Sunday, March 23, 2025 (Court Day #783)

While it was only in the mid 50s, and hazy and cloudy, it didn’t feel overly chilly.

When I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:13 a.m., there weren’t enough players waiting to start a game.

After sitting on the wall for a few minutes, little Karen and an unfamiliar English woman (not Linda) asked if I wanted to warm up. There were open courts and players were hard to come by. I could have tried and wait for a stronger game but there was no guarantee that would happen. The three of us warmed up for a few minutes before the large Englishman joined us. (I forget his name, but we’ve played a few times.) Karen and I teamed up. Initially, we fell behind, but soon we were ahead enough that I went out of my way to hit to the fellow to make the game a bit harder.

For the next game, I teamed up with the English woman against Karen and Monica Lee. In situations like that, it becomes a question of how you approach the game as a stronger player. Do you take it easy on them? Or do you play your normal level and give them an opportunity to get challenged? Often, they don’t get to play against better players. In the end, I decided to not take it so easy. My team won and the other team got a challenge.

Emergency!

There was a third game where I teamed up again with Karen. We won, but I don’t recall much else about it. Mid-game, the nicer court next to us opened up we started sliding over as is standard practice at Brommer. “We’re not done yet!” Huh? Then we realized that everyone had stopped playing. The number of people were circled around a woman who is sitting on the wall. Someone said she had been playing for two hours straight. It was feeling warm in the sun, so maybe dehydration? There was concern that maybe she was having a stroke or a heart attack. Someone mentioned that JP was firefighter paramedic and he was helping. They had her lie down on the wall after drinking water to get rehydrated. We could hear the sirens and an ambulance arrived, then it took what felt like five minutes before they had collected their gear and made their way over to our courts from the parking lot. A fire truck arrived not too long after that. They checked her vitals and gave her medical attention. Someone said that she had already started feeling better after drinking water. Soon, she was sitting up and the first responders were satisfied that she could be left on her own. With that the jokes started…
“The firefighters are probably wondering ‘How can you possibly get hurt in this game?’!”

Strong Games

Once we finished that interrupted game, Chayton and Marquis were standing there. I asked if I could join them, but also said, “You can say no, if you want.” At that, Marquis was taken back and said, “Oh no, you can join us.” Avery came and became our fourth.

I hadn’t seen Avery for a while. He shared with Maquis and myself that he had torn two tendons in his ankle three months ago and he’s just getting back into playing.

Chayton and I won 12-10 against Avery and Marquis. We played the second game, but this time Chayton and I lost 10-12. Two very close games!

We had a rubber match but this time, we lost 6-11.

Things got mixed up for the next game since Chayton had to leave.

Marquis and I lost 8-11 versus Jax and Avery. I gave them four points right off the bat. Poor Marquis. I was getting tired.

I left at 12:09 p.m. to head home and get ready for teaching. Good games today.

And?

Except for the last couple of games, I felt that I was playing really well today. When strong players don’t ditch you after a game, that means they respect your play.

In our last game, Sean was watching from the wall and after a firefight between Jax and myself at the net with Avery and Marquis to my right (Marquis hit the ball into the net). Sean paid me a compliment, saying “Fast hands!”

In the second game with Chayton, I felt myself getting really winded. Part of me wonders if that was a remnant of having Covid a couple of times. Though neither have been worse than just a bad cold. Another part of me just waves it off as either allergies or just needing more exercise. Who knows?

A ball flew off of my partner Chayton’s paddle and hit me square in the mouth. Fortunately, it didn’t split open my lower lip or cause any blood, but it was uncomfortable for a while. He felt really bad, but I brushed it off and told him not to worry about it. Part of the game.

Teaching

Teaching went well, it was the last day of the four week classes. There was applause at the end of each class, that’s always nice.

Number of days on a court: 783
Number of total hours: 3,110
Number of paid coaching hours: 126.5

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