Nahola Team Tournament
Posted on November 28, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
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Karen Fox, Ramon Lozano, Bo Tolbert and I played on the team tournament at Nahola last weekend. I played in the event last year and recalled how much fun I had so, when Karen and Ramon invited me to be on their team, I immediately said yes. Bo, who was my partner in the ICT Fall-out pickleball tournament, agreed to be my mixed partner. |
The day of the tournament, November 20, happened to be Ramon’s birthday so, to surprise him, I got “EVERYBODY LOVES RAMON” shirts made for our team. It’s kind of an inside joke because they kept butchering his name at the PC Smash tournament last month. They were pronouncing it “Ray-mon” instead of “Rah-mon” with a short A sound.
Karen got a matching cake made. It was delicious!
There were seven amazing teams that played in the tournament. Typically, Kayla only allows six teams because there are only two courts. Allowing for a seventh team made for a really long day and quite a bit of waiting in between matches. We started at 9 AM and didn’t finish until 5 PM, which people ended up leaving near the end because of other commitments (we all thought we would be done by 3 o’clock – Brian and I had a nail appointment at 4 PM that we ended up rescheduling for another day). It was still a lot of fun despite all the waiting and even though we didn’t get to complete all of the matches.
Here are some pictures of the teams that participated in the team event.
Steve Vetter, Jen Reifschneider, Jen Tiano, and Jon Maugans (the winning team)
Michael McLemore, Greta Siemens, Denise Brinkworth, and Mike Adams (second place team)
Zach Nguyen, Fong Witte, Amy Jaramillo, and Matthew Rochat
Donnie and Tiffany Lesperance, Kimberly Howe, and Mark Armstrong
Mike Maloney, Shawna Geist, and Cindy and Ed Egan
Chris Wilson, Ian Carr, Michelle Dreiling, and Sharon Steimel also played but I missed getting a picture of their team. I actually didn’t get the pics of the first and second place teams. I stole those pics from the Nahola Facebook page. LOL.
Anyway, this format is really fun. I wouldn’t mind doing it again but probably not if there are seven teams because that was the reason for the extended waits between matches. Seven teams would work if you had three courts.
We are doing something similar at Chicken N Pickle next weekend on December 4. It’s going to be a team event patterned after Major League Pickleball. I’m playing just because it’s a different format and I was want to try something new and different. I’m kind of excited for it and will let you know how it goes. We might even livestream it. Stay tuned!
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Executives of the Year Awards Lunch
Posted on November 28, 2021 by Ching under Community, Leadership.
Former VP of Customer Operations at Evergy Jeff Beasley (he retired in June) was recognized by the Wichita Business Journal as one of its 2021 Executives of the Year. A bunch of us from work attended the awards lunch at the Hyatt last week. It was a wonderful celebration of several amazing leaders in our community.
After almost two years of working remotely, it was great to see some colleagues face to face. Most of our meetings have been virtual and video cameras aren’t always on so it was refreshing to actually see everyone. We will all be returning to working from the office in January so we will be back to seeing one another in person again very soon. Hopefully, it’s a sign that things are finally returning back to normal.
There were several executives honored at the lunch. I had met a few of them through events such as these in the past, before the pandemic brought gatherings to a screeching halt, but there were a couple of honorees who I actually knew personally. Ron McMahon, CEO of the Greater Wichita YMCA, was one of the honorees. I had met him through my stint as a group fitness instructor for the YMCA. Margaret Dechant, CEO of 6 Meridian (an investment advising firm formed in 2016 by 6 former Morgan Stanley wealth advisors), was another honoree. I met Margaret through pickleball. Incidentally, Ron is also an avid pickleball player.
It’s amazing to me how impressive many of the pickleball players are in our community. So many of them are successful entrepreneurs or business people. You could be playing with the President of a billion-dollar company or a professional poker player or some other multi-millionaire. You never know. That’s one of the great things about pickleball. Players from diverse backgrounds and all ages have so much fun playing together.
That’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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Snowbound Ski Lodge at CNP
Posted on November 25, 2021 by Ching under Date Ideas, Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Snowbound had only been open a week and I’ve been there twice already (will be going for a third time tomorrow). When they first unveiled it, they had a special preview for employees which Karen invited me to attend with her as her plus one. We went on a Thursday and I met her there after my Aqua Zumba class.
I gave Brian a heads up that I would be home late because I was swinging by Chicken N Pickle after class. The funniest part is, after texting him some pictures from Snowbound, he texted me back immediately with “Where are you? Thought you were going to CNP?” LOL. Their goal was to completely transform the CNP rooftop into a merry ski lodge and, given Brian’s response, I would say they completely succeeded.
If you’ve ever spent any time on the rooftop at CNP, you really won’t recognize it. They did such a great job with the ski lodge decor. I’ve never been skiing before so I guess I wouldn’t really know but, I got a total kick out of the the reaction they got from Brian. Here are some more pictures.
They have these fun ski boot shot glasses that you can get various shots in. Karen did a cinnamon toast crunch shot with the guys — Dan Leddy, Rick Nutt, and Lauren Rezac. The shots are presented on skis. It’s super cute.
I got a video of the four of them doing the shot which you can watch by clicking here. Besides the fun shots in the ski boots, they have the prettiest drinks at Snowbound. They’re also very yummy and strong.
Here are some drink pics.
The avalanche is cool because of how it is lit up and everything. The interesting part about it is sometimes it is blue and sometimes it is purple. I just depends on who makes it, I guess.
That Thursday night that I went with Karen, she got the avalanche while I got the free rider. I love my drink except I wasn’t expecting the sprinkles which I don’t really like that much (not even in cookies or cupcakes).
The next time I order the free rider, I will ask them to hold the sprinkles.
This next one is the ski ya later drink.
Then this next pic is of white out with an empty ski boot shot glass next to it. I was told you now have to take the ski boots off the ski first before taking your shot because you can’t make drinking too much fun and game-like. Seriously? Who comes up with these crazy rules?
The drinks at Snowbound are yummy but the food is equally fabulous. These are two of my favorite things to get:
This is the salmon dip. They give you a generous amount served in a jar.
This is the pork belly and brussels which is amazing.
Here’s a picture of the Snowbound menu. I seriously cannot wait to go back tomorrow and try all the other food and drinks I haven’t tried yet. I highly recommend checking out Snowbound before the season is over. You can make reservations here.
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Another Weekend, Another Tournament
Posted on November 19, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies, Travel.
I traveled to Great Bend last weekend for the Turkey Classic. I hadn’t been playing indoors on wood gym floors much over the last year or so but my friend Ramon Lozano is one of my favorite mixed doubles partners so, when he asked, I couldn’t say no. We had dinner plans with Madison and Lindsay that Saturday night but mixed was scheduled for Sunday so I accepted the invitation thinking I could do the dinner and then just drive over and back on Sunday.
My friend Sandi Dobbs (mother in law of Mason McCanless, another pickleball friend) invited me to play in women’s doubles. I was already going to be there for mixed anyway and there weren’t many teams so we were trying to help them out. Plus, Sandi said I could spend the night at her house so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth on both days. Then, come to find out, there weren’t that many women’s teams signed up so they were going to consolidate all of the play to Saturday. Anyway, it was a bit of a mess but it all worked out.
If I were only playing mixed I probably could have left Wichita around 10 o’clock because mixed wasn’t until the afternoon and it was only a two hour drive. With gender doubles starting at 8:30 AM, Karen and I left her house at 5 in the morning to get there with plenty of time to find the school and settle in.
I told Karen I’d been waking up in the middle of the night at 2 and 3 AM because I hadn’t been sleeping well lately. Little did I know it was all training for the day of our early morning drive to Great Bend.
Karen Fox, Jen Reifschneider, Sandi Dobbs and me
The day before the tournament, Karen’s women’s doubles partner Janelle Lindeman backed out and so Karen ended up getting Jen to fill in. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because she got a partner upgrade.
There were some last minute women’s sign ups so instead of having to play with the men, the women ended up with their own division. There were eight teams that were divided into two separate brackets after pool play.
Jen Tiano and Jenny Cole (holding the frozen turkeys in the above photo) won the top women’s bracket with Karen and Jen taking second (pumpkin pie filling prize) and me and Sandi in third (stuffing prize). They didn’t actually send you home with the food. Those were just props for the photo. But you did get a gift card so you could buy your own food. I’m actually grateful for the gift card because I don’t really like stuffing that much. LOL.
There were twice as many men’s doubles teams as there were women’s so they ended up with multiple brackets. These were the top guys: Chris Heck and Klee Watchous (first place), Ramon Lozano and Jeret Johnson (second place), and Justin McClung and Shawn Clark (third place).
There were 20 or so mixed doubles teams that played in the afternoon so there was a gold bracket, silver bracket, and bronze bracket. I’m not sure what happened in the other brackets but Wichita swept the gold bracket with Jen and Chris taking first, Jenny and Klee taking second, and Karen and Bo (not pictured because had to leave to deal with his car troubles) taking third. Ramon and I finished in fourth, losing to Karen and Bo in the back draw.
We joked that Chris, Jenny, Jen, and Klee flew in (yes, Klee flew the four of them in) just to do some exhibition matches. LOL. Chris joked that the drive from his house in West Wichita to the hangar in Benton was half of the drive time to Great Bend, which a little exaggerated but somewhat accurate. The drive would have been 2.5 hours from my house but it was only a little less than 2 hours from Karen’s house. I’m glad she decided to ride with me because it made the drive go by super quick. It also gave the two of us an opportunity to catch up.
Tomorrow Karen, Ramon, Bo, and I are playing in the team tournament at Nahola. I’ve only ever done it once and it was a complete fluke. I wasn’t part of a team but rather a last minute fill in. The teams this time are stacked with great players. It should be a super fun, competitive time.
Until next time. GNG.
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No Medals but Had a Ton of Fun
Posted on November 18, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies, Travel.
Some people bring back medals from their out of town tournaments. I bring back new friends which, in a way, is even cooler than medals. One of my favorite things about going to pickleball tournaments is making new friends and reconnecting with friends I’ve made from past tournaments. It’s a lot like ZINCON in that way.
Brian and I originally planned to drive down to Oklahoma on Thursday night because I wasn’t sure what time I was playing on Friday but, when I found out that our division wasn’t starting until 11:45 am, we decided to cancel our Thursday night stay and only spend one night at the hotel to save money. We were originally going to take Saki with us but then realized we wouldn’t be able to take her inside the tennis facility so she ended up getting boarded which ended up using the money we saved on our hotel stay.
This tournament was set up differently in that tournaments are typically held on Saturday and Sunday. This one held events on Friday and Saturday. Gender doubles was on Friday and then mixed was on Saturday.
I played with Jen Reifschneider in women’s doubles. I’m glad she agreed to play because I originally only had mixed lined up. This was only our second time playing together. We played together for the first time in ICT Fall-out back in September. We did pretty well (getting further than any of the other local women’s doubles teams in our division) and I had a lot of fun playing with her. I had high hopes for this tournament but also knew that it would be challenging because it was a sanctioned tournament and typically players play their actual level (or sometimes lower) instead of playing up.
We had the misfortune of playing against the gold medal team in our first round and then just had a rough go during our second match. I felt like we really should have medaled because even the gold medal team felt like we were their main competition (we were the only team to take them to 3 games, until the championship match) so I think we were just unlucky.
Anyway, once we were out, I took advantage of the time to catch up with friends like Michael McLemore who I only ever see at pickleball tournaments. I also enjoyed watching everyone play and taking a few pics.
We had dinner at Industry that evening. Our group consisted of over 20 people. Most of us were from Wichita but some were from Hays. We also made some new friends. I invited the two girls who won gold in our division to dinner because (a) I had no bitter feelings at all, and (b) they were super nice. I ran into Jenna earlier that day in the restroom and she was super complementary about how Jen and I played. She didn’t gloat and wasn’t a jerk so I invited her and Danae and Danae’s husband Barrett to join our group for dinner. Incidentally, she lives close to the restaurant and Danae and Barrett were both staying with her so it worked out perfectly. We did have to add another table and a couple more chairs but we made it work and everyone seemed to have a great time visiting with one another over dinner. Pickleball peeps are the best!
We just keep adopting people into the Wichita Pickleball family. LOL.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I tried to get as many food pics as I could but it was just too difficult because everyone was so far away from me.
Brian and I got a couple of the charcuterie plates to share with everyone as we waited for everyone to arrive to order dinner. As is what typically happens, we ordered way too much food. Brian and I only ate half of our pizza and we couldn’t do anything with the rest of it because we were staying at a hotel (Avid) and going home the next day.
Speaking of our hotel, I got to meet Alvaro Terron Gonzalez aka the Spanish Sensation or Jay 2.0 at breakfast the next morning because he just happened to be staying at the same hotel. He is super nice and graciously agreed to take a photo with me. I think he is still getting use to the idea of being famous.
Brian says he think I am more famous than Alvaro. This never would have occurred to me had this guy not asked to take a photo with me when I was at Riverside Tennis Center last week. He said “his mom is a huge fan” – his words not mine. Maybe Brian is on to something and maybe I am really more famous than I realize?
I am usually the one fan-girling so to have someone ask to get a pic with me kind of made me feel special. We’ve come full circle, friends.
And speaking of full circle, my friend Justin (one of our friends from Hays) recently posted this on Facebook. Naturally, I got a kick out of it. Alvaro is super nice. I found out that he is good friends with Michael Douglas, my mixed partner for that tournament. Any time that he wasn’t playing he came to watch us play.
He was watching when we played against Kali Wilson and Kyle VonAhn and saw our heartbreaking 15-13 consolation bracket loss which ended our tournament run. I thanked him for coming to watch us and he said it was fun to watch and then also added, “Too bad Michael didn’t show up today!” to mess with Michael – LOL – who was standing right there. Alvaro is not only nice and handsome but he also has a great sense of humor, and he is climbing the ranks of my list of favorite people.
Speaking of Michael, here’s a picture of him in the awesome team shirt that I had made for us. I had to make a different shirt (rather than a Wichita Pickleball one like mine and Jen’s) because Michael is from Tulsa, OK area.
I think I did great on the shirt design because the tournament director Gene Click totally got a kick out of it. #NailedIt — I wish there was a prize for best dressed because Michael and I looked amazing in our team uniforms.
You are probably wondering how I got teamed up with Michael for the SMASH 2021 tournament. That is a really cool story actually. We met through the ICT Classic pickleball tournament back in June. He and his partner Deana Holman sent me and my partner Mason McCanless into the consolation bracket on their way to taking bronze.
Even though we lost that match it was quite memorable. He said he was amazed how Mason and I managed to win the first game 14-12. I’m pretty sure we were down 0-8 or some insanely huge deficit like that. Michael said was super impressed at the significant amount of mental fortitude it took for Mason and I to turn that game around and actually win it. As you can see from the screen shot above, we lost games 2 and 3 pretty decisively (11-5, 11-5) probably because it took all of strength and focus to win that first game. LOL.
I think Mason and I would have made a deeper tournament run had we not encountered the silver and bronze medal teams so early in the tournament. That was unfortunate. But, anyway, those were the circumstances with which I met Michael. I guess I must have made quite an impression because he invited me to team up for a future tournament.
Being a lower level player, I was naturally super excited to have someone of Michael’s caliber invite me to play. I was like, “Wow. Seriously?” I didn’t even care what the tournament was or when it was. I was all in.
I had my mixed partner lined up months in advance but didn’t have a women’s doubles partner but, as luck would have it, Jen Reifschneider just happened to be available so I managed to snag an amazing women’s doubles partner too. If I was going to podium at a sanctioned event, this was the one. This is the first tournament ever that I’ve ever had teammates who are much higher level than me.
I didn’t come home with any medals but it was such a huge honor playing with both Michael and Jen. And, I also got some compliments on my game. I mean, I could have played 3.0 and 3.5 (because my ratings in women’s and mixed are actually low enough that I could have) and medaled rather than playing 4.0 in both events but how much fun would that have been? Plus, Michael says I belong in 4.0 so I guess I’m going to continue playing 4.0 for a while until I make some podiums.
Progress is slow as molasses but I’m still truckin’… until the next tournament. GNG.
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