Thursday, February 19, 2026 (Court Day #902)
Tonight was a meeting at the Scotts Valley Parks & Rec Commission. The meeting started at 6 p.m. and the primary and only topic of discussion was the Skypark Courts.
After going to the Scotts Valley Community Center by mistake, I arrived at the city council chambers at 6:08 p.m. That large meeting room is attached to the S.V. Police Department building. I parked and found my way to the correct room.
There were four commissioners at the head of the room and on the side of the room were two city staff members one of which was Alison the director of the perks and recreation department. I took a seat behind Mark Dettle, Moe, and Spencer.
Across the center aisle of seating, in the right hand section, was another pickleball player that I recognized, a woman. In my row, to my right, was a man who I can only assume is a neighbor. There were five on our side and four on the other—not a greatly attended event.
Meeting
The meeting opened with time for public comment specifically for any topic that was not already on the agenda. A grumpy gentleman got up and started complaining about pickleball. He spoke about 30 seconds before the committee chairman stopped him and reminded him that this time was for items not on the agenda. So instead, the man launched into a rant about how some park construction required multiple bids, but that only one had been received which he said was in violation of the law. He demanded emails and texts related to the construction of the park. Then he went on saying that the playground material used under foot was toxic and banned in certain cities of which he rattled off a few. He was a bit intense but quietly sat down when he was told that his three minutes were up.
Agenda
With no other speakers, the commission then voted to approve their previous meeting minutes, and then went onto the Skypark courts discussion.
Allison Pfefferkorn, the Parks Division Manager for SV then spoke.
Shared some facts, including:
– Only about 1/3 of players using the Rec.us court reservation system are SV residents;
– Only about 1/3 of students taking classes at Skypark are SV residents.
She shared a petition concerning pickleball complaints was circulated and signed by a total of nine neighbors then presented to the city. The three primary complaints were chronic noise, the impact on parking, and bad driving—including speeding and rolling through stop signs.
Allison talked about things that they had done to try to placate the neighbors, including blocking off, unpaid parking spots, unpaved parking spots. Using the app for reservations. And using police enforcement to give tickets and warnings for illegal parking.
Public Comment
When Allison was done with her short presentation, it was time for public comment. Mark Dettle got up and spoke first on behalf of pickleball. He introduced himself as the club president and agreed that any kind of speeding or rolling through stop signs was unacceptable and the club would do what I can to help stop that.
Skypark regulars Spencer Edwards and Mo Finsthwait also spoke.
Then the neighbor who had spoken at the beginning of the meeting got up and started getting irate and talked about pickleball being torture and started swearing and insulted one of the commissioners then issued what was taken as a threat. Allison walked out of the room on her phone pretty obviously calling for a police officer. This guy was not doing himself any favors. Once he was done, he was asked to leave the meeting and he did.
A tennis player got up and shared that he avoided the tennis courts certain times since it was so busy with pickleball players.
I was the last to speak, representing the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club, USA Pickleball, and P&R instructors contacted with Rec.us system.
Those of us players who spoke emphasized the wide range of ages playing the sport, how the sport benefits the community and social networking, how we want to cooperate and be “good neighbors” of the residents, plus the need for more new courts elsewhere.
The commission directed Allison to inquire about reinforcing the hillside to allow for more parking. And to also inquire about adding sound dampening materials to the fences including making the divider between the pickleball courts and the tennis courts not just waist-high, but full height and adding sound dampening to it.
Skypark Courts
After the meeting, I arrived at Skypark right about 7:30 p.m., pulling into the parking lot behind Spencer and Moe. We didn’t have a fourth so the three of us warmed up and drilled until Jax appeared. I was very happy to see Jax and he and I partnered up.
That first game was pretty close, but Jax and I pulled off a win. I’ll put an asterisk on this one cause I know that Spencer wasn’t in full “win mode”.
Literally half of the courts were empty and there was no one waiting so we switched sides and played a second game. This time, Jax and I lost 10–12.
Spencer told Marquis that he could play in the next game. When Marquis’ own game was done, he came over and sat on the bench at the end court where we were. Unfortunately, for him, it was going to be a long wait. This is a quite long back-and-forth game. In the end, Jax and I won something like 11–7. Our winning point came off of my hard serve that spun sideways off of Spencer’s paddle.
It was now 8:26 p.m. There was only a few minutes before the lights would click off. I told Marquis that I would step out and he could step in. (Really generous, I know! Ha! Four whole minutes!)
I said my goodbyes, walked to the other end of the courts, grabbed my backpack, and headed out. A few feet from my car, there was a pitter-patter of heavy drops of rain starting. I checked my phone, exactly 8:30 p.m. I counted my blessings that I got in almost a full hour of play and the rain held off until just about when the lights go off.
Friday, February 20, 2026 (No Play)
A few days ago, an ad popped up about a new pickleball venture opening in San Jose, about 40 minutes north—Ace Pickleball Club.
Given that The Hub in Los Gatos has been open a couple of years and I’ve never been in it, I doubt I’ll be at the Ace Pickleball Club anytime soon either.
PPA Singles
So, it was fairly recently announced that the PPA was going to experiment with new singles lines which narrow the court. Well, here’s an example play on a court with these new lines:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU_OPi0Deov
Tall or Short?
The Kitchen in a social media post shared a range of the tallest and shortest pro pickleball players:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_7_mGkRs_
[March 7 Note: This account is offline. I asked Jared of The Kitchen today and he says they are trying to get the account back.]
Fun to see!
Limiting Pickleball
Wow! This is pretty rough. From a sign in Montgomery, Ohio:
“BE OFF THE COURTS BY 7 P.M. OR BE SUBJECT TO ARREST”
https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_-wFaEmnt
Funny
This is hilarious! Getting a lot accomplished which normally takes 70 years!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU9G2VQgayP
Saturday, February 21. 2026 (No Play)
It’s hard to criticize pro players. They are the top players in the world for good reason. But when your partner—in this case, far and away the #1 women’s player—is literally standing back and off the side of the court because you came over so much, I question the wisdom. (Sorry, Ben.)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUpHSNVjRFu
[March 7 Note: This account is offline. I asked Jared of The Kitchen today and he says they are trying to get the account back.]
Here’s another longer clip. You can see where Anna Leigh Waters is when Ben Johns hits his team’s final shot of this rally:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1181158190757174/?fs=e&fs=e
Their opponents hit a passing shot to other side of the court that Ben left wide open. Now, I’ve seen pro mixed teams still win rallies with men coming over this much, but there is risk involved.
Pickleball Doping and the Olympics
I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention this previously. The Global Pickleball Federation is taking steps to meet all the criteria to allow pickleball to join the Olympics. One of these steps is drug testing. The GPF made an announcement about 8-10 weeks ago saying they are joining forces with the well-established International Testing Agency (ITA):
Number of days on a court: 902
Number of total hours: 3,388.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 197.5
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