Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball Podcast

What happens when a Dallas pickleball duo suddenly finds themselves wearing St. Louis Shock colors?

This week, we’re unpacking how we became part of the St. Louis Shock's Minor League Pickleball program while still serving as Dallas Flash ambassadors. 

What starts as a “how did we get here?” story quickly turns into something bigger: a look at why pickleball’s next chapter may depend less on superstar pros and more on the amateurs who want a reason to care, a team to cheer for, and a place inside the sport as it grows.

We also recap our first Major League Pickleball weekend in Dallas, where we played our first Minor League Pickleball event, from rally scoring and Dream Breakers to the surprising realization that your teammates' points can feel just as important as your own. 

We’re joined by St. Louis Shock owner Rich Chaffetz, who shares why investing in pickleball means paying attention to the amateur player, and COO Andrew Haines, who walks us through how the Shock is building a nationwide “family” and a player experience that feels bigger than one tournament bracket. We also talk with pro Anna Bright about switching between Professional Pickleball Association play and team-based MLP, plus 13-year-old phenom Elsie Hendershot, the youngest player in MLP, on confidence, competition, and what it’s like to play at that level before most people have mastered parallel parking.

We talk about: 


The real-world differences between PPA, MLP, and MiLP


How MILP gives amateur players a way to belong to something bigger than one tournament bracket


What made the St. Louis Shock’s onboarding, communication, and team culture stand out right away 


Why the Shock care less about having a 5.0 DUPR and more about bringing a “5.0 attitude” to the team


The growing tension between elite competition, young players, and keeping pickleball fun 


Casie’s new pet peeve involving excessive screaming after ordinary points 

Between the matches, interviews, and sideline conversations, this episode reveals why connection and belonging remain at the heart of pickleball, even as the sport becomes bigger, faster, and more professional.

Whether you're trying to make sense of the acronyms or curious about where pickleball is headed next, this conversation offers a front-row seat to the people and ideas shaping the sport's future.

Pour something cold and press play.

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/ONTAP #honeylovepod

Get 15% off OneSkin with the code DINKS at https://www.oneskin.co/DINKS

#oneskinpod

Interested in joining MiLP? Check out The Shock MiLP opportunity here: https://shockmilp.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This spring, DUPR hit pause on your history and asked a simple question: Who are you right now, without all that baggage?

Turns out that's a harder question than it sounds.

We know because Casie did the Reset, knew it didn't count, watched her number drop, and still had to talk herself off the ledge on the way home. So we brought Tito Machado, CEO of DUPR and the man who's spent years trying to convince the pickleball community that a number is just a number, back to Dinks on Tap for a second time, fresh off a DUPR Reset period that generated more player data than anyone anticipated. 

We get into what the Reset actually was, what it wasn't, and why so many people signed up hoping it was a cheat code, plus:


Why "DUPR Reset" was never meant to be a path to a higher pickleball rating, and why everyone heard it that way anyway


The myth that playing up is the fastest way to move your number (the algorithm disagrees)


How DUPR accidentally became a social gatekeeper, and why Tito says that's their fault


Career High, Age Ratings, and DUPR Impact: the new metrics, who loves them, and who's already mad about them


Why DUPR forecast might be the perfect gambling tool (Tito's words, not ours)


The AI + camera integration coming that could finally account for what everyone knows matters most: chemistry


And why, when asked what the Forecast would look like if Tito's team played Casie and Lauren, he bet against himself

Pour something cold and press play, this one's for anyone who's ever refreshed their DUPR after a loss and told themselves it doesn't matter. 

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap

Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/ONTAP #honeylovepod

Connect with Tito Machado:

DUPR

Instagram
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Jay Paterno, son of Penn State coaching legend Joe Paterno, and author of Blitzed: The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era. 

This one is part sports conversation, part cultural temperature check, and we did what we do best: take a sports story and find the human behavior hiding underneath it. Because it turns out that money, pressure, loyalty, ego, and identity do not stay neatly on the football field. They show up everywhere people care deeply about something, including a 20X44 pickleball court with a plastic ball and a surprisingly complicated rulebook.

In this episode we talk about:


The trick Jay uses to tell the truth (and why it lands better when it comes with a little plausible deniability)


The NIL era, and what happens when college football starts operating more like a franchise than a tradition


What the pickleball community should probably get in writing before growth outruns the pickleball culture


Why the most intense person in any pickleball competition is rarely having the most fun


The chaos of a game growing faster than its guardrails and what a pickleball strategy looks like when the rulebook is still being written


The women in Jay's book who keep asking the inconvenient questions


And the question underneath it all: when something you love becomes valuable to everyone else, does it still feel like yours

The pickleball lessons here have nothing to do with your backhand and everything to do with what happens when a sport you love starts growing faster than the values that built it. So whether you're following NIL headlines or just wondering where pickleball goes from here, this episode gives you plenty to chew on. 

Pour something cold, hit play, and spend some time with the man who knows what happens when a game gets bigger than its guardrails.

Cheers,

Casie and Lauren

Dinks on Tap

You can purchase Blitzed!: The All-Out Pressure of College Football's New Era by Jay Paterno here. 

Other ways to connect with Jay Paterno:Website

Facebook

XInstagram

LinkedIn

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTapWebsite: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s one thing to pick up a paddle sport on a whim.

It’s another thing entirely to realize (somewhere between a rec game and an invite-only underground games scene) that this “casual hobby” has started organizing your calendar, your social life, and, subtly, your sense of self.

This week, Casie and Lauren sit down with Clare Frank, former Chief of Fire Protection for the state of California, longtime leader in wildfire response, and now author of Just One More Game. What begins as a conversation about a pickleball obsession quickly turns into something more revealing: what happens when a life built on urgency, mission, and high stakes suddenly slows down… and a game steps in to fill the space.

Clare didn’t set out to join the pickleball community. She showed up in flip-flops to watch. What followed was a familiar but rarely examined progression: rec game, better players, underground games, pickleball camp, tournament play, all orbiting a single, slightly uncomfortable question: why does this pickleball game get such a hold on people?

The answer, it turns out, has very little to do with the game itself.

We talk about:

The exact moment Clare realized her pickleball obsession had crossed a line—and why that thought felt more revealing than concerning

The subtle escalation from casual rec game to underground games (and what those hidden hierarchies say about status and belonging)

Why adults replace “play” with productivity, and how pickleball disrupts that pattern

The psychology of partnership, and why finding the right doubles partner feels suspiciously close to dating

How a career in high-stakes firefighting reshapes perspective on competition, pressure, and what actually matters in tournament play

The role of a pickleball mentor, and why improvement isn’t always about skill as much as identity

What tournament play reveals about people that rec game culture politely hides

Somewhere in this conversation is a realization most players recognize but rarely articulate: the game is just the entry point.

What keeps people coming back is harder to name, and much harder to walk away from.

Pour a spicy marg and press play. This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered why this game gets such a hold on people.

Cheers,
Casie and Lauren
Dinks on Tap

 

You can purchase Just One More Game by Clare Frank here. Other ways to connect with Clare Frank:

Website
Instagram

Tiktok

Youtube

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap
Website: dinksontap.com

 

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when two big personalities collide on the pickleball court? 

You get a duo that turns the game into chemistry, rhythm, and unapologetic energy!

Today, Casie and Lauren sit down with Jeanne Koepke and Pam McCurry, a duo who found more than just a partner. They built a rhythm, a routine, and a friendship that reshaped this stage of life. What starts with pickleball tournaments and mixed doubles opens into something deeper.

Jeanne and Pam bring equal parts of competitive fire and self-awareness. They share how they improved, built a strong partnership, and found their place within a growing pickleball community, especially in pickleball for seniors.

In this episode, we talk about:

The moment when they realized power alone would not carry them through higher-level play

What it means to compete in their 60s, and how expectations shift

The psychology of partnership, including how they manage energy and mistakes together

Why the social side of pickleball matters more than people expect

The unspoken rules of match etiquette, from line calls to tone

How friendship and humor can matter just as much as skill for any pickleball player

For those who play for fun and those who take it more seriously, there is something familiar in how this kind of connection shapes your days. 

So, pour something cold, settle in, and spend time with two people who remind you that the best part of pickleball might not be the game at all.

Cheers,
Casie and Lauren
Dinks on Tap

Let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with us:

Instagram: @dinksontap

Facebook: @DinksonTap
Website: dinksontap.com

For those wanting to fortify their mental game on the court, check out Lauren’s Mental Caddie offerings on her website or book a Chemistry Call.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices