I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:50 a.m. It was sunny and cool. It was a little breezy and that did had an effect on a few shots over the course of the morning.
Games
My first game was teamed up with a number of players I didn’t know. One I had seen before but the other two I didn’t know. I played with a guy who is a lefty. He didn’t seem to have that much of a soft game, but made up for it with his hard drives. We won that game.
My second game was Rick and myself against René and Evan. It turned out to be a close game but Rick and I pulled off a win.
Ball to the Eyes
Next, René and I played against Rick and Evan. We lost 2-11. René was not into this game for some reason. In this game, Evan attacked from the kitchen and however it got there, the ball hit me in the sunglasses. Evan felt very bad about it, but it didn’t hurt. After the game, I showed him my broken sunglasses frames. “Did I do that?” He was very concerned. But then I let him know that they had been already broken! Yes, I can be a stinker! And, yes, I always wear eye protection. (Well, with some very rare exceptions.)
René, Rick, Marco
René and I won 11-1 vs. Rick and Marco. It was Marco’s first game and he was still getting warmed up.
Rick and I played three games against René and Marco. The first game was lopsided in favor of René and Marco. Marco is playing very well. I’ll need to play more against players with that aggressive style to do better. In the second game, Rick and I took the lead late in the game but they came back to win 11–9. In the last game, Rick and I lost again, this time 5–11.
Last Game
Last game was Evan and myself against Dave Ryan and another Dave who I don’t know. I think the other Dave is a tennis player who is dabbling in pickleball. He was a combination of poor shots and poor shot selection, but he also had some really great drives at times—his play is a mishmash. Evan and I won 11–5. Dave Ryan and Evan both complimented my plan after that game. Nice to hear.
After that game, I checked the time, 12:02 p.m. The time change was today. There were good games to still be had but I had to go home and get ready to coach this afternoon.
New Sign
When I was leaving after teaching for a few hours, I noticed that a new sign had been posted by the City of Scotts Valley. Nothing like a sign to avoid arguments!
Number of days on a court: 777 Number of total hours: 3,098 Number of paid coaching hours: 120.5
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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.
Mo, me, Spencer, and Jackie out back, posing for Mark.
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.
Over the last few days club president Mark Dettle and I, well mostly me, have been working on getting a video together to promote pickleball in Santa Cruz. It will play at the Santa Cruz Warriors basketball game at halftime on Friday night.
Mark has been broaching the subject here and there with a local videographer named Peter for over a year. At the last minute, that worked out, so I sent over my materials to Peter and let him take over. Mark and Peter had met at Brommer Park yesterday as well as Willowbrook Park and recorded video. I had shared video with them that I had taken on Friday last week. My son Nicholas composes music in his free time for fun and I thought one of his songs would work well if we remove the vocals. Nicholas mastered a new version has an instrumental and sent me the file which I, in turn, shared with Peter. That became the background music. Peter put together a draft video and send it to Mark and myself tonight. I suggested some edits.
Skypark
On Sunday last week, my Kitchen Blockers dropped out of the pocket on the side of my backpack and Kristin Long found them. We hadn’t connected for me to get them back, so I wore my old protective glasses instead tonight instead.
Boy. I was not happy with my play tonight. David said I played fine, but I was popping up shots. It was not good. I told someone that I hoped I was getting all my bad shots out before the halftime demonstration on Friday!
Mark and I arranged to meet with Spencer Arburn, of Santa Cruz Warriors staff, at the arena at 11 a.m. to do a dry run of temporary “throw down” court lines and work out logistics for our pickleball halftime show tomorrow night. Spencer, Mo, Jackie, and I will be representing pickleball in front of the crowd. We will only have six minutes total including setup. Our prepared video will play while we set up. Then we should have about four minutes to actually play. Maybe long enough for 4-6 rallies.
Mark, me, Spencer and his coworker Michael helped stretch out the various rolled orange fabric court lines and velcroed them together. The lines came with eight weight bags, but we needed something to actually put in the bags to make them work. Mark left that aspect to the Warriors staff. We don’t want to be held responsible for potentially damaging their floor!
Warrior staff Michael and Spencer with Mark at the net.
We set up a temporary net as well, then we stashed it—fully set up—behind the ramp to Section H. Then we carefully folded the lines up assembled. At my prompting, we laid them back out to make sure it wouldn’t be difficult under pressure. And it wasn’t. It went quickly and smoothly. Then we carefully stashed those with the stored net. Hopefully, people won’t mess with them before halftime!
Spencer showed us the space behind the arena where us players could warm up during the 2nd quarter.
After 45 minutes, we were finished. I just need to write up some notes for the announcer about us players then all the prep work will be done!
Rain
While Mark and I were in the arena, it was pouring rain. It actually hailed for part of it and that was loud in an arena with a vinyl roof! Anyway, the weather prevented any play tonight at Skypark… maybe some brave souls made the trek to the courts to see if they were dry enough to play, but not me. It’s been raining a goodly amount. My classes were rained out this past Sunday.
Number of days on a court: 775 Number of total hours: 3,095.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 114.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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