Jenny and I celebrated Valentine’s Day as well as her 28th birthday! Happy Birthday Jenny! We went home to Wisconsin and had a great family dinner (missing Murray 😢)! The very next day, Jenny had her bridal shower. Now we have no more wedding-related activities until the actual wedding itself on March 30!
I only had one tournament since the last newsletter, but it’s been a wild couple of weeks! I headed back to Arizona for the first progression draw of the year for me. Progression draws are where teams play one match per day until the tournament is concluded. Alli Philips and I partnered up for the first time in mixed, and unfortunately we lost, but she’s definitely a player to watch out for. Christian and I lost in 3 games to a good Arizona based team of Augie Ge and Craig Johnson.
To cope with a rough weekend, what could be better than puppy yoga?! And that’s exactly what we did! We also escaped the Gold Mine! The following weekend I headed to Orlando for a Solar Bears (What a cool name!) hockey game. The Solar Bears are owned by the same people that own the Orlando Squeeze, so they invited us there for pickleball night. Anna, Rachel, Andrei, and I signed autographs for an hour straight. It was crazy to see how many Squeeze fans attended the meet and greet! Hockey is wild. There were at least 5 fist fights during the game. Should pickleball embrace this?! 🤣
As promised, my new series, Pros vs 5.0s, has debuted on my YouTube channel! This is where 5.0s will have some sort of an advantage over the pros, all playing for a $500 pot. I appreciate all your comments and feedback so far! I’m having a blast making these videos, so the more ideas you send me the better!
Huge shout out to my partner Lobster for making the first Pros vs 5.0s video possible! Use code ZANE5 for 5% off any pickleball machine and accessories!
Next week I’ll be welcoming my fellow ProXR pros who are coming to play the PPA Austin Open! We plan to have some fun getting to know each other while we film content for Team ProXR. If you’re planning to play the tournament with us and are in need of new equipment, checkout my shop!
I’m very excited to share that Game+ Network and I recently announced our new partnership! Game+ is a subsidiary of global multi-platform media company Anthem Sports & Entertainment Inc. and is the official home of Major League Pickleball in Canada. I’m looking forward to spending time with my friends up north again later this year!
Join Thomas Shields, me and our very special guests each week as we get their hot takes on the latest happenings in pickleball! Our latest Picklepod episodes are linked here for you:
If you’re in Austin for this year’s SXSW Festival, come check out this all-day event hosted by Eastside Paddle Club and MLP Texas Ranchers. I will be part of the panel of speakers including other athletes, executives, brands and thought leaders invested in the sport of pickleball.
Brian Lim, of Building Pickbleball, invited me for an in-depth interview where we discuss my pickleball journey, career goals, daily routines, and more. Link to our conversation here:
At long last, we have a closed merger agreement between PPA and MLP! 🙌
I for one, am massively relieved for this milestone to pass and get all focus back to the game itself!
