Friday, March 7, 2025 (Court Day #776)
Tonight was the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club’s halftime demonstration of pickleball at the 7 p.m. Santa Cruz Warriors “G League” basketball game. The local team is a direct feeder to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and under their management.
As a SCPC officer, I had sent out several email blasts to the club members letting them know that we would be some informal socializing at Abbott Square downtown prior to the game tonight. With all the food vendors there, there would be a chance to eat something too.
I got stuck at work and then afterward—with my wife out of town helping my son Nicholas for the afternoon—I needed to go home and feed the dogs and get them out to do their business!
By the time that was done and I got downtown, it was shortly after 6 p.m. For about ten minutes, I joined the dozen or so people who were socializing, then David Ang and I walked over to the arena. Since I was part of the halftime demonstration, I wanted to get there early and scope things out.
Arena
As fortune would have it, our staff contact with the Warriors, Spencer Arburn, was going through security just as I walked up. I called over and after my explanation, Spencer instructed the security guards let pass me through with my full water bottle—a “no no”—in my backpack. Fantastic timing!
Once inside, I realized that there didn’t seem to be a place to pick up the limited-edition Santa Cruz Warriors pickleball paddle covers inside the arena either. Spencer kindly went back out and retrieved one for me and one for David. Wherever we were supposed to go to get the paddle cover, it was not obvious. I did look for it outside!
Also, Warriors bucket hats were given out to the first 1,000 attendees. I did pick one up, though I planned on gifting it to someone later.
Pre-Game Prep
Spencer suggested that I store my backpack near the fully-assembled pickleball net for halftime. I wasn’t super comfortable leaving by backpack unattended even if it was behind a flap where no one could see it—but I did. Not too long after, I went back and grabbed it and brought it to my seat.
After club president Mark Dettle and I had done a dry run on the portable fabric court lines yesterday, those lines had been very carefully folded up and set on top of the net so they’d be ready to go at halftime tonight. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the staff had gotten them back out again to test the corner weights (to stretch the lines straight) and somewhat haphazardly put them back with the net. Before the game, Mark and I tried to get the lines organized as best we could, but with no way to lay them out completely, there is no way for us to know for sure that we had them configured them correctly. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
The basketball game started and it was back and forth, close, and entertaining.
Pre-Halftime Prep
I previously arranged with Jackie, Mo, and Spencer that we start to warm up for our demo with 10 minutes left in the second quarter. Arena was kind of muggy so it was nice to get out the back door into the cool night air. I hit a ball back-and-forth with Mo and Jackie hit a ball back-and-forth with Spencer. Mark was also out there keeping an eye on the time and keeping us coordinated.
Jackie and I decided we’d get into the team spirit and wear our free bucket hats for the demonstration.
With about three minutes left on the game clock, Mark ushered us inside where we waited near the corner of the court. The Warriors staff was poised, supporting the portable net in the air with our fabric court lines draped over the top of it.
Halftime
When the game clock struck zero, the staff immediately started making their way onto the basketball court. It was a little tricky navigating random people while carrying a 22 foot long portable net.
They started showing our prepared video on the big screen while we set up.
After the staff set the net on the court, we started trying to get the temporary court lines down. That part was a stressful fiasco. We got the corners out but the center part of it was a tangled mess. After about a minute of trying to get that figured out, we urgently decided to just jettison the court lines and do our best without.
I was with Jackie on the Arena entrance side of the net, Spencer and Mo were on the other side, of course. The arena announcer, who was going to commentate our demo game, had a little experience with pickleball having played three times himself.
There was a bit of a challenge not knowing where the court lines would have been plus playing with an unfamiliar indoor ball, but still it was fun. I was mostly unaware of the crowd except when Mo and I had faster net rally when we heard the crowd go, “Ooooo!”
Considering how little experience he had and the weirdness of this particular game, the announcer did a good job commentating the game. The game was a blast, if bizarre.
The announcer was helpful in counting down how many seconds we had left. He called out, “44 seconds!” “20 seconds!”
I’d asked some people to record the demonstration but no one recorded the last minute or so. Here’s what I put together of it.
When halftime was over, I gathered up my things and headed back over to the corner where are we had initially gathered. The staff had put the net back where it was along with the rats’ nest of fabric lines. Mark and I broke down the net and stowed it in its bag. Mark stuffed all the random court lines into a separate bag—it would be sorted out later. As we started walking back to our places, Mark turned around, stopped, and held out his palm. High-five! Well, Mark obviously felt it was an unquestionable success!
The Basketball Game
When I got back to the bleachers, it appeared that my bench seat between Jackie and David had disappeared so I sat on the end of the row right in front of Wendy and a man who I assume is her husband. It turned out to be a really good basketball game. The Warriors has fallen behind and then came back and tied it up with only a few seconds left. Unfortunately, they fouled the other team and the final points in the game were those free throws. They gave the other team a win.
As much as I would’ve liked our hometown team to win, I was very happy that the game did not go into overtime. It had been a long day and I was very ready to get home.
David very kindly gave me a lift from his car—which was parked nearby—to my car which was about 10 minutes of walking away. Thanks, David!
Saturday, March 8, 2025 (No Play)
I heard from a number of people that the crowd last night had gotten into our demonstration game and our demo was successful. That’s excellent to hear!
Number of days on a court: 776
Number of total hours: 3,096
Number of paid coaching hours: 114.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Leave a Reply