Monday, July 14, 2025 (Court Day #829)

With it being such an action-packed weekend, I was exhausted last night and was asleep before 10 p.m., which is unusual for me. I woke up about 3:30 a.m. and listened to podcast for about 30 to 40 minutes before I fell back asleep. I was awake again just about 8 a.m.

It wasn’t too long after that this Mark Dettle, president of the pickleball club, texted me and told me that he was dealing with a family emergency and might not be able to make our monthly board meeting today. He asked me to run the meeting if he didn’t arrive. I agreed. He also let me know that Spencer had resigned from the board, which is a total bummer because Spencer was organizing the summer training sessions for our members. Now, we (the board) are going to have to scramble a bit.

Brommer Park

I had to park down the street since the lot was full and I was walking into Brommer Park a few minutes before 10 a.m. Being a club day, it meant signing up on the dry-erase board. People were still signing up in a single color, regardless of skill, since it wasn’t 10 a.m. yet.

Games

My first game was paired with tall Andy against little Linda and Bruce. We lost. It was a case of which one of us, Bruce or me, had the stronger partner.

Now that it was after 10 a.m., the various skill colors came out. Black for novice, Green for Intermediate, Red for Advanced, and Blue for 4.0+.

I signed up in blue. I ended up in a game with Connie against a man about my height with short-cropped blond hair named Kris and Andrea, a regular. Andrea and I won 11-2. They were not in the right color.

The next game was Andrea and me again versus Kris and a woman named Laura from out of town and Kris again. Andrea and I won 11-3.

Manda and I won 11-5 vs. bat glasses Chris and Kris. Kris got respectable after warming up. He was rough in the first games I played with him, but now he was playing better.

I played well this morning. I made some shots that surprised myself!

I was debating playing one more game. The board meetings are scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m.

I opted to do one more game and was hoping it would be a quick one… but not so much. An English woman, Val, and I played against JP and little Linda. We won 11-8, in a back and forth game.

SCPC Meeting

It was 12:20 p.m. when we were done. I grabbed my backpack and walked the 40 feet to the alternative table by the court gate where we’d be meeting. (There was a group over in our regular spot with the newer tables.)

More Games

We finished our board meeting at 1:47 p.m. and a few of us decided to play. Mike Sullivan and I played against Jackie and Ken, a regular. After the game, we rotated partners and I was paired with Ken. Ken was funny, “Can you carry a 229 pound player on your back?”

The answer was yes, apparently. Regardless of the partner rotation, I won every game with Jackie and Mike and Ken.

Last game of the day was Hugh and myself against Brian and Ken Smith. (Ken Smith is good friends with one of my regular customers at work, Jim Potterton.) I rarely see Ken but he obviously comes from a lot of tennis background. He is really strong with his compact backhand shots, angles, and his low drives over the net. Those were really good games.

I wrapped up play a few minutes after 4 p.m.

Aside from the very first game of the day and maybe a little bit of the second—which were kind of funky—I felt that I played quite well today.

Las Vegas Courts

Las Vegas received a $12 million federal grant to build a pickleball complex of 30 courts:
https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_L23AC00014_1422

Here is a Vegas news channel story on the project:
https://news3lv.com/news/local/las-vegas-pickleball-project-sparks-debate-over-federal-spending
In the video, Kentucky senator Rand Paul says that he’s played pickleball, but then goes on saying that the government shouldn’t “be in the pickleball business.” I disagree. If what he says is true, then all the public tennis courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, and skate parks should all removed and turned into something else since the government should not be in the tennis, baseball, soccer or skating business. Right?

Number of days on a court: 829
Number of total hours: 3,228
Number of paid coaching hours: 150.5

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