Thursday, August 21, 2025 (Court Day #843)
An unusual thing lately, I had two highly-experienced employees at work to cover in my absence, so I left work about 5:40 p.m. and headed to Derby Park. The key was that the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club (SCPC) was hosting a “Advanced” training from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. What does that mean? That meant that they were going to be a bunch of good players at Derby Park who might want to stick around and play some games after the session was over!
It was still sunny and then the high 70s… warm!
Derby Park
When I arrived, they were still running the clinic, which was not a surprise. There were four or five people milling about outside the courts waiting get in and play at 6 p.m. I went in and talked to Val—a fellow SCPC board member—for a minute.
Val shared with me that there were four no-shows and that it was a disappointment because she had people on the waiting list who would’ve come.
A woman in the outside group that had been waiting came through the gate and loudly announced that it was 6 o’clock and that they were taking a court. Val pointed that group towards an empty court on the far end.
A few minutes later, I started scoping out people who wanted to stick around and play a game.
Games
I went about trying to get into a game and found myself playing with Tom Sherwood against tall lefty Glenn and a woman that I don’t know. I went to the game with exactly zero warm-up. Even with that, I was obviously outperforming Tom because our opponents were picking on him. After we lost the game and Tom said he was tired and wanted to leave.
The next game, I was partnered with Fahad U., a new player, against Mark Dettle and that same woman. It was a close back-and-forth game. My partner is a mix of really good shots and really bad shots… expected for a new player with some racquet background.
Scott, Mark, Mark
After that game, Mark D. and I played against Mark G. and Scott Anderson. We ended up playing three games. We lost the first, won the second, and lost the third.
Scott hit a crosscourt shot from my left off the court to my right. I had the ATP but Mark had shifted over but Scott hadn’t. So I changed my strategy and instead hit a winner down the middle in the gap.
It’s kind of funny when Scott would return my serve into the net. He would tell me how many times it happened. “That’s three serves, Andrew!”
I played a game with a young woman named Brittany—who I learned had graduated UCSC in 2017—against Conner McNicholas and his dad, Jim. They were taking a little bit easy on my partner and making an effort to hit more shots to me.
For the next game, Jim sat down and I teamed up with Brittany against Conner and Brittany’s friend Anya.
After that, Conner and his dad returned to drilling and I called it day.
Local Pickleball Noise In the News
Ok, not exactly super local, but about 25 minutes north in Los Gatos:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNoP4JsyZq2/
Saturday, August 23, 2025 (No Play)
Here’s what a super hard drive from midcourt looks like:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMyNFscvkOC/
Number of days on a court: 843
Number of total hours: 3,258.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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