Archive for "Pickleball"
New Pickleball Courts at WSU
Posted on March 15, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Things to Do.
I finally had a chance to check out the beautiful pickleball courts at Wichita State University. There are four lighted pickleball courts on campus, nestled between the Heskett Center and the softball stadium. I had no idea how amazing these courts are until I had the opportunity to check them out for myself a couple of weeks ago. I love how much space there is around each court.
Huge thanks to Ryan Kellenbarger and the ladies — MariAnn Heeren, Greta Siemens, Karen Fox, Lesli Toubassi, and Kimberly Howe — for going with me that night so I wouldn’t have to check out the pickleball courts by myself.
I’m going to try to go back there again tomorrow night with some gals for women’s doubles. I’ll keep you posted. Until then, GNG.
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Pictures from the Oak Tree Tournament
Posted on March 10, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
We drove to Edmond, OK a couple of weeks ago for a tournament at the Oak Tree Country Club. I played singles on Friday, doubles with Jen Reifschneider on Saturday, and mixed with Ramon Lozano on Sunday.
I played four best 2 out of 3 matches and finished in third place in 3.5 singles.
My first match was against Lauryn Davis and then my second match was against her younger sister Bradey Davis.
I lost to Lauryn so the match against Bradey was my first in the back draw. I was a little bit confused that we were playing best 2 out of 3 instead of one game to 15 but I just rolled with it.
This next match is against Melissa Hawk. After playing against Melissa, I had to play against Lauryn again. This time it was for medals. I ended up losing to Lauryn a second time and got bronze.
I ended up playing against Lauryn again in women’s doubles the next day and ended up losing to her a third time. It was a super close match, though. We lost the third game 11-9.
With the exception of our first match, all of our women’s doubles matches were really close actually. We lost to the second place team 12-10 in the third game, and we lost to the third place team 13-11 in the third game. We were so close in our three losses. Those games really could have gone either way.
The next day Ramon and I played in mixed doubles and ended up taking silver. I love playing with Ramon. Not only is he a great pickleball player but he is also good listener and supportive partner. You can find videos of all the matches here.
There were 14 teams signed up for the 4.0 division. They ended up splitting us up into two groups of 7 based on the team’s average age. Ramon and I were in the 40+ Average Age bracket along with our friends Heather Griffin and Chris Wilson. Our other friends Jen Reifschneider and Jared Smart, and Kim Knotts and Daniel Nguyen ended up in the Under 40 Average Age Bracket. I thought it was weird at first but it actually worked out for the best because all four of us came home with medals. Heather and Chris took bronze in our bracket and, in the younger bracket, Jen and Jared took silver while Kim and Daniel took bronze.
This tournament was a bit of a mess but it’s always fun when you get to play with good people. I saw some familiar faces and also made some new friends. I can’t wait until the next tournament. Until then, GNG.
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Nahola Farewell Party
Posted on March 2, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Stopped by Nahola after work on Monday for free open play. I initially wasn’t going to be able to come because Kayla said it was 3p to 6p but then she said I should swing by anyway because they’ll probably be there until 9p.
When I arrived I found Noi, Chris (Heck), Kayla, and Kimberly playing on one court and some others who I didn’t know very well on another court. I think I got maybe three games in before we stopped playing at 6p. The most memorable one was the last game with Chris against Bob and JB. I hit three ATPs in one game. I think that’s the most ATP winners I’ve ever hit in a single game. I found it fitting that on my last game on the very last day of play at Nahola I hit three ATPs because Nahola is where I actually first learned to hit these on purpose.
Play stopped at 6p because people started arriving for the farewell party. I think that’s what Kayla meant by saying they’d be there until 9p that night. I didn’t have to be at Chicken N Pickle until 8p so I hung out for a bit and took some pictures.
I didn’t even know I was on the slideshow on the TV until I was looking at this pic on my phone after I got home.
It was a lovely farewell party with some of the OG Nahola members.
I made a short video of some of the pictures and videos we took on Monday night and some of the old pics I already had in my phone from before.
I will really miss this place. Nahola brought so many amazing people into my life who I would have never met otherwise. I’ve really enjoyed my year and a half as member. My only regret is that I didn’t find Nahola eight years ago when they first opened. At least I now have pickleball and all of these wonderful friends I’ve made. And, though we no longer have the physical space of Nahola, we will be forever connected by the bond of friendship and our collective love for the sport.
Until next time, GNG.
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Farewell to Nahola
Posted on February 28, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Today will be the last day of Nahola as Nahola. It makes me so sad to think about it. Even though I’ve only been a member a little over a year, I quickly grew attached to this place. It was my “go to” spot for pickleball on weekends. I think several others felt the same way, specially the retired pickleball players who were playing there on a daily basis during the day.
For those who don’t know, Nahola was started in 2014 by three visionary women: Nancy, Holly, and Kayla (thus, Nahola). They originally had just one pickleball court with gym floors in the main building. In 2017, based on the popularity of the sport with the fitness center members, they added an auxiliary building with two pickleball courts on an outdoor surface.
You can watch Nancy talk about the expansion and pickleball in general in the following Wichita Eagle video:
For the next few years, Nahola quickly became the premier place to play pickleball and was the training ground for some of the best pickleball players in our city. It was common knowledge that one of the best ways to improve and get better at pickleball was to join and play at Nahola. Nahola had well-established pickleball leagues with long waiting lists even before Chicken N Pickle entered the market.
Over the course of my year and a half long membership, I was able to participate in a few leagues and special events like their team tournaments (November 2021, August 2020). I played in a couple of their women’s leagues — once when it was held on Saturdays and most recently the Sunday one.
This is a short video I made of our very last day of the very last women’s league. Several players were out of town that weekend so we only had eight ladies (four teams) in our league tournament. It was a lot of fun but bittersweet.
Kayla runs the league and keeps track of each player’s performance throughout the league and then on tournament day you get paired up based on your record. Fong and I ended up getting paired up. Fong was also one of my teammates in MLP so this was kind of a reunion. Fong is a fierce competitor who is super aggressive and, as former tennis player, has shots that I cannot do so her style of play complements mine really well. I was super excited that we got to team up.
We played round robin first before going into single-elimination bracket play. We had an excellent record, only losing to Heather and Krystal. In the bracket play, we ended up having to play Amy and Huyen. Though we had already defeated them in pool play, we ended up losing in bracket play so we didn’t advance to the finals.
The finals came down to Amy and Huyen versus Heather and Krystal (the two winningest players of our session). This match up was made even more interesting by the fact that Huyen and Krystal (who normally play together as fierce women’s doubles duo) were having to play against one another.
Heather and Krystal reigned supreme and went completely undefeated that day. The two of them have been on fire the entire session, battling it out of the number one spot. Except the week before tournament, Krystal got some losses and Huyen was on fire that day and ended up sneaking in to take the lead.
I’ve been keeping track of how everyone was doing too and, by my tally, Huyen had the greatest win rate and most wins out of everyone; followed by Amy, Heather, and Krystal in a three-way tie for second. So it really could have been anyone’s game.
These ladies are so talented that it’s fun to watch them play but it’s even more fun to play with against them. I have really enjoyed playing in this league and will miss it immensely. These ladies will forever hold a special place in my heart.
I’m talking like we’re all gone forever. LOL. I really hope we can have a similar league like this somewhere. It was really fun and it helped my women’s doubles game significantly. Here is a group of photo of these great bunch of women:
From left: me, Brandi Richardson, Amy Jaramillo, Fong Witte, Huyen Nguyen, Krystal Fosnight, Heather Griffin, and Kimberly Howe. (We were missing Kayla, Jannell, Lesli, and Shawna.)
Anyway, the new owners will be taking over after today and will reopen next week as the Pickle Club. So far, there aren’t any compelling reasons for me to join so we’ll have to wait and see. Until then, GNG.
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Pickleball Birthday Party at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on February 22, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
Cindy Witte, one of our pickleball friends, hosted a surprise 60th birthday for her husband Joe at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday night. It was absolutely perfect!
As you can see from the video above, I think he was truly surprised.
Cindy invited a bunch of friends (most of them pickleball players) to help surprise him. She rented all of the indoor courts and even had a DJ (another pickleball friend, Jeff) for the private event.
Jeff Kenworthy, DJ extraordinaire, played fun tunes for us all night long. He even got Joe to sing a Sinatra song! If you are looking for someone to DJ or host karaoke or just play background music at your event, Jeff is your guy. You can reach him at oneheavenlypeace@aol.com.
Lisa Laham did a great job with the cupcakes and her husband helped with the balloons. They did such a fabulous job of making the place look festive for the birthday party.
The wooden paddles were not just great signs but also made for great cupcake trays. Kudos to whoever made them. They were brilliant!
Here’s the man of the party.
I think some people had left already by the time we took a group pic.
Anyway, it was a huge turnout and I am glad I got celebrate his big day with him. Pickleball people are so much fun and Chicken N Pickle is the perfect place to celebrate. Can’t wait until the next birthday celebration!
Until then, GNG.
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