hot!

We had much better weather the following year but it got really windy in the afternoon and one of the canopy tents flew into one of the courts. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Last year was the first year that we changed the event to a team format (instead of just a normal doubles pickleball tournament) but it was a completely made up team format that I came up with based on Wrestlemania. LOL. You could tag in and out in between points (not during because that would be way too crazy and completely unsafe). Anyway, it was weird but fun. We had 16 teams participate last year.

This year we ended up with 24 teams but we still only had 8 courts so I had to get seriously creative. We kept the team format but change it to MLPlay (rally scoring) because it takes less time and the match durations are more predictable. We also did games to 15 (instead of 21) to further reduce the amount of time to complete each match. We kept the dream breaker tie breaker round because it added a fun, unique element, but still kept the game to 15, win by 1.

Here’s a good summary of this year’s tournament format:

Anyway, the format worked out great. With 6-team pools in the round robin pool play, each team was able to play every other team in their pool. After pool play, the teams went on to 3 different brackets (Elite, Advanced, and Intermediate) based on their results. We started at 8 AM and wrapped up around 5 PM. We were right on schedule. Couldn’t have planned it better!

This is what the pool play schedule looked like with 24 teams and only 8 courts. We basically assigned 2 courts for each pool. This meant there were bye rounds but it worked out fine because it gave people an opportunity to visit, grab snacks/drinks, go to the restroom, etc.

Here’s a fun video that my friend Jonathan Thorne made using pictures and drone footage from the event. I feel like we really exceeded all expectations this year. So much work went into though, as it always does. I did get to salvage some signage that I made last year like these ones.

I’m glad I thought ahead and didn’t put a year on them so we can recycle them for use year after year.

An improvement we had this year is a bag sponsor. Our friends at Bodyworx Physical Therapy provided us with string bags and player swag (coozies and pens) along with sponsoring a team. It was great because then we had a bag to put the players’ tournament shirts and other swag (stickers, overgrips, etc.) in. Definitely a step up from the paper bags that I delivered everything in last year.

Here are some fun pics from the event…

I’m so glad we finally got to play with Tanner Rice (red-head on the left) because the times that Ramon (Lozano), Katie (Merrill), and I have played in team events we’ve had to pick up a different fourth team member because Tanner wasn’t available for one reason or another. Kyle Rinck played with us in the DUPR team event we did back in December in North Kansas City and Jared Smart played with us in the “One Last Dink” team event at the Pickle Club.

I am so grateful for Brian, who ran the tournament so I could play. Kyle Starkel came out in the afternoon and helped, too.

Our team missed making the Elite 8 bracket by one stinkin’ game! We were in a 3-way tie with Bodyworx (Jen Tiano, Mike Ellison, and David and Lori Belew) and Mid-Court Crisis (Ling Wei Kong, Natalie Lubbers, Noi Sourinthone, and Scott Wolford) in our pool. We each had one loss (4-1 tied record for all 3 teams) and they were to one another so we had to count games won. Mid-Court Crisis won 16 total games. Bodyworx won 15 total games. We won 14 games. Only the top 2 teams of each pool went on to Elite 8. Middle 2 teams went to Advanced bracket. And the bottom 2 teams went to the Intermediate bracket.

We ended up winning the Advanced (middle) bracket, but pretty whichever team in our pool didn’t advance to Elite 8 was going to win that middle bracket no matter what because the matchups were sooo close. We had an amazing team!

Picklemania MMXXIII Pools

These were the pool play groups. In each of the groups, the first 2 teams listed advanced to the Elite 8 bracket. Except for in our group, which had a 3-way tie (Bodyworx and Mix-Court Crisis ended up advancing). In pool C, Team Equilibrium and FORVIS both had a tied record going into their final match so the winner of that ended up advancing to Elite 8. Equilibrium prevailed. FORVIS ended up in the Advanced bracket with us.

These were the other medalists:

Intermediate – Drop It Like Itz Hot
Frank and Kim McCormick, Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance

Elite 8 – Chicken N Pickle (No surprise!)
Michael Harris, Kim Blackman, Jack Oxler, Lindsey Vermillion

You can read more about this year’s Picklemania tournament here. More pictures here. That’s all for now. Until next year, GNG.

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Ryan’s Birthday Weekend

Posted on April 26, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.

I just love when friends come to visit. A few weeks ago we had a surprise visit from the Sagers. They were in town the same weekend as the It’s a Big Dill pickleball tournament at the Wichita Country Club. They were supposed to stay at the Egans but the Egans were in Tulsa for a concert so they weren’t in town. They made a game time decision to stay with us instead. It was quite spontaneous but everyone’s always welcome at our house.

They ended up meeting us at WCC and hanging out for a bit. We had early supper at Wichita Brewing Company, one of my most favorite pizza places. They also happen to have great craft beer so it’s a winning combination.

I love when the Sagers visit because they are so fun. After supper, we hung out at home and played cards. They taught us how to play Pitch. I love learning new things and I love card games so I can’t wait to play it again.

It was a pretty quick visit for the Sagers. They stayed over on Saturday night and left on Sunday. But then later that same week, Ramon Lozano came into town. He didn’t have any specific plans, other than I think he wanted to get some practice time with Kyle Starkel. They both played in a “Bring Your Own Partner” DUPR session I had at the Pickle Club that I organized at Zach Nguyen’s request.

While he was in town, he got invited to a bunch of pickleball games and also Ryan Kellenbarger’s birthday celebrations. Yes, celebrations with an S because they were celebrating all weekend long. Anyway, Ramon is probably one of the most spontaneous people I know. He doesn’t really plan too far ahead. So he arrived on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday — without any pre-planning. I think this was the longest length of time he had ever stayed with us. I was actually surprised he had enough clothes with him.

I love cake so I volunteered to bring the cake for the pickleball celebration.

Solo pic of Ryan with the cake above and a picture of our group below.

Later that night, we met up with the gang for more birthday festivities.

Here’s a pic of Ryan and Ramon with our friend Ty Richardson.

Ryan with Ian Carr and Austin Jones.

Group picture of those who stayed for dancing. Jared Smart and Kendra Wicks came for dinner but didn’t stick around. They left shortly after Brian and I arrived.

Dawn Hazlewood with Ramon and Ryan.

Last pic is an obligatory selfie of Brian and me. Cos, you know, we just have to do it. Until next time, GNG.

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It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.

The It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament at the Wichita Country Club which benefits the Wichita Children’s Home fell on April 1 this year. This was my third year helping with the tournament and every year it’s a little bit different and every year we encounter different challenges. Last year one of our biggest challenges was having so many teams (four divisions worth) and not having enough courts. The WCC team tapes up 8 temporary courts to supplement the 3 permanent ones so we always have just 11 courts.

The first year that I helped, we only budgeted half a day and the tournament ran until a little after 1 pm. I couldn’t stay that year because I had a Saturday morning Aqua Zumba class at the time that I couldn’t get out of (or it might have been some other commitment that I had later in the day). I remember I was only there to get it kicked off and then I had to leave.

Last year we factored in lunch and allowed for play until 2 pm. Despite having a limited number of courts, everything ran smoothly and on schedule. I remember looking at my watch as we were pulling out of the parking lot to leave and it read 2:01 pm. That meant we were able to award medals and start tear down in time for everything to wrap up by 2 pm as planned.

This year they wanted me to work an exhibition match into the tournament schedule. Two of our top pros Jay Devilliers and Patrick Smith were being auctioned off at the kick off party on Friday night and the winners of the live auction would get to play with them during the lunch intermission at the tournament on Saturday. Because of the exhibition match, we added an extra hour to the schedule and planned to wrap everything up by 3 pm.

But that wasn’t even the biggest challenge I had to face. I always like to print all my round robin schedules in Excel ahead of time so I’m not having to cross-reference team numbers against team names. Well, about 15 minutes before the start of the tournament, I found that we had an extra team in the men’s doubles division. One of the sponsors didn’t sign up to play in the tournament ahead of time but showed up that morning. The sponsors donate a lot of money so we couldn’t turn them away. I basically had to scrap my pre-printed worksheet for the men’s doubles and just used a generic team round robin from printyourbrackets.com for the men’s division. At least I only had to do that for one division and mixed and women’s didn’t have to be modified.

Amazingly enough, everything once again ran super smoothly and on schedule. Bryce and Michael from the WCC were fabulous at keeping things going and helping me put matches on as soon as courts became available. We were able to finish all the round robin play by noon and start the exhibition match as the players enjoyed their lunch.

The exhibition match was a nice addition to the tournament day. Not only did it raise $10,000 for the Wichita Children’s Home (both of the winning bidders paid $5,000 each to play with Jay and Pat) but it also gave the players a nice break for lunch so that they didn’t feel like they had to rush through their food.

Here’s a link to the exhibition match video for those who want to watch it. Below are pictures of the winners of this year’s tournament.

Mixed Doubles

First Place – Matt Nola and Jackie Hall
Second Place – Dave and Lori Belew
Third Place – Tanner and Britney Blaske

Men’s Doubles

First Place – Mitchell Born and Klee Watchous
Second Place – Zach Nguyen and Noi Sourinthone
Third Place – Ron McMahon and Daniel Ritchie

Advanced Women’s Doubles

First Place – Karen Fox and Vickie Hancock
Second Place – Beth Fischer and Zoe Rohr
Third Place – Chandi Bongers and Krista Crawford

Intermediate Women’s Doubles

First Place – Krista Onofrio and Kristin Conrad
Second Place – Brenda Bishop and Margaret Dechant
Third Place – Trish Mueller and Karen Taylor

So grateful to our wonderful pickleball community and generous players for supporting the Wichita Children’s Home pickleball tournament. We had a another successful event. I’m already looking forward to next year!

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Updates are So Behind Because – Life

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Life.

Fifteen years ago today, we moved from the old Protection One building (now the LUX) on Main to the Ruffin Building on Douglas and Broadway. We have since moved again. Now we are at the old KGE building on East Central.

We left behind so much — my old whiteboard (which I am a little bit sad about), Zumba VHS tapes (I had donated them to our wellness center when we first moved and realized we would have our own fitness area — I didn’t want these back), and fax machines (who still uses these things, anyway) — but the memories we will forever take with us.

Besides moving offices, there was also the Leadership Wichita alumni reunion hosted by the Wichita Chamber at the IMA rooftop. I wish it hadn’t been cold that day so we could enjoy the rooftop terrace but, either way, it was nice to see some of my classmates. At least those who made it from the class of 2014.

Then there is the pickleball. Lots and lots of it.

So many DUPR sessions (because I try to squeeze them in whenever I can). We also had a Dream Team Doubles Over and Under event at Riverside, which I will write a separate post about but you can read about it some here. My friend Katie’s birthday weekend (also to be covered in a separate post). And then driving up to Kansas City to have some practice games with Parker yesterday.

I was coming up for a DUPR Waterfall event but they canceled the 4.5 Division because of lack of sign ups and they wouldn’t let Parker play down because he is too good. Anyway, I ended up going up and was able to get some good practice games in so it was a productive trip. The best part is Parker showed up with the exact same pickleball bag as me. He didn’t know I had this bag (I literally had just gotten it a few weeks ago) and he just got his two weeks ago also. We just happened to order the exact same bag. Crazy! All I can say is — great minds think alike!

If you want the exact same bag for yourself, you can order it from Just Paddles here. Then we can all be matchy matchy.

There’s so much to write about. I’m hoping to find some time this week to get caught up before life gets completely crazy again. Until then, GNG.

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Kevin Coccetella’s Birthday Dinner

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Food and Drink.

A new friend (Kevin Coccetella) I met through another new friend (Tim Satterfield) invited us to join his birthday dinner at Red Rock last weekend. I met Kevin at Tim’s 40th birthday celebration at Chicken N Pickle last October, which happened to be the same day as the pickleball cookout at Sedgwick County Park. There are no lights at Sedgwick County Park so we wrapped up pretty early. Brian and I drove separately that day so I could swing by Tim’s party on the way home.

Kevin, who is a long-time friend of Tim’s, organized the birthday celebration at Chicken N Pickle, so that is how we met. The funny thing is, I met Tim through another friend I met through pickleball. So it’s kind of an infinite cycle — pickleball is a gift that keeps on giving.

I really didn’t know who else would be coming to dinner, other than I knew Tim would be there. Normally, I would avoid going out to dinner with a bunch of strangers because, believe it or not, I am somewhat anti-social; however, (a) Kevin is a nice guy and it was a good opportunity for Brian to meet him, and (b) Brian and I hadn’t been to Red Rock in a long time so it was as good an excuse as any to go.

The food was great as always. Here are some pics…

Kevin ordered some appetizers to share and he also ordered a couple of these amazing desserts. I remember it was one of our favorites too and really the main thing we liked about Red Rock when they change up their rotisserie chicken salad. Our table ended up eating all of our dessert and the other table’s dessert too.

As it turns out, Tim wasn’t the only person I knew. Braden and Stephanie McCurdy both attended the dinner also. Brian and I met them through Coley and Gina Cole. It was great to see them as we hadn’t seen either of them in ages. Stephanie and I used to attend Gina’s Zumba classes religiously ten years ago. Wichita is such a small world!