A full-stack web application for managing competitive pickleball ladder leagues with automatic court assignments, real-time score tracking, and live standings updates. Players are organized into courts based on skill and performance, with automatic weekly recalculations. Built because the existing league software was buggy and unfair—this provides a transparent platform where rankings are based on actual performance, not manual favoritism.
The existing league management software was buggy and lacked transparency—players couldn't see how they were performing, and the league wasn't being managed fairly. Court assignments were subject to manual favoritism rather than performance-based rankings.
Built a transparent, fair platform where players can see real-time standings, understand how rankings work, and trust that court assignments are based on actual performance. Implemented a zero-trust security architecture using Cloudflare Tunnel—the server has no exposed ports and cannot be directly attacked. Self-hosted on a personal Proxmox server in an office closet with full uptime monitoring.
Backend: FastAPI (Python 3.12+) with async SQLAlchemy ORM and Alembic migrations Frontend: React + TypeScript with Vite build system, Zustand for state management, Tailwind CSS Database: PostgreSQL 16 with Redis caching for sessions Infrastructure: Docker Swarm on self-hosted Proxmox server (128GB RAM, 24 cores) Security: Cloudflare Access (edge authentication) + Cloudflare Tunnel (zero exposed ports) Middleware: Rate limiting, CSRF protection, request size limits, security headers, JWT validation, audit logging Monitoring: Full uptime monitoring with alerting, automated health checks Backups: AWS S3 for WAL archives and daily snapshots
• Zero exposed ports—server initiates outbound connection only, invisible to port scanners • Edge authentication—unauthenticated requests never reach the application server • Self-hosted with enterprise-grade security at ~$2/month (vs $50-100+/month for cloud hosting) • Open source for other pickleball leagues to use and customize • Live at droptothetop.com serving real users with real uptime requirements • Demonstrates that with proper architecture, self-hosting can be MORE secure than typical cloud deployments