Pickleball

Archive for "Pickleball"

Gearing Up for Picklemania

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

My Rotary club has started gearing up for our second annual pickleball tournament. Last year we hosted our first one out of necessity. Because of the pandemic, we had to cancel our main fundraising even in 2020. Since we could not have Haus of Brews, and we had to figure out a way to raise money for our club projects, we decided to host a pickleball tournament. We originally planned it for May 2021 but it ended up getting rescheduled to June 2021 due to rain. We are hoping that the weather will cooperate and we will be able to hold our event on our selected date this year.

Last year our club funded the event on its own. This year we are partnering with local companies so it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

Another significant change is in the format. Last year we opted for a more traditional tournament with social and competitive brackets in the morning, social and competitive brackets in the afternoon, and lunch served in between. Everyone got plenty of games in because we did round robin plus bracket play.

This year, we are still feeding lunch and including free drinks and everyone will still get lots of pickleball play, but we are going to a team-style tournament so it’s going to be even more fun.

Ever since I participated in the MLP-style team tournament at Chicken N Pickle last December, I’ve been toying with the idea of hosting a team tournament. I presented the idea to the other two members of the pickleball tournament planning team (Chris McGill and Ryan De Santis) and they approved it. I am super excited!

We couldn’t do full-on MLP because, when we did it at CNP, the matches lasted almost an hour and a half on average and we don’t have that kind of time. So we modified it a bit so that there are only three games per match for the round robin matches — women’s doubles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles — and best two of three games (same format) for the bracket play.

The twist is that for the mixed doubles game, it’s going to be “wrestlemania” style. So you can tag-in and tag-out team members during the timeouts, as long as the resulting combo is still one male and female. It is mixed doubles after all.

During the round robin portion, the plan is for all three games to be played that way everyone will get to experience the mixed doubles “wrestlemania” format. We will keep track of the number of wins and use that to determine the seeding for the single elimination bracket tournament in the afternoon.

In bracket play, we will do best two of three — so the mixed doubles game could potentially be skipped if one team wins both the women’s doubles and men’s doubles games. This is to save time so that the tournament doesn’t run so late. Anyway, those out of the tournament can continue to eat and drink and just hang out and enjoy. It’s a win-win for everyone.

So far we already have three sponsors committed and I have a few more asks I’m waiting to hear back from. I am really looking forward to the event this year because we are not doing it on our own anymore. We have others willing to partner with us. I think it’s going to be even more fun!

You can find out more about our tournament and sign up here. Form a team or simple be a spectator, have a nice lunch and some drinks at the country club, and enjoy the day with us! We would love to see you!

Until next time, GNG.

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Celebrating with Tiffany

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball.

Brian and I celebrated Tiffany’s birthday with Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance a few weeks ago. I actually didn’t know it was her birthday until after dinner. We went to Texas Roadhouse with them because when we were driving home from St. Louis, we talked about places that they dine at all the time and Brian and I hadn’t been to TR in many years. So we jokingly said that next time they decide to go to TR, they should let us know so we could go with.

Well, we got home super late on Sunday night and they went the very next day and didn’t tell us. We could have gone too because Brian and I both took that Monday off expecting to be home late on Sunday night. So I gave them both a hard time about that the next time I saw them.

Anyway, they decided to go to TR the Saturday before Tiffany’s birthday and they actually remembered to invite us this time so the four of us went. LOL.

After that, they came over to our house and we had a Mexican train dominoes marathon. Brian, who is usually the big loser at dominoes, actually end up second place that night and, after playing for several hours and about 500 points, I was the biggest loser. Tiffany brought these delicious shots in tiny mason jars (will have to look for these next time we are at the liquor store) and so we did some shots so it was still a win. Although, looking back, maybe that’s why I was losing?

Tiffany’s birthday is actually on January 17 (also known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day) so she’s one of those lucky people whose birthdays always fall on a holiday. I have another friend whose birthday is on November 11 so she always gets the day off for Veterans Day. Of course, you could be like Brian and just take a vacation day on your birthday every year and make it your own special holiday.

Anyway, since I was off work in observance of the MLK Day holiday, and so were Tiffany and Donnie, I set up some birthday pickleball for us at Nahola with Chris Wilson. Chris and I work for the same company and so he had the day off as well. And, I knew that he was also going to be there for our Monday night league so he would just need to come a couple of hours early. It worked out great and we had some fun games with really awesome rallies.

The following night I brought a big sheet cake to Chicken N Pickle so we could continue celebrating her birthday during our mixed competitive league.

It was way more cake than we needed on Tuesday night because we enjoyed the rest of it again on Wednesday night during the men’s competitive and super competitive league. I think a lot of people got to partake of Tiffany’s birthday cake over those two days because Danny Leddy said they ate some of it earlier in the day too.

Tiffany sure knows how to handle a big knife. Donnie better watch it. LOL.

We continued the celebrations all the way through to Friday night at Nahola with the Friday night pickleball crew. Kimberly brought homemade brownies for everyone. They were still super warm in the pan when she brought them in. These guys are such a hoot.

From left: Tiffany Lesperance, Kimberly Howe, Chris Wilson, Debbie Fanning, Donnie Lesperance, Dave Fanning, Greta “the Machine” Siemens, Mark Armstrong (hiding behind Ryan Kellenbarger’s arm), Ryan and me.

This is our full crew minus Eric Howe who has been in recovery. Ryan has been serving as a permanent sub over the last several weeks.

Friday nights are so fun because I get to play for four hours straight — two hours of open play, followed by two hours with Debbie’s Friday night group — but it’s even more fun when one of us is celebrating a birthday. And it has been super fun getting to celebrate Tiffany’s birthday with her this year. Cheers!

Until next time, GNG.

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Dink-in the New Year

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball.

The Dink-in the New Year pickleball tournament at Vetta Racquet Sports Sunset was a great experience overall. I wanted to push myself so I signed up for 3.5 singles, 3.5 women’s doubles, and 4.0 mixed doubles.

I found out a couple of days before the tournament that they combined 3.5 singles with 4.0 singles because there was only two of us (me and my friend Tiffany Lesperance) who signed up for 3.5 division. It made me wish I had signed up for 3.0 singles instead but I didn’t email the tournament director to switch divisions. I figured I wanted to challenge myself so I might as well just tough it out.

I wasn’t as concerned about my doubles because, even though I’m only a 3.2 in women’s doubles, I’m pretty comfortable playing at the 3.5 level and Tiffany has been playing 3.5 and 4.0 so she had a lot of experience at these levels. In mixed, I got a great partner with Devon Fuller. He has medaled in 4.0 mixed multiple times and he actually has experience playing in the higher levels. It was really just singles I was worried about because I would be playing against higher level ladies and I wouldn’t have a partner to bail me out.

We started with singles on Friday. This tournament is bigger than the ICT tournaments but still kind of on the small side (less than 300 players) so there weren’t any age groups, only skill groups. For women’s singles, they had a 2.5 division, 3.0 division, and then 3.5/4.0 division.

Besides being in the highest division, Tiffany and I ended up on the same side of the bracket so even though we didn’t have to play each other in the first round, we would end up facing off in the second round if we both lost or if we both won. The only way for us to not meet up so soon would be for one of us to win and one of us to lose. We ended up both losing and playing each other for our second match.

My first match was against an older but super experienced pickleball player, Janice Bolton. She’s a teaching pro at one of the Vetta Racquest Sports locations so it was really tough. I actually ran into her in the restroom earlier that morning and told her that had I known they were combining 3.5 with 4.0, I would have signed up for 3.0 singles instead — not knowing she would be my first round match. Our match went 3 games and lasted an hour and ten minutes. I really wish I could have gotten it on video because we had some amazing rallies, which doesn’t generally happen in singles. She was chasing shots down that I thought were winners and sending them back extremely well each time.

I lost that match but, at the end of it, Janice told me that I should not be playing in 3.0 singles, which I took as a compliment. I’m not good enough for 4.0 but I’m better than 3.0 so maybe 3.5 singles is where I’m supposed to be.

Tiffany was a bit cranky about them combining 3.5 with 4.0 and also how we were positioned in the bracket so she didn’t even try in our consolation bracket match. My next match was against Rachel Mossman who ended up winning the gold not just in our singles division but also in 5.0 women’s doubles and 5.0 mixed doubles.

I knew I probably wouldn’t medal in singles considering I was playing against higher skilled ladies but I kind of wished I didn’t have to play against Rachel so soon because I wanted more match experience and more singles games under my belt. Playing her (and losing to her) so soon in the bracket meant I was out.

Anyway, since Tiffany and I were both out, we ended up watching and cheering for her husband Donnie who was schooling guys who are more than half his age in his bracket. Watching him was hilarious because, not only was the oldest player in his division (by a significant stretch) but, after each match, he would put his old man glasses to fill out the score sheet. I got such a kick out of it. When he won the championship match, I told him he should walk up to the podium with a cane and really make the young guys feel bad. LOL.

Here are some videos of Donnie’s singles matches.

This is a video of Donnie’s championship match against Bobby Song.

The next day was gender doubles day. Tiffany and I went from playing against each other to playing together. Donnie played with his friend from Missouri, Mark Steiner. Tiffany and I missed making the podium but Donnie and Mark won silver in 4.0 men’s doubles.

Tiffany and I missed the winner bracket final by 2 points when we lost 10-12 in game three against the gold medal team. Then in the consolation bracket we lost to a team we beat pretty comfortably in the first round. That match was brutal. We could not get in a groove and we were down 2-12. I think we didn’t have any points at all during the side switch. Anyway, we started coming back and ended up losing 13-15. We just needed one more hold. Ultimately, it was too big a deficit to overcome. Anyway, the girls were super nice and they went on to win the bronze.

Sunday was mixed doubles day. Devon and I were in the same division as Tiffany and Donnie. Again, we were on the same side of the bracket so if we both won and we both lost then we would have had to play each other. We never ended up facing off because Tiffany and Donnie lost their second match. They were making their way back and winning their matches in the consolation bracket. I was kind of hopeful for an all Kansas championship and also because if we were all playing in the championship then Tiffany, Donnie, and I would all finish at the same time and no one would be waiting on anyone.

Tiffany and Donnie ended up losing to the team that won silver and finished in fourth place. Devon and I went undefeated in our bracket and finished in first place. Here’s the video of our winner bracket final against AJ Thum and Cully Higgins. AJ and Cully finished in third.

Here’s the video from our championship match against Dustin Imgarten and Monika Ray. I think everyone was just ready to be finished and go home. LOL.

Brian took a short video of the medal presentation. I’ve played 4.0 mixed a few times (mostly in our local ICT tournaments and once in the Oklahoma PC Smash) but this was my first ever 4.0 level gold medal. I am super grateful to Devon for taking a chance on me and being my partner for this tournament.

Here’s our official podium picture.

Devon was really funny. I asked to get a picture of the two of us while we were still playing in our bracket and he said, with a lot of confidence, “Don’t worry. You will get your picture.” I had to wait until the very end but it was totally worth it.

I had such a great time playing the tournament and hanging out with Tiffany and Donnie that weekend. I also made a bunch of new friends and even got an offer for free open play at Vetta from Janice. So much fun! I can’t wait until the next tournament! GNG.

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Missouri Pickleball Club

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.

When we arrived in Missouri on Thursday, all the courts at the tournament site were completely booked so there was no open play to be had there. Thankfully, my friend Christie Pink, who lives in St. Louis, is a member of the Missouri Pickleball Club. MPC touts itself as the largest indoor pickleball facility in the nation. I think that’s true right now but might not be the case because pickleball facilities are sprouting up all over the place.

We ended up paying $22 each to play for two hours. It’s not cheap but it would have been even more expensive had we not come in as Christie’s guests. It made me feel like they were keeping non-members out just by making it super expensive to play there. I think the guy told me that if we were to book courts ourselves, it would be $40 per hour plus a $10 hourly guest fee. Members can get the courts for $24 per hour and their guests only have to pay $5 per hour for the guest fee. So for us, it was $12 for the two hours of court time plus $10 for the guest fee (instead of $40 per person). It’s like Chicken N Pickle weekend rates without the awesome CNP food and drinks and fun ambiance. And they charge guest fees on top of that, which at least you don’t have at CNP.

The facility itself was clean and well lit and the courts were spaced just right. Other than being expensive, the facility was great overall and we were with a great group of people. So the company was well worth the visit.

This is my friend Christie with Brian Garner behind her and Donnie and Tiffany Lesperance in the red shirt. Christie is so fun. I am so grateful for her bringing everyone together and setting up this play for us. We wouldn’t have gotten to play on Thursday night otherwise.

I wish they would open a place like this in Wichita (because there’s not enough places to play indoors with a good playing surface in the winter time) — just not as expensive. LOL. Anyway, pickleball always makes me work up an appetite. We ended up having Burger King for dinner late that night after we finished playing because there’s a BK right outside our hotel. It worked out for me because I actually like BK. Until next time, GNG.

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Holiday Break

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Ching under Hobbies, Pickleball.

We had some great weather over the Christmas holiday. We had highs in the 70s! It was awesome! I pretty much played all day on Christmas Eve. First at Edgemoor Park with Jimmy Cho and crew and then later at Seneca Park with a bunch of other fellow pickleball addicts.

Jimmy Cho

Lonnie Lollar

I took advantage of vacation time between Christmas and New Year, and even made it to Mulvane to play some pickleball with mom and dad.

Others I got to play with during the break include Mason McCanless, Tom Pham, and Karen Fox. Mason arranged play for us at Edgemoor Park on a cold morning when we were the only people playing — five courts empty except for ours.

Here are some clips from our games that day at Edgemoor.

The next day I got to play with Jimmy Cho, Karen Fox, and Matt Nola. Matt and I are trying to get more games in together because we plan to play together in the US Open this year. That is, if we can make it through the lottery process.

I need to switch back to playing with an Electrum paddle, though.

Here are some of the fun points we had. This next video contains highlights from our 22-minute game. Would you believe all of these rallies happened in one game only? That was a crazy, fun game!