NPL Draft Day

I had planned a trip to Washington, D.C. a few months earlier (even if I didn’t book my flight until very recently) because my younger brother was going to take on a magnificent challenge: a race that required him to run 50 miles. He asked all of us to come support him so we planned a family outing at his house.

Little did I know I would have the success I had at the Combine, that there would be a draft party, and that winning the Combine would mean an invite to a draft party. I got my invitation by email and learned it fell on the day before my brother’s race. The invite also said the attire was “smart casual” and I thought hard and long about whether or not the 2 types of outfits I own, pajamas and pickleball clothes, would somehow fit into that category. I also wondered if missing the event would somehow be detrimental to getting selected by a specific team but I counted on having previous plans as an acceptable out. I declined with an explanation and felt relief that I didn’t have to go shopping for the elusive smart casual outfit.

For the D.C. trip I made sure my travel plans allowed me to arrive with time to watch the draft unfold online. I didn’t know what to expect. Like most people, I relied on what I knew about drafts from other sports: podiums with people speaking, athletes with funny outfits, views of old men wearing readers to evaluate clipboards and notebooks for the next best pick. How in the world were the 6 teams going to draft 96 players in 3 hours? Based on the speeches we got at the Combine, I wasn’t sure they’d get through 3 hours of speeches before anyone was drafted.

So I knew very little, except that I could watch Instagram for the picks. I loaded up the computer at 4 p.m. and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally a message came through saying the first pick would be at 4:45. At close to 5 another message came through saying we could watch a Facebook live stream of the draft that one of the guys there graciously decided to do.

Apparently there was a dinner before the draft started so even when he began the stream it was still a significant amount of time before a team was announced. There were people at a podium and picks were shared. I didn’t notice any funny outfits but there is no way in the whole wide world I would have picked a proper smart casual outfit, based on what the ladies there were wearing (dresses!). They took pictures and did interviews (more speeches) and moved on to the next team.

Because an entire team was announced at once it was clear this draft had already taken place. It wasn’t in-the-moment. I had no idea what team I was going to be on and trying to decipher who was on what team quickly was tough to do. People had asked me prior to the draft if I had a preference on a team. I answered honestly. I didn’t have a preference on the team but I absolutely had hopes that I would land on a team with a specific player. Since I didn’t know what team she would be on, I didn’t know what team I wanted. I think most people understood what I meant.

I wasn’t picked by the first 4 teams (neither was my desired teammate) and at that point it was pushing 7 p.m. My family was eating dinner and I was tired of watching interviews and photos be taken. I just wanted to know where I would end up. So I left and went to eat with the family.

When I was in college I took a sociology course that included a chapter about sex and sexuality. How exciting for a young lady from the hills of West Virginia! That year happened to be the same year I pledged a sorority and the night I earned my letters happened to fall the night before we would watch, with permission, porn in class. Because I had taken all proper steps and tactics to earn my letters there was a celebration afterwards and it went long into the night. When I arrived at class the next day and they turned off the lights to watch the porn, I immediately fell asleep, missing the ultimate climax of the semester. Well, this was a little bit like that. I went to eat dinner and of course was picked by a team. As I was chowing down on some vegan pad thai I started getting phone calls and texts and declined them all, waiting until we finished eating as a family to find out my new team.

I returned to the computer and learned it was the Austin Ignite that drafted me. There were maybe 3 people on the team at the party. I knew about 6 names on our roster, which did not include my desired teammate, and I had not met any of the team owners when I was at the Combine. I was excited to know where I was going, I watched and rewatched the live stream but at that point I was kind of like, now what?

My family yelled for me to come back upstairs and had a wonderful surprise for me, an ice cream cake with a pickleball announcing me as a pickleball pro, pickle beer and pickle soda. It was the perfect ending to a long, curious day.