Sunday, February 22, 2026 (Court Day #903)

Last night, Mauricio Cuervo texted a small group of people asking for a fourth to join him, Mike Sullivan, and young Ben David the young lefty at 8 a.m. at Brommer. I replied saying that I was in. A few minutes later Mauricio asked if we wanted to play with an hour reservation at Brommer Park or have a two hour reservation at Willowbrook in Aptos. For me, there was no question. Aside from being closer to my house, the level of play is higher at Brommer. If I went to Willowbrook, I’d have to turn around and drive to Brommer once our time was done. In any case, we settled on an our reservation at Brommer.

For whatever reason, I woke up shortly after 4 a.m. and wasn’t able to go back to sleep for over an hour. If I hadn’t set my alarm, I’m most definitely would’ve slept in and been late or even completely missed out on our reservation this morning!

I left my house at 7:45 a.m. While it was sunny with only traces of clouds, it was a very chilly 46°F.

Brommer Park

When I arrived at 7:57 a.m., the parking lot was emptiest that I’ve seen it on a Sunday morning. Of course, it’s a rarity that I’m there before 9 a.m.!

Ben was there when I arrived but Mike and Mauricio were nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t too long before they were both there, however. I got in about 10 minutes of warm-up against Ben before our first game.

Game 1

Ben teamed up with Mauricio and I teamed up with Mike.

It was a close first game with Mike and I pulling off an 11-9 win. At the time, I felt like they were targeting my partner, but maybe not.

Game 2

In the second game, we rotated partners and I paired with Ben. We were half stacking, that is, only stacking while we were serving. For some reason, I was having a harder time than typical to adjusting to playing a lefty (Ben). Communication is super important when you have two forehands vying for the ball in the middle. Ben and I are the strongest players so I was expecting us to cruise in this game, however, we quickly found ourselves down 0–6!

But once we got things dialed in—mostly me coordinating with Ben—we went on 11-1 point run, winning 11–7.

Game 3

Mauricio and I teamed up for the third game.

We lost 7-11.

Game 4

Having gone through the full rotation once, Mike and I played together a second time.

We lost 6-11.

Game 5

Ben and I teamed up again.

A surprise to me, we lost 5-11.

Game 6

Ben and I played together again and this time we won 11-8.

Game 7 (Though the video says ‘Game 6’)

Before the game started, Mauricio suggested we switch sides at 6, and we agreed. Ben and I played together again, third game in a row, and we won 11-5.

Game 8
Mike and I lost 3-11. 

Game 9
Mike and I won 11-3. That’s quite the point swing from the previous game!

Game 10
Mauricio and I lost 8-11 after leading 8-4.

By then it was 11:30 a.m. and Mauricio had told his wife that he’d be home by then. 

At the end of the session, Mike S. told Ben he won the fast hands for the day. I mock complained that Ben said I had the fastest hands. To be precise, earlier, Ben said something to the effect of he’d never learn and he shouldn’t speed up on me.

In one of the games, Mike was standing very close to the middle of court when I was serving. I served a curved serve at Mike but he jumped out of the way but my ball—as intended—landed in. As Ben returned it, he announced to Mike that the serve had landed in. After the rally was over, Ben told me, “I thought you were going for a nasty Nelson, but in the ball curved and landed in!” Well, if Mike hadn’t moved, I would have tagged him with the ball!

Ben—who was playing very well—won 7 games, I won 5, and Mike and Mauricio both won 4 each.

Games with Others

Anthony had arrived and was sitting on the wall waiting to get into a game. I asked him if he wanted to take on the winners, and he said that he would.

There was a visitor today, a lefty named Mike who said that he grew up here and went to Santa Cruz High School—he graduated a year after I did, though I went to a different local high school. Work took him to Chicago where he lives now, but he still has parents and a sibling here in the area.

Rather than me playing with Anthony, Mike and I played against Anthony and Ashley. Ashley is over 6 foot and is a very skilled player.

Most of the local lefties—if they stack at all—tend to do half-stacking, that is, only stacking when we are serving and not when we were receiving. Mike wanted to do full stacking, and while I knew exactly what to do, it was still messing with my head a little bit. I ended up missing two or three of my serves. Anthony played really well and Ashley played even better. Mike and I lost and it was not a close game.

Michael and John

Our opponents moved off to greener pastures and we ended up playing against Michael and John. Michael is a short and lefty who is extremely talkative. John is the tall, thin tennis player who appears at Brommer now and then. Michael is an easy one to underestimate. He will mess up certain shots that you would expect to him to get back but then if you are goaded into a sense of security, he’ll rip some balls back that you don’t expect him to get.

The first game was very close and honestly, I can’t remember if we won or lost.

We switched sides and played again. This would be my last game of the day. My partner Mike was not playing his best in this one. He’s a little bit of a banger and a little bit lacking on his soft game. I made some errors in that last game, but for every one I made, Mike made two. As I said, he wasn’t playing his best.

I left shortly after 12:30 p.m. It was in the mid-60s and a beautiful day.

Major Pro Upset!

Top mixed doubles team Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns lost to Anna Bright and Hayden Patriquin this weekend. It had been about a year since the last time that Anne Leigh and Ben had lost a match! Nice work by Anna and Hayden!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVEhhUuEtfq

Monday, February 23, 2026 (No Play)

I don’t know how I missed it from October last year, but DUPR has players registered with its rating system in 175 countries!
https://www.dupr.com/post/national-sports-day-data-reveals-how-pickleball-is-taking-over-america

Of course, one could ask how many of those players moved to the USA or frequently come to countries with a lot of pickleball where having a DUPR rating would make sense.

Number of days on a court: 903
Number of total hours: 3,393
Number of paid coaching hours: 197.5

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