I told my staff yesterday afternoon that I was going to take the morning off today. It was overcast and 63°F when I arrived at Brommer Park. There was a breeze, but it was quite light, so just about perfect pickleball weather.
When I pulled in at 9:26 a.m., there were that half a dozen parking spots, so parking was easy. The courts were hopping.
There was a new guy named Tristan visiting from Colorado. We get distant visitors now and then. Often visiting family. I have no idea why Tristan was in town.
Eric, Mauricio, Jordan
I played with a hispanic guy, Eric (I’d never met him before) and we beat Mauricio and Jordan 11-2. It was their first game.
We played a rubber match and Eric and I lost 7-11.
And we lost the next game at 8–11.
They were close back-and-forth games. Jordan was playing very well.
Dieter, Shawnte, Katy
I got into a game with Dieter—after Eric had to leave—against Shawnte and Katy. We lost the first game in lopsided fashion. I think we were down 7–1 then came back to make it more of a game. But we still lost.
We won the second game and then the four of us decided to play one more.
Dieter and I lost the last/third game 9–11. That game was very much a close one with lots of service switches. I was intentionally trying to hit most of my shots with Shawnte.
It was a great morning. But the exception of the first game, all the games were challenging and fun. And I was playing reasonably well.
I left at 12:15 p.m. Home, eat, shower, then to work.
Number of days on a court: 693 Number of total hours: 2,905 Number of paid coaching hours: 55.5
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The PPR sent out an email today announcing a “Level 2” certification for coaches: “The Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR) is excited to announce the launch of its new Level 2 certification program, set to begin on September 1st. This advanced course will offer two days of comprehensive on-court training designed to elevate coaching expertise.” Now, I have to decide to continue to plan to jump ship and get PCI sponsorship instead, or stick with PPR. Decisions, decisions.
Another Famous Actor and Pickleball
Comedic actor Vince Vaughn has purchased a majority stake in a pro pickleball team, the Coachella Valley Scorpions, which was launched in May.
I left one of my staff to close and left work at 5:34 p.m. It was toasty, with my car reading 75°F on my car thermometer.
As I drove into Scotts Valley proper, my car thermometer read 81°F. Scotts Valley—at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains—generally has slightly more extremes in temperature compared to Santa Cruz which is next to the beach. They’re only several miles apart, but it’s amazing how much difference the geography makes.
Skypark
As I arrived at Skypark, there was a dark sedan pulling in and taking a spot just vacated by a truck. With no spot left for me, I found a spot to park halfway down the block. When I walked in, I noticed Jessie was unpacking her dark sedan along with Fabrizio. It turned out that she was throwing a party for Marco, whose birthday was last week. She brought a big spread of Carne Asada, guacamole, various taco fixings, along with margarita mix and beers and soda and chips… wow. She also brought along folding table to place everything upon—not that everything fit on it! It was very generous of her. I’m glad she got the parking spot!
The white dry-erase board proved to be unneeded tonight. It was a pretty light crowd for whatever reason. Too bad, they missed out on all the food!
Unexpected Faces
Surprisingly, Allan Kass was there for a short time. I had never seen him a Skypark before. I overhead him asked if the spread of food was normal. (Not!) Tristan was there sporting a University of Texas Longhorns baseball cap. Apparently, he is home for the summer.
Mark Dettle and I got into a game against Tristan and Allan. I played really well in that game, I had nothing to be embarrassed about. Tristan has very speedy serves, but I returned all of them, even the one he whipped right down the center line. I told him that was a tough serve to return. He replied, “That was as hard as they’ll get!” It was the back-and-forth game and I believe Mark and I lost a close one, not that Tristan was bringing his full intensity to this game.
Connor McNicholas and I played a few games against Spencer and Mo. Spencer, of course, is a very strong player. Good games.
There was a tall Indian fellow named Ashly, whom I’d never met. He made a comment about the strong group of players being very serious and not all that much fun to play with. Ashly is a pretty good player, 4.0+, I’d bet.
Last Game
Mo and I played a game against Conner and Spencer. The lights went out a few minutes into our game, but we decided to finish it. And we got completely smoked in that game. If it wasn’t the end of the session and not getting dark, I might’ve been embarrassed with an 0–11 loss. Still ouch.
Darkness
After the lights were out, I asked Spencer where he and Diego had won their silver metal. he said they had won it at a tournament in San Francisco. He said that he does not recommend the tournament. He said they rolled out some kind of surface, which turned out to be a bit lumpy, and also provided some very disinterested people who knew very little about pickleball to watch for kitchen violations. He said these people tended to not pay attention and didn’t call any kitchen faults. It seemed a waste. Spencer also says the ball would sometimes land on that odd surface with simply die.
I partially helped take down a temporary net then hung out for a while and also helped take some of the leftovers to Jessie’s car.
It was about 9:25 p.m. when I finally left.
Leftovers. Ashly’s food and cup and my stack on the right with some beans in the tin.
Fun night.
Number of days on a court: 692 Number of total hours: 2,902.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 55.5
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Yesterday, USA Pickleball filed a motion to dismiss Joola’s lawsuit against them. Here is a link to the motion to dismiss document: https://jumpshare.com/s/qB4PAFjsB628xUSFWVgl
Here’s some key information:
This case involves three sets of paddles submitted by Plaintiff Sport Squad, Inc. (“Sport Squad”): (1) two prototype (or “base”) paddles approved by USAP; (2) nine inadvertently submitted paddles approved by USAP, but never sold to the public; and (3) nine unsubmitted paddles never approved by USAP but sold to the public by Sport Squad. Specifically, by its own admission, Sport Squad sent the “wrong” pickleball paddles to USAP in November 2023 for evaluation. Compl. ¶¶ 6, 60-61. USAP approved those paddles by mid-December. Then, by another judicially admitted “error,” Sport Squad began to manufacture different paddles in late December. Although USAP had not approved the mass-produced paddles, Sport Squad stamped them as “USA Pickleball Approved,” distributed them to sponsored players for tournaments in early 2024, and publicly released them in April 2024. When Sport Squad disclosed its error to USAP in May 2024, USAP naturally informed Sport Squad that unapproved paddles could not be sold to the public with a “USA Pickleball Approved” logo. Instead, the paddles had to be submitted to USAP, like any other paddle, before displaying that representation. Earlier this year, USAP updated its surface roughness standards for paddles. By the time Sport Squad realized its error, the updated rule was in effect, and the unapproved paddles failed that standard.
I left work early and arrived at Skypark at 5:33 p.m. Kristin Long was driving in right behind me through the neighborhood and Francis was later parking—in the tiny spot that I passed on and looped by—as I walked in.
There are open courts when you come early!
Kristin asked if I’d help her set up a net (in the last open spot) and I did.
Games
My first game was with Kristin against two players I don’t know but are not strangers. We came back from a 5 point deficit to win.
Mike C. and I played three games against Marco and Tiffany. We won all three. Tiffany has gotten so much better over the last few years.
Between games, Mike and I were talking and it came up but I’ve been playing for over seven years. And Mike said, “No wonder you can make such good shots.” I kind of shrugged it off and told him, “I should be much better than I am by this point.” And he said, “You’re really good player.” When the next game started, I was playing was pretty well, but then I missed my second shot and that ended the rally. I turned to Mike and told him, “See? Remember that the next time you say that I that I am a really good player!”
My brother John had told me a story a few days ago about he had played at Skypark and after the game was over, his opponent said that he is a good player. Everything is relative! I still very much consider my brother John a newbie. Consider that on Sunday afternoon after my classes, I had beaten him and another player while I was playing left-handed. John can definitely get around the court pretty quickly and has quick reflexes as well, but has work to do an execution, shots, selection, court positioning, among other things. But he may be a 3.0 player at this point.
Towards the end of the last game, between points, I asked Marco what time it was. He said, “7:30.” I told them that this would be my last game because I had to get to the airport.
I got off the court and checked the time: 7:38 p.m. Aidan, my daughter’s boyfriend, texted that his flight was delayed 15 minutes, and that worked out quite nicely as this would put me there just about perfectly on time.
Andrew McLeod, the SCCP Venue Coordinator, who is also on the board of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club with me, picked my replacement for Derby Park. That replacement site coordinator will be Brian Hackett. Brian is generally a nice guy, I’m sure he’ll do fine. After nearly 7 years as the Sunday morning site coordinator for Derby Park, I will be happy to have flexibility back in my life on my only day off from work. That’s not to say I didn’t have any flexibility—sometimes back-up coordinators would fill in for me when needed—but now I have complete freedom with no obligations, other than to send out cancellation notices when the winter season arrives, though that decision to cancel or not cancel will not be on my shoulders.
Number of days on a court: 691 Number of total hours: 2,899.5 Number of paid coaching hours: 55.5
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