Making New Pickleball Friends
Posted on October 1, 2024 by Ching under Life.
It’s interesting how pickleball brings people together who wouldn’t normally meet otherwise. Several weeks ago I got a random text from a strange number. It was a guy who recently moved to Wichita who was looking into getting more into pickleball. He said he got my number from Brian Harshman. So then I text Brian and ask him if this guy who just texted me from a strange number is legit and he sends me a screen capture of Joan Grosset, new Assistant Tennis Coach at Wichita State. Brian was pretty much like, he’s legit but I probably wouldn’t Venmo him any money just to be safe. LOL.
Since Brian, who I respect and think highly of, vouched for him, I happily set up a couple of games for him that same weekend. Joan Grosset, who goes by Jay, turned out to be a friendly, super nice, French guy. We played with Tiffany and Donnie Lesparance at the 13th Street Sports Park in Andover on Saturday morning and that same evening we played with Krystal Fosnight and Trung Ho-Nguyen at the Wichita State courts.
With Donnie and Tiffany
With Krystal and Trung
I somehow managed to convince Jay to sign up for the IPN mini tournament at Riverside on Sunday and, as luck would have it, Ariana Raga (also an assistant coach at WSU) and Brady Matthews (assistant coach at Newman) also signed up to play the same day. They all knew each other but Brady and Ariana, who signed up together, didn’t know Jay would be there and Jay certainly didn’t know that the two of them had signed up to play as well. It was a wonderful surprise when they all saw each other on Sunday morning. The wildest thing about that Sunday morning IPN session – Ariana and Jay ended up getting paired together for the bracket play and obliterated everyone. As one would expect.
Sunday IPN at Riverside – September 1, 2024
A couple of weeks ago, we had space in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador open play. None of the guys RSVP’d so we turned it into an all ladies session and opened it up to others (non-ambassadors). I invited Ariana so she could meet the other ladies. It turns out she knows a couple of pickleball players like Anna Le (who played with us that night) and Laryssa Booth (from the KC area) because they all went to Newman together. It truly is a really small world.
With Yokkie at 13th Street Sports Park
Speaking of meeting new people, I also recently met Yokkie Mahajaroenkul. This was super exciting because a few years back (maybe three years ago now), Tiffany was telling me about her and how amazing she is. Anyway, she ended up moving back home to Thailand so I never had the opportunity to meet her. She recently moved back and I ended up meeting her when another pickleball friend, Sam Tope, set up a session at the 13th Street Sports Park. I told her that I had heard so much about her from my friend Tiffany so I was super excited that we finally got a chance to meet. She truly is amazing. I just love how pickleball brings people together!
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