Monday, January 12, 2026 (Court Day #890)
Today is our monthly board meeting for the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club, however, today is a little bit special and that’s the official Annual General Meeting where we will be voting on officers and bylaws plus briefing the entire membership on what’s going on with the club. Of course, we email out news to members on a regular basis, but this is a chance for live feedback back-and-forth.
Since the club currently has no secretary, and that was a role I was filling before, I jumped back into that role when the last one quit unexpectedly. That means I’m responsible for getting the agenda together for the meeting. I was so busy with the first day of pickleball classes yesterday that I didn’t even think to prep the agenda. My life has been very busy lately. I did get the agenda done and printed out, took the dog for a walk, then headed for Brommer.
It was 55°F and a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.
Brommer Park
Between club play and free pizza for those who RSVP-ed for the AGM, I was expecting parking to be a fiasco. But when I arrived at 10:20 a.m., someone drove off just as I arrived, so I was able to grab that parking spot. I was very thankful!
My first game, without hardly any warm-up, was a meat grinder against Dave Ryan and Mo. Mo, I can handle, but going up against a warmed-up Dave in my first game with little warm up on my part was a recipe for disaster. I was teamed up with River and River was not playing his best game either. He hit a few shots wide, some long, some to the net. His very first hit was a return of serve that was out giving our opponents a point. My own play was far from stellar and we got toasted in this game.
Kitchen Fault
During a game later, on a court next to ours, I noticed that during a rally, a guy (whom I didn’t know) pushed off from his foot just inside the kitchen to volley a lob over his head. A fault. No one called it. I didn’t say anything. Peanut gallery calls are not allowed nor did I feel like going through the work of telling him later.
Last Game
For last game of the day, I teamed up with Dave Cox against tall lefty Greg and JP—not the most balanced combination, but Dave wanted to play with me. Before the game started, Dave suggested that we have the strategy of intentionally hitting every shot to our opponents’ backhands and also not speeding up any shots that are below the net. The idea was to get really easily into a soft game, but also make our opponents uncomfortable. It was an interesting game dynamic. Dave and I won big, 11-3, as would probably be expected.
Once we were done tapping paddles, I immediately jogged to the far end of the courts to get my backpack and get over to the picnic area for the AGM. The AGM went fine. A few people snuck over and ate pizza then left instead of staying for the meeting. The exchange was ‘we feed you, you stay and participate in the meeting’, not ‘let’s provide pizza to people who can just go home and eat!’
New Pro Sponsorship
It was announced today that Anna Leigh Waters has signed with Nike. So, she’s now sponsored by Franklin and Nike. I’m not a fan of Nike and haven’t purchased any Nike products for a very long time and still won’t. I’ve seen too many instances of ‘profits over principles’ with them.
Number of days on a court: 890
Number of total hours: 3,363.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 188.5
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