Pickleball Magazine 2019 USA National Championships | Page 31

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Doris and doubles partner Ron Schmeck.
in Phys Ed and her teaching credentials from USC. In
1950, during her time as a Trojan, in a folk dance class,
she met the love of her life, Sal Castaneda. They were
married 59 years before Sal passed away from metastatic
skin cancer in 2014. While Doris continued her athletic
exploits, especially on the pickleball court, one regret is
that her beloved Sal cannot see firsthand how well she
is playing: “Continuing my life without my husband and
partner since college, I have all these things I want to
share with him.”
With a personal motto of “Just keep moving,” Doris
is certainly doing just that. Every day she ventures
out to play pickleball, bocce and paddle tennis. The
latter sport is one she has excelled in for many years.
So much so that she was inducted into the Paddle Tennis
Hall of Fame in 2010 in Venice Beach, the first woman to
achieve that honor.
Doris’ love of the ocean led to a lifelong love of surfing.
During her college days at USC, she would travel to
Hawaii and work at the local YWCA in Honolulu. And
while the waves that Duke Kahanamoku made world
famous fully whetted her appetite for the sport, Doris also
felt the urge to travel to Fiji once or twice a year to “hang
ten.” She continued this yearly trek until she was well into
her 80s!
Back on the mainland, while raising four children, the
always-energetic Doris followed her love of sports and
began coaching. She successfully passed all her exams
to be a college coach in 1969 when athletic women
were still not taken seriously. “There were three parts I
had to complete—demonstrating playing and teaching,
appearance, and personal interview,” recalls Doris. “I
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