Ark Valley News - Out of the office

Out of the office
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: August 23, 2018

A good reason to miss

I missed a local sports milestone during the weekend.

The annual fall sports team photo day is like no other day of the year for Valley Center High School sports. It was Saturday, and I was out of town. Good friend and photographer Mike Hogan handled things for us.

It was the first time I've missed fall photo day since 2006.

The day is unique. It's filled with anticipation for another year of sports and school. It's kind of organized chaos as hundreds of students in uniforms get lined up in groups for pictures.

It culminates with the football team pictures in the District Stadium.

For the past several years, the day ended with a community BBQ. I missed that for the first time in a while as well.

My son, his friend and a couple of friends of mine were involved in a different sport during the weekend. We drove to Cincinnati, Ohio, to watch the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament. It's one of a handful of big hard-court tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open in New York City.

The tournament draws all of the top players, and it's the closest big tournament for us on the ATP Tour. Unfortunately, it's a 12-hour drive.

But we were up for it.

Leaving at 5 a.m., we drove straight through last Thursday. After checking into the house we rented, we searched for a lighted tennis court to play on.

Our first set of tickets was for Friday's action, and we worried that the rainy weather would mess things up. Just the opposite. After a 30-minute downpour, the storm passed and it didn't rain the rest of the day. Thursday's rain forced most of the players (as long as they were winning) to play two matches on Friday.

There were matches everywhere. The complex has a center court, a grandstand, a couple of stadium courts and a bunch of small courts.

We had choices.

We watched matches involving some of the top players, including the world's No. 1 woman and at least six of the world's Top 10 men. Crazy good tennis.

One of our favorites was the quarterfinal matchup between Juan Martin del Potro and the fiery Nick Kyrgios. It had all the fireworks you'd expect from a Kyrgios match — yelling at the umpire, hitting a ball out of the stands in frustration, tanking points, 138-mph second serves on set point, some real juvenile (and entertaining) stuff.

We spent Saturday playing tennis at a nearby complex

On championship Sunday, we returned to the Western & Southern to watch the men's doubles title match in the grandstand and the men's and women's singles finals on center court.

The higher seeds in both singles matches were upset, including a straight-set loss by Roger Federer, the No. 2 player in the world.

For a tennis fan, it was an unbelievable experience.

We drove home Monday, stopping for some Kansas City BBQ, which may not have been as good as Ben Anderson was serving at the community BBQ in Lions Park. I've had that a few times.

Chris Strunk is publisher of The Ark Valley News. Reach him at 755-0821 or news@arkvalleynews.com, or find him on Facebook.