San Juan Tournament

Saturday, November 17, 2018 (Court Day #225)
San Juan Bautista Tournament • 3.5 Mixed Doubles 

You always go into a tournament optimistically thinking—hoping—that you will win a medal. Every tournament has been like that for me. Your goal is a medal. Of course, it’s not something I chat up before or at a tournament. And, generally, you find out within a game or two if it’s simply a pipe dream or if it’s seemingly possible.

I picked up Colleen at 7:30. I had two pairs of court shoes, two paddles (granted, one delaminating), two caps, and I had a passing thought that maybe I should have brought two pairs of socks. After my last tournament fiasco, I was definitely going to have two pairs of shoes! I also had a large plastic water bottle filled with ice then water.

As it has been the past couple weeks, the haze of smoke was visible at home as well as on the way down. We’ve been experiencing the most devastating fire in California history with over 60 killed so far and many hundreds missing. Air quality has been going from not good to worse then back again, depending on the strength and direction of the winds.

Arrival

We pulled in at 8:06 at San Juan School to find the courts already hopping with people warming up.

Jennifer Watson Yoder holding court as tournament director for a few of the competitors. You can make out the smoke in the distance. Still it was sunny day, however.

Competitors making the most of the early warmup time. Six nice courts.

There would be two round-robin pools of 3.5 mixed doubles and one of 3.0. The two top finishers in each 3.5 pool would play for the gold medal. The two second place finishers would play for the bronze. Our 3.5 pool would have six teams, and the other, five.

Our pool. We were team #3.

I dug out a little mustard pack that I’d picked up on a trip to In’N’Out Burger and swallowed it down. I figure anything to help reduce the likelihood of leg cramps!

1st Game.

Kenny/Cheryl. You never know starting a game against unknown opponents how it’s going to go. It started out close, but we slowly pulled out ahead and extended our lead. While he was playing somewhat better than Cheryl, Kenny started getting upset with his missed shots: “God … bless America!” Some other less self-adjusted forms of exasperation came later!

Uncharacteristically, I missed a couple serves—badly. Colleen played consistently great. For example, in the backcourt, I was on right with Colleen on the left. Directly across from me, Cheryl hit a sharp short crosscourt shot. Colleen sprinted up outside the sideline, amazingly returned it. (Dave DiBiase later said she needed to get tested for illegal substances!) Kenny easily returned her shot, but I had shifted across the middle of the court to cover and was ready for it. We went on to win that point a few shots later. And that’s how the game went. We played well.

In the end, we walked away with a 15-4 win.

2nd Game.

Molly/Charles. Charles is a tall older man. Both he and Molly were great at knocking any high ball angled off the court—and Colleen and I unfortunately provided a few for them! Nonetheless, we won 15-7.

Two wins so far. As we waited for our next match, Colleen asked me if I could smell the smoke. I hadn’t noticed, but once I paid attention, yes, no question.

3rd Game.

Dave/Vickie. Our opponents for this one were a strong team. They were the only team we’d play who would employ stacking. As you’d expect, teams that stack know what they are doing. In short order, we were losing by a lopsided 7-1. I remember thinking, “Is this where we fall?”

This was a tough game. We got into some great dink rallies. I think Vickie may not have been happy with one of my baseline calls, but it was out by a good 3-4”. To end the next point, she hit the ball about three feet past our baseline at which she told her partner, “That one was out!”  (Later, she admitted that she gets impatient in games sometimes.)

Vickie, to my right across the net from Colleen, did a crosscourt dink and the ball rolled along the net cord and dropped into my kitchen in front of me, I stretched out and barely got it back but it also rolled along the net cord and bounced in her kitchen and out past her sideline. Vickie tried a desperate ATP but it landed out. It was a nutty scenario—two consecutive shots rolling along the net cord? Crazy.

Colleen and I stuck with it. We didn’t give up. Surprisingly, we managed to come back and win 15-7. We’d gone on a 14-0 point run. It can be done!

By this time, it was 10:30. The weather was just about perfect for pickleball. Well, except for two things. Sun and wind. The sun, at least, was predictable and was there from the beginning. The wind was picking up and was variable. But the temperature, slightly chilly while waiting, was perfect while playing.

4th Game.

Mike/Barbara. Mike and Barbara from Monterey—a lot of the teams were from Monterey—were wearing pickleball branded athletic garb and looked the part of a formidable team. And Mike has a wicked forehand groundstroke—fortunately, a few ended up in the net.

Colleen and I were winning 12-1. They called a time out, then they came back 13-8. But then we wrapped it up, closing out the game 15-8. Wind was a factor and needed to be considered for certain shots. I missed probably four of my serves, but I couldn’t really blame the wind for those. I’ve never had the yips, but today, I was having a mini version of it all morning. I reverted to simply hitting the ball to the center of the service court and avoiding spins or anything fancy.

5th Game.

Ken/Christine—though the posted sign said “Ken/Diane”, so dunno, maybe her name is Diane. There was not much doubt in this game. We were down 2-1 but then went on a roll and won 15-4. Ken is a fun, upbeat guy. I really liked meeting him and playing against him.

The final tally with top finishers circled.

Well, that went pretty well! Having won all five of our scheduled matches, Colleen and I were guaranteed at least a silver medal. One of the competitors commented that it appeared during games that Colleen and I were honestly having a good time being there. Colleen and I both tend to laugh and smile a lot. Life is too short to be too serious!

Waiting for gold medal match, Colleen sitting and chatting with Cheryl, whom we played in our first game.

Gold Medal Match.

Colleen and I would be playing against Vi and Wendy who won all their games in the other 3.5 pool. They moved ahead slowly, but we were neck and neck. Vi was really good. The serve was going back and forth and points were hard-earned. A small crowd had gathered, folding chairs were set up next to our court and the bench nearby was full and others simply stood to watch. This was a fantastic game to be in. We had some great rallies. Some true battles.

There was a first in this game, I ran up and hit a volley winner, but I had too much momentum. I swung my arms around hoping to keep balance, but, nope, I had to put my right foot down into the kitchen. Fault. I looked across at Vi and said, “Kitchen fault.” Drat. Colleen said, “Next time, say something and I’ll grab you!” (Which is totally legal.) It just happened within a few seconds, I don’t know if she could have gotten to me in time to make a difference, but, yes, next time!

Colleen and I were down on points. Then, amazingly, we crawled ahead, 11-10. I returned a ball that would have otherwise gone out and my return sailed out—double bad. Colleen popped one up in front of Vi who took advantage. I made another error. We slipped behind, 14-12. Ken encouraged us from the sidelines, “You can do it, Andrew!” A rally ensued, Colleen and I ended up separated at the net just enough for Vi to hit a drive between us. It landed right at the baseline. In? Out? I couldn’t be sure that it was out, it was too close to tell. I had to call it in. I waved my arms to indicate “good”. Game. 15-12, it was a silver medal for us.

We all shook hands after with broad smiles on our faces. It had been a great—and long!—game to be in regardless of the winner. The observers commented positively on the entertaining game. After another minute, we all shook hands again. Dave DiBiase commended me, “You played well. Those side arm lob return shots are hard to do but you did really good with those.”

Hanging Out

The bronze medal match had started later than ours and was still going when we were done. It was Vickie and Dave (the stackers) against a team from the other pool. Dave and Vickie lost, finishing 4th out of 11 total teams.

I chatted with Vi while waiting for medals. He said he’s only been playing pickleball for six months, but he’s been teaching tennis as Monterey Peninsula College for 15 years. No wonder he was so good getting the ball back over the net! I learned later from someone else that he’s a ranked 5.0 tennis player. (For comparison, that’s not far off from, say, Sarah Ansboury’s USTA 5.5 rating.) Anyway, Vi loves pickleball. And Vi did thank me for that game-ending baseline call in his favor. Nice guy.

Me and Colleen sporting our silver medals.

The informal awards ceremony and photos were done at 12:45 and it was time to head back.

Up close and personal.

Ongoing Medal Count:
Gold: 2
Silver: 2
Bronze: 0
(Zilch/Crash & Burn: 4)

Number of days on a court: 225
Number of total hours: 615

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