Sunday, September 29, 2024 (Court Day #720)
It was kind of chilly this morning. It was overcast and misting light droplets onto my windshield. It was 57°F. Almost cold enough for me to consider bringing a sweatshirt.
HS Reunion
Last night, the 1984 graduating class of Harbor High School had to small reunion at Fast Eddy’s Billiards in Capitola. While it’s been around since 1976, I’d never been there. They have an upstairs loft area and it was reserved for us. Patrick Smith—who was the one of the main organizers, if not the main organizer—is friends with the owner who gave Patrick a deal. The 1984 class invited the class before and the class after which is why I was there. I was in the class of ’85.
Two pickleball regulars were there, Rachel—who was in my class—and Sycha, who also came although she’s from the class one year younger than Rachel and me. There are about 30 people there. I was kind of surprised that Patrick Smith said that he remembered me. (He and I were the only two still sporting two full heads of dark hair!) We played football together in high school although with him being a year ahead of me, we very much traveled in different circles. I definitely remembered Patrick, although everyone called him Pat back in those days. Patrick prefers the long form of his name, just like I prefer my name. My high school coaches called me “Andy” regardless, so those who knew me from sports in high school still call me “Andy”.
Brommer
With the weather being not quite as nice, there was even more parking than normal and only four of the eight courts had games going on them.
My first series of games were lopsided and not particularly challenging.
Aaron & Kim B., Jordan
Tall Lefty Aaron B. arrived with his wife and introduced her to Jordan and myself. Her name is Kim and she comes from a tennis background. Kim played pretty well considering that I’d never seen her around before. She was still the weakest player on the court, but not a slouch by any means.
Jordan and I played several games against Aaron and Kim.
We won the first game in a decisive fashion.
The second game was a little closer 11–8.
Then we played a third game, which was not our best. Jordan was missing a lot of his serves for some reason… a mild form of the yips. We lost that one.
We went to play one last game as a group before I had to leave. Jordan dialed his serves back in and we won this one 11–6.
Those were good games.
I checked the time and it was 11:56 a.m. It was time for me to go home and get ready for teaching.
Classes
I had my first day of my new classes today. It was pretty routine. But I will comment on one thing. One of my beginning students, Josh, seemed a bit distant or disinterested at points during my class when I was talking and I was a bit concerned that he didn’t see any value in my class. However, at the end of the class he started applauding. You never know!
I suppose that another feather in my cap is the fact that one of my students, Tommy, who lives in Carmel and took my Beginner class, signed up and is taking my Advanced Beginner class. That shows that he felt that he got good learning value out of his initial class with me and is again willing to drive about an hour to take my next class, then later spend another hour driving home. That’s really something.
Monday, September 30, 2024 (No Play)
Last week, it was announced the comedic actor Ben Stiller will be starring in an producing a pickleball-themed film called “The Dink.” Former tennis star Andy Roddick will also appear in the film.
Here’s an article in the Hollywood Reporter about it:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ben-stiller-jake-johnson-pickleball-comedy-the-dink-1236011721
And an article from ESPN from a Roddick angle instead:
https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/41462504/andy-roddick-pickleball-movie-dink-ben-stiller
Number of days on a court: 720
Number of total hours: 2,970.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 81.5
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