Future Baptist preachers, missionaries and prospective educators are playing key roles as New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary launches a table tennis team.
 
The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) Table Tennis Club is alive and well in the Crescent City. The seven men on the New Orleans team will soon hit the road to battle another Baptist school, Mississippi College, plus other Southern universities in the Dixie Division Tournament on the Mississippi College campus in Clinton, MS on Oct. 31.

Win or lose on that Halloween day, these seven guys from Louisiana expect to have fun as they build a program in their first competitive season this fall. NOBTS recreation director Mike Massaro helped the team get organized. It's not just table tennis that he's pushing. In early October, he was a big help as men at the Baptist seminary formed a running club. They will compete in 5K road races in the New Orleans area. Creating the table tennis club, Massaro says, is a good thing at the seminary in a city that's fallen in love with the NFL's New Orleans Saints. "During their free time, they can escape from their school studies," he says. "This is something they enjoy."

The seminary's table tennis club operates with two tables at the campus recreation center. Members of the team also play with more experienced players from the New Orleans Table Tennis Club. NOBTS senior Ben Festervand, 23, of the Shreveport area, is serving as president of the new club. He expects somebody else will succeed him and keep growing the program after he graduates. Becoming a missionary is one of the paths that Ben is pondering. The table tennis club began to put the pieces together to get off the ground last semester.
 
What does Festervand enjoy about table tennis? "I really like the variety of the different styles," he said. Festervand and his teammates love the game so much they will drive more than five hours to a tournament in Arkansas in late October. The Arkansas trip will give them a chance to gain more experience before entering the NCTTA's Dixie Division tourney on the final day of October. The NOBTS bunch will take on Mississippi College, Southern Miss, Mississippi State, West Florida, Alabama, and Alabama-Huntsville, among others. With strong players from China and Venezuela, Mississippi College is the reigning Dixie Division champion.
 
Enrolling about 3,600 students on the main campus, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary serves undergraduates and graduate students, all the way up to the Ph.D level. The Baptist seminary also teaches courses at sites away from the New Orleans campus. In a sports-crazy Bayou State metropolis that's home to fans rooting for the Saints and basketball's New Orleans Hornets plus millions of revelers crowding Bourbon Street for Mardi Gras, the NOBTS Table Tennis Club hopes to make some noise, too.
 
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