The End of My Tournament Sabbatical
Posted on March 11, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
My tournament sabbatical officially ended this past weekend when I participated in InPickle Nation‘s Under Armour Championship Series 4v4 Team Tournament at Genesis Health Clubs Clayview in Kansas City. I did play in a 3v3 team tournament at the Goddard Sandbox last month but I’m not counting that one because I didn’t actually sign up for it. I just got a text from Kimberly and PK the night before the tournament saying they needed one more team and I just happened to be available that day because the IPN mini tournament was canceled. I wasn’t planning on playing but since they needed one more team, PK put Kimberly, Danae, and I together to make the 4th team for the event.
We called our team “Last Minute” because we literally were last minute additions to the event and weren’t even supposed to play. Actually, Danae and Kimberly hadn’t even met until that day. Despite this, the three of us have an absolute blast.
Fast forward to this past weekend to a tournament that I did actually sign up for with Susie, Monica, and Alice. Susie came up with our team name — Putting the SMAC Down. SMAC for Susie, Monica, Alice and Ching. Clever, right?
Check out our fun uniforms. The design was made by Copilot so, yes, it was AI-generated and it needed some help. Apparently AI can’t figure out what a pickleball looks like so that ball in the center was weird. Thankfully, the talented Julie (Egy) was able to clean it up for us before Drew pressed the design on our tanks.
Our adventure started on Friday night at Jason Walker’s private court at Wee Tri Farm. However, we were late leaving Wichita so by the time we got there it was late in the evening and it was freezing in the pickle barn. We only lasted 3 games. LOL.
The next day, we competed in the team event and finished 4th. Not the results we hoped for but also not bad for a first time team. I honestly hadn’t played in a tournament with Monica — ever — and it had been over two years since I had played in anything with Alice and well over a year since I played in a tourney with Susie, or just a tourney period due to my self-imposed tournament sabbatical.
I had more losses that day than I care to admit but I still had a great time playing the gals. What made the weekend even more fun is the all women tournament fell on International Women’s Day. How fitting, right?
Anyway, the seal has officially been broken. I might play in a few more events this year. Not going crazy like in years past but maybe one tournament a month would be just the right frequency. What do you recommend I play in next?
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