Matt and Renee fear no opponent; bravely take on Lori and Scott Olympians,
We're in the dog days of summer,
or monsoon season here in Arizona, but heat be darned, the sporting
action is on the upswing. After a few quiet months, long term
tournamentS! are getting underway and we have another new tournament on the horizon. Most importantly, anyone can still sign up for the pickleball tournaments if they'd like. It doesn't matter where you live!
Table of Contents:
1. Ongoing report on Pickleball Singles
2. Invitation / Ongoing report to Pickleball Doubles
3. Invitation to Badminton Doubles
4. Call for Sporting Stories
Ongoing - Pickleball II: Singles
Our original long term tournament got going in July at
Trane Park in La Crosse under cloudy skies and fair temperatures before
the crucible of competition turned it into a clear and sweltering day.
Lori Nigon, Artski and Jennifer Sexauer, Ryan Sneath, and even
Commissioner Gustave Sexauer were in attendance. Also, Jeff who helped us warm up. The Midwest
play began with A. Sexauer taking on L. Nigon, with it being the
former's first ever game of pickleball. Drawing heavily from a reserve
of beginner's luck, and more likely his half a century of sparring on the
tennis court, the "Prince" of racket sports claimed the first victory,
beating L. Nigon 11 - 6. A. Sexauer went onto win the match two games to
zero.
Rolling in
on a bicycle half a century old, blond hair waving in the breeze a foot
or more beyond his helmet, Sneath arrived. Claiming he just plays
pickleball a "little bit", the gloves came off and Sneath
swatted his wooden paddle like a hot knife through butter besting J. Sexauer 11 -2 in game one and holding on as Sexauer
attempted to force a third game with an 11 - 9 loss in game two. With
youth on his side, Sneath gored the rest of his far older competition
like a bison restoring the pecking order. See the replay video on YouTube:
Sneath Pickleball Takedown Replay.
The
"Prince" found himself on his back foot against Sneath and was shut out
11 - 0 in game one. So much for that beginner's luck. L. Nigon fared a point better in her opener, but
Sneath ended up taking both matches and won the group outright with
three double-yous. With a few games yet to be played, the group's runner
up has yet to be determined, and this person may advance to the bracket
alongside Sneath depending on how the other groups shake out.
If anyone needs help getting equipment or setting up their group stage games, please reach out to Gustave!
Ongoing - Pickleball I: Doubles
Resulting from some confusion in Pickleball Singles, and a
love by it seems all regular picklers for playing doubles, we've
expanded our pickleball tournament offerings to include a doubles
tournament in no particular place with no end date.
If you want to join
the tournament, get a partner and let Gustave know! The format is a
double elimination round robin, with matches played to the best of three
games, games played to 11 win by 2. If you don't have a partner, we'll try and find you one (Gustave needs one, too!).
Let's
turn this over to Renee Nigon for a recap on the first match of this
doubles tournament, played in Minnesota's own Twin Cities:
"Cheap(ish) tickets, a desire for cheese curds, and time with family
& friends created the perfect circumstances for the Northern
Group’s Pickleball game.
Matt & Renee flew in
from Idaho, changing their tickets to an earlier time when they realized
they could fit in time to pickle. At 2 am on the drive to the airport, Renee
read the official Pickleball rules to Matt, explaining serving and the
kitchen. Luke & Liza picked up their pickleball competition and
after a bagel, the athletes headed straight for the courts. Luckily,
Luke & Liza had two extra Activator paddles for Matt & Renee,
which turns out are the low end of the paddle game. Unfortunately, the
scores can't be blamed on the paddles and may have more to do with the
fact that Luke & Liza have been playing in a pickleball league for
two seasons. The games were filled with excitement and a few out balls
that were played in to try and help Matt & Renee. Luke & Liza even gave Renee
& Matt their Neutron and Gear Box high end, classy paddles to use.
In the end, the North Idaho duo had their butts kicked by the
Minneapolis, MN duo.
Game 1: 4-11
Game 2: 5-11
Game 3: 6-11
Three non tournament games followed where Liza & Renee
thought they could take down Matt & Luke. Luckily, these games
aren't part of the tournament and the writer of this article has
forgotten those scores.
This one day of
pickleball made Matt hungry for more. In La Crosse, more non tournament
games were held at the new All Abilities Trane Park. With borrowed
paddles from Jennifer and Artski, Lori, Scott, Matt, Renee,
and Matt's mom took to the courts. Tom Nigon graciously (and quickly)
turned down the invite to play. It turns out that Lori truly can pickle
and holds her own. Lori and Scott beat Renee & Matt twice, but in much closer games than in Minneapolis.
As Matt & Renee's skills improve, they look forward to competing against the Minneapolis duo of Liza & Luke again."
Coming Up - Badminton IV: Doubles II
This October, we bring the action to Tuba City with a badminton
tournament timed to match a visit from an Our Olympics stalwart: Greg
Nigon and his fierce partner in birdies, Kate Nigon. Anyone who wants to play badminton doubles
at random times October 5th - 10th in Tuba City, please reach out to
Gustave.
Honorable Mentions
For nerds of Our Games, we're changing a bit of the back end
classification of Our Events to sort which are Official, Participation,
Demonstration, or Honorable Mentions. Go to Our List of Events Page if you want to
know more. More to the point, if you would like to share a story or the
results of a time you participated in a sporting event outside of Our
Olympics, we'd be glad to add them to the site as an Honorable Mention
event and share the story in a future blog post! Any sporting event is
fair game. The goal of Our Olympics is to participate in every Olympic
sport, so we want to encourage all athletes involved to keep trying new
activities and share how they are getting after it!
What's Next?
You make the call!
Our Olympics Website
Until next time,
-Gustave
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