Archive for "Pickleball"
Halloween Pickleball at the Park
Posted on December 29, 2025 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Halloween fell on a Friday this year; however, since TapNPaddles closed early that day, we ended up gathering at Seneca Park, our old pickleball stomping grounds. It’s probably been almost two years since I last played at Seneca. Now that we have many indoor options, people are mostly playing inside rather than at the public parks. I really don’t know who play regularly at Seneca park anymore. The nets look dilapidated and the courts were full of debris. I think it was different when we were playing there regularly because the players would regularly sweep the courts or bring their leaf blowers and stuff. Though the courts looked largely neglected, it was still a great place to gather on Halloween night — at least until sunset because there are no court lights at Seneca Park.
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4K Members Celebration
Posted on November 7, 2025 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Guess what. The Wichita Pickleball Facebook group finally surpassed 4,000 members. We held an event at TapNPaddles to celebrate. Thanks to Cameron Ventling for the idea!
I brought a cake from Costco as my contribution because no celebration is complete without cake.
A few players stayed for drinks that night.
Congrats to Julie Pauly and Matt Dutton for winning Friday Night Fiesta that week.
Anyway, here’s to 4K and looking forward to celebrating the next milestone!
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What Else Happened in July?
Posted on August 25, 2025 by Ching under Events, Life, Pickleball, Things to Do.
What else happened last month? Let’s see.
We made several trips to the ballpark, formerly Riverfront Stadium but now known as Equity Bank Park. Free tickets are the best! You can use the money you saved on their expensive drinks. LOL.
BTW, this awesome “Pickle Baller” ball cap is from my friend Carrie Soto. She gifted ball caps to several of us on her one year pickleversary. Isn’t that sweet?
Our friend, and fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassador, Laurie Adams came to visit and we took her to one of our most favorite restaurants, the Belmont. You’ll recognize this place from our social media because we’re here almost every week.
We had dinner with the Egans and Terneses at Public at the Brickyard and enjoyed the lovely tropical ambiance and decor of the Wild, their summer pop-up experience. Public does the best pop-ups!
We got a much-needed couples massage. Hit me up if you need the contact info of our massage therapists. They said they are open to taking new clients by referral.
We loved the Glass in Flight 2 exhibit at Botanica so much, we returned with our friend Chris Townley. I hope you all got a chance to see the traveling exhibit while it was in Wichita. If not, I created a video so you can at least see the awesome installations. Enjoy!
The Sobeks — father Rosti (left) and son William (right) — made another pit stop in Wichita during their summer pickleball academy and tournament road trip. A few local players were fortunate enough to meet and play with them at TapNPaddles.
I think that pretty much sums up our July. Come back next time for the August recap. Until then, I hope you’ve all had a great summer (despite the sweltering heat). Here’s to cooler days ahead!
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New Friend Laurie Visits Wichita
Posted on June 9, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
I first met fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassador, Laurie Hagen, earlier this year when she was in town for her daughter’s softball game. She mentioned that she was hitting the open play at CNP and wanted to meet fellow ambassadors. I told her I would swing by. Here’s a pic of us from that day.
She returned on Easter Sunday. I tried to put together a ladies’ group but most of my GFs already had plans. Ended up getting Ryan who was such a trooper for playing with us girls.
She returned this past weekend for a pickleball tournament. We first hung out on Friday night at Chicken N Pickle and then played in the Queen of Courts session I was hosting at TapNPaddles that evening.
On Saturday morning, we were both at the Sandbox at Goddard — her competing and me assisting InPickle Nation’s Duane Christian with the tournament. Her team finished second.
On Sunday we took Laurie to brunch at Stearman Field Bar & Grill, our favorite place to take out of town visitors. Ryan ended up meeting us there after church.
It was a really nice visit over all. Looking forward to her next visit.
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EPIC Pickleball Tournament 2025
Posted on May 23, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
We had another successful pickleball tournament for the Wichita Children’s Home at the Wichita Country Club again this year. It was EPIC!
Here are highlights from the event last year and highlights from the 2023 event. This was my fifth year helping with the event (my first year was 2021).
I usually team up with my friend Jody Vinson but she was busy with other commitments this year so our team consisted of Michael Bond, and Bryce and Lindsey McClung. They really are the backbone of this event. They help year after year, I think even before I started helping. Sometimes they even get roped into playing like when Harvey Self had to leave in the middle of the tournament last year. This year Bryce actually signed up to play – intentionally.
There are a couple of Spring (early Summer) tournaments that I help with annually. EPIC (formerly It’s a Big Dill) and the Rotary Club of Andover’s Picklemania event. EPIC happens in April and then Picklemania in May. Here are highlights from a past Picklemania tournament:
Recently people have been asking me if Picklemania is happening — because it is that time of year. Unfortunately, I had to step away from it this year and there really wasn’t anyone in our Rotary club who had the interest or capacity to take it over. I normally start planning for the May event around November/December but, as many of you know, that was during Brian’s cancer treatments so I didn’t really feel like doing anything. I didn’t want to think of anything.
It was a tournament that I’ve been really passionate about. However, since my friend Ryan DeSantis and Chris McGill, the two members who were very passionate about hosting the pickleball tournament fundraiser for our club, have left the club, much of the responsibility for planning and organizing and facilitating the event ended up falling to me. Honestly, I was feeling burnt out. I didn’t even feel like doing it last year except Chris Heck (another friend who had helped with our tournament in the past) said it wasn’t happening so I took it as a challenge. LOL. If people don’t want to help me, fine. But, if I want something to happen, I can make it happen. I truly believed that. Of course, that’s because I have Brian and he is equivalent to having 10 volunteers. I realize now that I can do and achieve all the things because I have him by my side.
When Brian got sick and I no longer had my one person I could truly count on for anything and everything, it made me realize just how challenging it is do all the things without his help. I didn’t even want to think doing Picklemania without him. I think I was burnt out.
I’m still happy to help with pickleball tournaments and fundraising events, just not to the extent I was doing. It was too much. Anyway, the next pickleball fundraising event is Picklepalooza which benefits both Senior Services of Wichita and Wichita Cancer Foundation this year. It’s on Friday, June 6, at Chicken N Pickle. You can learn more about and register for the event here. Hope to see you all there.
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