Pickleball

Archive for "Pickleball"

First MiLP of 2026 – Let’s Go!

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.

Now that my knees are feeling better — that and Duane doesn’t really need me on tournament day (I mostly help with tournament promotion, team/player recruitment, helping orphan players find teams, pre-tournament logistics planning and prep, etc.) — I decided I should play in one of these super fun, super amazing the Dink Official Minor League Pickleball (MiLP) team events. Why should everyone else have all the fun?

Besides being my first for 2026, this is also my first after my pickleball sabbatical. This tournament was further made special because our friend Jim Tsen, who we met in Mexico in 2024, came to visit and play in it with us.

Our MiLP team consisted of Brady Randall, Julie Egy, and me and Jim. We had the lowest team DUPR of all the teams in the DUPR 16 division so I knew it would be an uphill battle but it was a great day of competition over all. Plus, it was fun reconnecting with Jim (the last time Brian and I saw him was before our Alaska cruise in June and it had been since November 2024 for the others) and introducing him to all our Wichita pickleball friends. He even got to meet my mom and dad (who he didn’t get to meet in June because they decided to do their own thing and didn’t go to dinner with us in Seattle) and other Chicken N Pickle ambassadors they day before he left.

I will share more from Jim’s recent visit on the next post.

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Dawn’s 60th Birthday

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

We held a surprise birthday party for our dear friend Dawn Hazlewood last month at TapNPaddles. It was actually Jeanette Santo’s idea. Dawn was volunteering with Girls Growing the Game on Sunday so we decided to have a surprise pickleball party immediately following so she would already be there.

As (bad) luck would have it, we ended up with a snowstorm that weekend and events were getting canceled left and right. The 3G event was also canceled so now Dawn was not going to be there and we needed to figure out a way to get her to TapNPaddles without giving the surprise away. Janelle Lindeman invited Dawn to play pickleball from 4-6 PM (the same time as her surprise party) and, thankfully, she accepted. We were actually concerned about her saying no and then we would have to fess up and tell her about the surprise just to get her there. We joked about just kidnapping her if need be. LOL.

Anyway, it all worked out great and she was none the wiser. Almost everyone still came, despite the weather that weekend, and we had a great time celebrating our lovely friend. Check out this YouTube short for the highlights.

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A Pickleball Christmas Movie Night

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.

I joined the some fun pickleball ladies for a movie night a couple of weeks ago. We watched A Pickleball Christmas. The movie itself wasn’t too bad the pickleball was completely atrocious. LOL.

We made a drinking game out of it.

Here are a couple of pictures from that night.

Even though this was after Christmas, we decided to wear our Christmas jammies since we were watching a Christmas movie.

The movie isn’t great and the pickleball is awful but I still highly recommend this movie. Grab your pickleball pals and make a night of it.

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Bonus Pickleball to End the Year

Posted on January 15, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.

This year Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fell on a Wednesday. The YMCA usually closes early on these days to give staff time to celebrate with loved-ones. That meant I didn’t have my regular Wednesday night Zumba class the final two weeks of the year. Naturally, I wanted to take advantage of this freedom.

On Christmas Eve, I teamed up with fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassadors Lena Quach, Huyen Nguyen, and Fong Witte to use our free court time one last time in 2025. We played from 3 PM to 5 PM using mine and Fong’s codes. We were supposed to be at mom and dad’s by 5 PM on Christmas Eve and we ended up not getting there until 5:45-ish but it was totally worth it. I don’t ever get to play much pickleball anymore, let alone a great group such as this one. It was the best gift I could have given myself for Christmas.

I decided to double dip on NYE and played at both TapNPaddles (with Carrie Soto’s group) and also Chicken N Pickle. Carrie runs a ladies only point play at Tap on Wednesday, which I can never attend because of my Zumba class. I was so happy that I was finally able to join one to close out the year.

After that, I was off to Chicken N Pickle to meet fellow ambassadors Ryan Kellenbarger, Fong Witte, Kendra Wicks, and Colby Fugit. We had some fun play but mostly just wanted to keep Kendra company because she had to work that night. I honestly could not have asked for a better way to end the year. Here’s to even more fun pickleball with friends in 2026!

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A Couple of Pickleball Tourneys to End the Year

Posted on January 6, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

I closed out the year by playing in a couple of fun pickleball tournaments at Chicken N Pickle and also helping my friends Zach Nguyen and Susie Ternes with their first Miracles and Mentors Pickleball Tournament benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Youth Horizons.

Matt Rochat and I played in the Friendsgiving Tournament as Smash Ching Pumpkins.

Bo Tolbert and I played in the Ugly Sweater Pickleball Tournament as Tolbert and Erne.

Teamed up with Zach Nguyen and Susie Ternes to host the first ever Miracles and Mentors Pickleball Tournament, which Susie ended up winning (LOL) along with her partner Jordan Sparks.