Sunday, June 21, 2026 (Court Day #938)
My son Nicholas drove down from Santa Clara last night, I’m assuming for Father’s Day weekend. He and my wife and I went out to dinner last night to Rosie McCann’s, the local Irish pub, where they were all decked out in honor of World Cup soccer. A game between two obscure foreign countries was plastered over all the screens. In the end, one team was very unhappy and the other one was delighted that the score had ended up 0-0. One team was from a tiny island country off of Venezuela and I imagine them tying the game was a major upset in their favor!
I asked Nicholas if you would like to play pickleball in the morning and he said that he would and, in fact, he brought his pickleball bag. Nicholas has been taking tennis lessons the last few months, we would see how that affects his pickleball game.
Derby Park
We arrived at Derby Park at 9:30 a.m. It was foggy and cool, though it got sunny later.
Everyone was still signing up in the court boxes in just black pen since it was it wouldn’t be mixed skill until 10 a.m. The waits were short when we signed up and there is only one group waiting to get on ahead of us.
Games
First game with Nicholas would be against Patrick and Jens. We were all arriving and so none of us had played. We warmed up a little bit then got into our game. Nicholas and I found ourselves down 2-9 versus Jens and Patrick, but we came back and won 13-11.
Today, I felt like I’m still a little bit rusty getting back to playing right-handed after playing lefty for a few weeks to keep tennis elbow at bay.
In our next game, Nicholas and I won the 11-1 versus Allan and Jens.
For the next game, the pendulum swung. We lost 0-11 against Sean Lynch and Stuart Howell. Sean, of course, is a strong player and Stuart, while not a spring chicken, is solid. Sean is better than I am and Stuart is better than Nicholas.
Splitting Up
For the next game, Nicholas and I split up into signing up in different skill levels. When I told Sean, he said, “Brutal!” Yes, I dropped my own son as my partner for a game. Ha! Sorry, Nicholas.
I was signed up in a box with Sean and Stuart again and Jeff (Scott’s brother) would be our fourth.
When we walked on, Sean asked me if I wanted to team up and show them? I was tempted but I opted to split us up for more of a challenge.
Jeff and I lost 6-11 versus Sean and Stuart. This was Jeff’s first game of the day and it was a bit rough. Midway through the game, he was a bit mad at himself, “I have to stop doing that! That’s the fourth time I’ve hit that into the net!“ Jeff was driving backhands that were too low. The good news is, he hit a backhand passing shot not too long after that for a winner. So there was some redemption for him!
Time to Go
Nicholas’ last game ended a few minutes before our game ended. We checked the time. 11:30 a.m. Nicholas wanted time to go by a bike store and purchase a new bike helmet. I needed to get home, have lunch, and then get out to teach my classes. There is a bike shop a few blocks away from the park and he made a successful selection there. His main takeaway? “Don’t buy a bike helmet at REI.” (Apparently, theirs are lower rated helmets and inventory can be old and bike helmets have a self-life…though I wonder how much of that is propagated by helmet manufacturers!)
Nicholas shared that his recent tennis lessons didn’t negatively affect his pickleball play, so he was happy about that.
Teaching
What’s funny, is my students this afternoon were complaining about it being hot. It was only 72°F! Of course, it’s always warmer in direct sunlight and moving around on a hot court surface, but I was out teaching last year and it was over 100°F. This was very pleasant in comparison!
Number of days on a court: 938
Number of total hours: 3,481
Number of paid coaching hours: 218.5
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