Jaguar Leadership Corps held their annual pickleball tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the school in order to raise money for the Mill Valley Cares Fund, which goes towards buying things like food or hygiene products for students in need. The tournament ended up raising $2000 for the fund.
Senior Landon Vincent is a part of the Community Outreach committee in JLC, which took the main role in planning the pickleball tournament. This year, the committee changed the tournament to start with pool play, then move into bracket play.
“The hardest part was probably [making] the bracket,” Vincent said. “It’s hard figuring that out beforehand, but it ended up working a lot better than last year.”
Vincent and his partner, senior Noah Kim, practiced hard before the tournament to prepare.
“Me and Noah went to the [Lenexa Rec Center] and we played with some old people,” Vincent said. “[While we played], we ended up building chemistry together.”
The winners of the tournament, juniors Gage Horn and Jackson Doll, were tennis partners who decided to compete in the tournament together. Unlike Kim and Vincent, Horn and Doll did not do a lot of training for the competition.
“We didn’t really prepare [for the tournament],” Doll said. “I don’t even have my own paddle. We showed up, played, then won.”
Even though they won, the pair still faced difficulty doing so.
“The most challenging part about the tournament was the games and each opponent having a different playing style.” Horn said via text.
Horn and Doll made it to the finals against Kim and Vincent, winning with a final score of 11-6.
“In the beginning, I thought we had a chance to win,” Horn said. “When we won, I was very happy and excited because I feel like we both played really well.”
