Tuesday, July 23, 2024 (Court Day #691)

Yesterday, USA Pickleball filed a motion to dismiss Joola’s lawsuit against them. Here is a link to the motion to dismiss document:
https://jumpshare.com/s/qB4PAFjsB628xUSFWVgl

Here’s some key information:

This case involves three sets of paddles submitted by Plaintiff Sport Squad, Inc. (“Sport Squad”): (1) two prototype (or “base”) paddles approved by USAP; (2) nine inadvertently submitted paddles approved by USAP, but never sold to the public; and (3) nine unsubmitted paddles never approved by USAP but sold to the public by Sport Squad. Specifically, by its own admission, Sport Squad sent the “wrong” pickleball paddles to USAP in November 2023 for evaluation. Compl. ¶¶ 6, 60-61. USAP approved those paddles by mid-December. Then, by another judicially admitted “error,” Sport Squad began to manufacture different paddles in late December. Although USAP had not approved the mass-produced paddles, Sport Squad stamped them as “USA Pickleball Approved,” distributed them to sponsored players for tournaments in early 2024, and publicly released them in April 2024. When Sport Squad disclosed its error to USAP in May 2024, USAP naturally informed Sport Squad that unapproved paddles could not be sold to the public with a “USA Pickleball Approved” logo. Instead, the paddles had to be submitted to USAP, like any other paddle, before displaying that representation.
Earlier this year, USAP updated its surface roughness standards for paddles. By the time Sport Squad realized its error, the updated rule was in effect, and the unapproved paddles failed that standard.

Here’s a link to the Joola complaint from last month and also another copy of the Motion to Dismiss (MTD) in case the first one goes away:
https://propickleballstats.com/joola_usap_lawsuit/

It’s an interesting legal tangle.

Skypark

I left work early and arrived at Skypark at 5:33 p.m. Kristin Long was driving in right behind me through the neighborhood and Francis was later parking—in the tiny spot that I passed on and looped by—as I walked in.

There are open courts when you come early!

Kristin asked if I’d help her set up a net (in the last open spot) and I did.

Games

My first game was with Kristin against two players I don’t know but are not strangers. We came back from a 5 point deficit to win.

Mike C. and I played three games against Marco and Tiffany. We won all three. Tiffany has gotten so much better over the last few years. 

Between games, Mike and I were talking and it came up but I’ve been playing for over seven years. And Mike said, “No wonder you can make such good shots.” I kind of shrugged it off and told him, “I should be much better than I am by this point.” And he said, “You’re really good player.” When the next game started, I was playing was pretty well, but then I missed my second shot and that ended the rally. I turned to Mike and told him, “See? Remember that the next time you say that I that I am a really good player!”

My brother John had told me a story a few days ago about he had played at Skypark and after the game was over, his opponent said that he is a good player. Everything is relative! I still very much consider my brother John a newbie. Consider that on Sunday afternoon after my classes, I had beaten him and another player while I was playing left-handed. John can definitely get around the court pretty quickly and has quick reflexes as well, but has work to do an execution, shots, selection, court positioning, among other things. But he may be a 3.0 player at this point.

Towards the end of the last game, between points, I asked Marco what time it was. He said, “7:30.” I told them that this would be my last game because I had to get to the airport.

I got off the court and checked the time: 7:38 p.m. Aidan, my daughter’s boyfriend, texted that his flight was delayed 15 minutes, and that worked out quite nicely as this would put me there just about perfectly on time.

High School Pickleball

In Maryland, an entire high school district is taking pickleball very seriously:
“Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) announced that pickleball is being adopted as a varsity sport by all 25 high schools this fall.
Last fall, MCPS became the first school district in the country to offer pickleball as a varsity sport, piloting the sport at 11 schools.”
https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/maryland/montgomery-county/pickleball-launching-in-montgomery-county-high-schools

Here’s the official press release:
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13431

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 (No Play)

Andrew McLeod, the SCCP Venue Coordinator, who is also on the board of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club with me, picked my replacement for Derby Park. That replacement site coordinator will be Brian Hackett. Brian is generally a nice guy, I’m sure he’ll do fine. After nearly 7 years as the Sunday morning site coordinator for Derby Park, I will be happy to have flexibility back in my life on my only day off from work. That’s not to say I didn’t have any flexibility—sometimes back-up coordinators would fill in for me when needed—but now I have complete freedom with no obligations, other than to send out cancellation notices when the winter season arrives, though that decision to cancel or not cancel will not be on my shoulders.

Number of days on a court: 691
Number of total hours: 2,899.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 55.5

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