NCTTA Newsletter
August 2008

Here's what's going on in college table tennis as the 2008-09 season quickly approaches. 

There have been a few updates to the competition rules for the upcoming 2008-2009 season, most notably the following:

• Definitions clarified for three different types of defaults: meet, team contest, and individual match (Section V.3).
• Specified more clearly how defaults impact a division's officially recognized size (Section V.4).
• Modified Championships wildcard invitation criteria to encourage divisions to have more League meets: divisions in which all teams play each other 3 or more times have a wildcard advantage after 8+ team divisions (Section VI).
• Addition of $25 refundable deposit to League membership fees to discourage defaults; teams without any defaults get the deposit back at the end of the season (Section I.4).

Florida Division Gearing Up Early
Florida Division holds preseason scrimmage

The Florida Division got off to a good start with 4 schools in attendance of its preseason scrimmage. The winner, Florida State University, saw several upsets throughout the day. The club’s founder and current NCTTA president Willy Leparulo was in attendance as he took on one of college table tennis’s stars, University of Central Florida player Dave Llona in a 5 game match that Llona managed to pull off in the end. FSU played an all-around solid scrimmage tournament, finishing strong and optimistic for the upcoming season. The University of Northern Florida has recently joined the NCTTA again after a 3 year break, and they are a welcome re-addition to the Florida Division. Florida International University was also in attendance, representing the southern part of the state. We hope to see NCTTA participation from more southern Florida schools in future events.

NCTTA Represented on Local NBC Station
NCTTA players appear on local news

Two of our NCTTA players were featured on a local NBC station to give viewers a brief introduction and explanation of their Olympic sport. Check out the video footage on YouTube.

Jackie Lee Travels with Olympic Team
Former NCTTA star represents USA

In June, the International Table Tennis Federation announced that Olympic table tennis teams could bring a fourth player to the team competition in case of a player injury. This rule provided a former NCTTA player with a chance to make her dream come true, going to the Beijing Olympics representing team USA. After failing to qualify for the Olympics early this year, Jackie Lee, who played for University of California Berkeley during her collegiate career and was the 2005 College Singles and Doubles Champion and runner-up in 2006, traveled to Beijing for the Olympic games. For the full story visit:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/15/SPBE11ODL2.DTL

NCTTA Growth: Lindenwood University
Lindenwood university offers new scholarship, promotes women in the sport

Lindenwood University has announced that table tennis will be a varsity sport this year. What’s more is that it will be offering scholarships for prospective students with table tennis talent. According to Randy Kendle who coaches and directs the program in cooperation with his wife Kelly, their new scholarship program will provide aid based on the student's FAFSA, high school grades, ACT, class rank, federal/state aid, and table tennis skill. Lindenwood isn’t restricted by a limited budget for its athletes and is serious about improving table tennis at the university, which means that the program will enjoy substantial growth in upcoming years. Randy and Kelly are especially promoting female players. “While Lindenwood will have a women's team this year, we'd like to get many more women into the program,” Randy said. In addition to its involvement with the NCTTA, Lindenwood’s fall schedule is full of open tournaments in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio.

AAU Junior Olympics
The nation's young stars, including college standouts, compete in Detroit

NCTTA Website Updates
A new way to get your NCTTA news updates

NCTTA website news updates are now available as an RSS feed at http://www.nctta.org/feed.xml. So you can use your favorite RSS reader such as Google Reader or Firefox's Live Bookmarks to subscribe to NCTTA web updates and stay on top of the latest happenings in college table tennis. It's even available through an iPhone or iPod Touch using the NewsGator application (through the App Store), or from any other web-enabled mobile device through http://m.newsgator.com

Sponsor Corner
Support our sponsors, they make College Table Tennis possible!

Table Tennis Pioneers and Killerspin are the exclusive NCTTA League Sponsors for the 2007-2008 competition season. Killerspin was also the 2008 Championships Equipment Sponsor, generously providing tables, balls and other equipment for the event. 

Please remember to take advantage of the generous NCTTA Member DISCOUNTS (up to 20%) on tables, racquets, rubber, balls and just about any other table tennis equipment your club might need.

 TTP Biweekly Special: BOGO Special — Save up to 50%!

Our first BOGO (buy one, get one free) special! Purchase any two regularly-priced rackets and get the least-expensive one for free. That's right, save up to 50%! A special of Olympic proportions! And, just in time for back to school!

To take advantage of this special, simply purchase the rackets. We will adjust the price when we process your order. If you purchase three rackets, you'll get the least-expensive one for free. If you purchase four, you'll get the two least-expensive ones for free. Etc. This special cannot be combined with any other specials, sales, or coupons.

But, you better hurry: this special ends Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Special thanks to NEWGY Industries, our valued Championship Sponsor who provided all of the barriers for the 2008 College Table Tennis National Championships and gave Championships t-shirts to each participant. Plus one lucky Men’s/Coed team (Puerto Rico) and one lucky Women’s team (Columbia) each won a brand new Newgy robot in a special drawing at the 2008 Championships! Thanks to Newgy for their continued generous support of College Table Tennis!