NCTTA Newsletter - January 2010

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NCTTA Newsletter
January 2010

It's 2010 and a new decade of college table tennis is just getting started. At the midpoint of the college table tennis season we've got the latest Top 25 rankings and the 2010 Championships website, some big time rivalries brewing in the world of college table tennis, plus NCTTA is developing goals for the future and needs your help.

Lets make the next ten years of college table tennis better than ever!

Mid-Season Top 25 Rankings

Alabama is the new national champion when it comes to college football! But table tennis fans are far more interested in the new rankings of their favorite teams and America's top-ranked table tennis team at mid-season is ... drumroll please ... Texas Wesleyan!

Ok, not much of a surprise there. Princeton and Lindenwood stay true to their preseason rankings to come in at No. 2 and No. 3, but Mississippi College is a surprise at No. 4. The 16th place finishers at the 2009 Championships Miss. College has improved rapidly and is a team to watch for the future. Perrenial top 10 team, Virginia Tech is also on the rise, rounding out the top 5.

On the women's side, Rutgers shows their 3rd place finish at the 2009 Champs was no joke as they're currently ranked No. 2. Western Ontario, a team on nobody's radar at the start of the season turns in at No. 3, while two improving teams from opposite coasts, UCLA and Columbia round out the top 5.

Co-Ed Team Ranking

1. Texas Wesleyan
2. Princeton
3. Lindenwood
4. Mississippi College
5. Virginia Tech
6. Florida State
7. Columbia
8. Puerto Rico
9. California (Berkeley)
9. Toronto
11. Waterloo
12. USC
12. Wisconsin
14. Maryland
15. McGill
16. Pennsylvania
17. Texas
18. Illinois
19. Maryland - Baltimore County
20. Baruch College
21. Ottawa
22. Michigan State
23. Ohio State
24. UCLA
25. Stanford

Women's Team Ranking

1. Texas Wesleyan
2. Rutgers
3. Western Ontario
4. UCLA
5. Columbia
6. Stanford
7. Puerto Rico
8. Cornell
9. Wisconsin
10. Duke
11. NYU
12. Michigan State
13. UC San Diego
14. Stony Brook
15. Toronto
16. Drexel
17. Clark Atlanta
18. Washington
19. British Columbia
20. Lindenwood
21. Oregon
22. Maryland
23. RPI
24. Georgia Tech
25. Georgia State

While it's fun to look at the rankings, all that really matters is what happens out on the table. Spring regional tournaments are fast approaching, and that'll be what determines who qualifies for the 2010 Championships ... and who stays home.

YouTube Video Contest

NCTTA is bringing back its YouTube Video Contest for a second year. You don’t need to possess the directing skills of Hollywood’s finest, just a little creativity. Plus, the winning school/club will receive a very nice gift certificate. That translates into equipment for your club! And during these bleak economic times, every dollar counts.

Ah yes, there are a few guidelines:

   1. Capture “quality” video footage at your upcoming NCTTA regional tournament
   2. Edit your raw footage to produce a 1 to 5-minute video
   3. Post your video on YouTube for all to see
   4. Enter the contest by notifying treasurer@nctta.org of your video on YouTube

Francois Charvet, NCTTA Treasurer, and other folks in college table tennis circles are really pumped about this new contest. Winning videos, Charvet says, will really “showcase the NCTTA regionals” and League competition. He suggests that be at least 75 percent of the focus. The judges will also give high marks to videos that reflect quality material in terms of footage and editing.

It’s a great way to promote our favorite Olympic sport around the globe. It’s also a terrific way to earn a little cash for our clubs on college campuses around the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico (only official or transitional NCTTA member schools in good standing can enter).

Start those cameras rolling!!

Sponsor Corner
Special thanks to our sponsors, Newgy and Killerspin!

NCTTA, would like to thank Killerspin for its support of college table tennis. Killerspin is the exclusive NCTTA League and Championship Equipment sponsor through 2011. Member schools just need to fill out the Killerspin Premium Membership Program Application to receive phenomenal equipment discounts in the online Killerspin store.

Also, special thanks to NEWGY Industries, for its continued support of college table tennis including the Newgy-NCTTA Scholarship Program. Newgy offers a great way to fundraise for your club by signing up and participating in their Newgy Robo Pong Affiliate Program.

NCTTA Leaders Develop New Year's Goals

2009 may have been a bad year for the US economy, but it wasn’t all bad for college table tennis. NCTTA continued growing to a record 141 member schools and added two new divisions. But it’s the start of a new year and a new decade on our planet. What does 2010 hold for college table tennis?

Well the leaders of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association are reflecting on that very question. We want 2010 to be a terrific year for all players and fans of this great sport of table tennis.

As a result, we've asked NCTTA Division Directors members of NCTTA's committees, the heart and soul of our favorite sport, to come up with their top goals for college table tennis in 2010 and beyond.

Whether you want to simply heighten media awareness of table tennis, land some major new sponsors (in addition to the super ones already on board), or develop this fantastic sport at the junior high and high school level or get people pumped about the 2010 Championships, we want to hear from you.

Please send us your suggestions, your thoughts and ideas. We want everyone from the college table tennis community to weigh in. This is your forum and it's your serve. So put some goals on your wish list to make our sport better.

So far, we've gotten a few responses. But the more, the merrier! The process is really just getting started. We hope to publish the findings in future NCTTA newsletters. Let's hear from you very soon!!

Send your ideas or comments to info@nctta.org

College Rivalries Rule Table Tennis World

Michigan versus Ohio State. Florida State battles Florida. Texas Longhorns line up against Oklahoma Sooners. It's Harvard facing Yale again. Whether the rivalry involves football, basketball or the debate team, these traditional clashes on American campuses are simply awesome, baby! The taste of victory over a rival school is sweet and can translate into bragging rights for an entire year or more.

Collegians also get pretty passionate about crushing their rivals when it comes to the Olympic sport of table tennis. The cheers seem louder, the offensive attacks are relentless and players go all out to bury a rival university.

Wisconsin players really get pumped if they knock off fellow Big Ten schools like Purdue and Illinois. In the PAC-10, Southern California players get a little crazy when they beat up on cross-town rival UCLA. In the Southeastern Conference, it's always big when Alabama beats in-state rival Auburn.

Read more ...

Table Tennis Makes Media Splash

Table tennis fans around the globe got a wonderful gift for the holiday season. One of the planet's media giants, the New York Times did a fabulous story on the tremendous growth of our favorite sport!

The story, Taking Hold in Silicon Valley, a Ping-Pong Boom, penned by writer Patricia Leigh Brown focused on the game's explosion in California's Bay Area. Published Dec. 23 online, just two days before Christmas (and in the Dec. 24th print edition), the story began "Young people who were serious about table tennis used to have to make the trip to Beijing, Stockholm or Moscow to train with world-class coaches. Now they go no further than this Silicon Valley suburb.''

The story mentioned the three colleges - Texas Wesleyan, Lindenwood and Puerto Rico - that offer big-time scholarships to top players and also quoted NCTTA board member David Del Vecchio on the development of the sport at the junior level.

We're hoping other media folks catch on in 2010 in the months leading up to the NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships in April near Milwaukee. Whether you coach the sport, play it with passion or help as a volunteer, let's step up our game and spread the word about table tennis. Tell a reporter, TV producer or a neighbor to check out this Olympic sport in 2010! And if you've got a great story to tell about a player, coach, or table tennis supporter, please let us know, too!

One for the Road: Team Travels 700 mi. To Compete
University of Utah team travels from Salt Lake City to play in Northern California division

The Utah Utes are the road warriors of the year! At least when it comes to college table tennis, this team went beyond a mere trip to grandma's house.

In fact, Utah's road trip to participate in Northern California regional action at Stanford was really an impressive feat to the folks with their pulse on collegiate table tennis action. Players like Xiaobo Yan, Bruce Majors and Jilin Guo were a little travel weary, but the Salt Lake City bunch didn't let it show on the Palo Alto campus in the fall of 2009.

Teams like Stanford (no road trip there) UC Davis, Cal-Berkeley were among those taking on Utah Nov. 21 in Northern California division play. Cal-Berkeley currently leads the Nor Cal division, while Utah sits in 5th place.

Another school that is adept at long road trips is the University of Alabama-Huntsville. The left around 4 a.m. (or maybe earlier) to make it to Mississippi College for the Dixie Division tourney. Beginning at 9 a.m., the regional tournament at MC's Baptist Healthplex on October 31 ended just hours before kids started to knock on neighborhood doors for Halloween candy.

Mission accomplished, the Huntsville team quickly got back on the van to return home to North Alabama, home of a world-class NASA facility. Probably in the next century, table tennis teams will travel by rocket. But these days, they will have to get by on gas at the pumps, budget motels and pizza.

Got any other good stories about college teams going the distance? Let us know.

Top Talent Turns Up at Killerspin SPINvitational
Event tries unique 41 point singles and two person tag-team format

Bone-chilling temperatures couldn't keep away some of the planet's premier table tennis players and fans away from Chicago late December on the Navy Pier. The event was the Killperspin SPINvitational table tennis tournament. It attracted some of the globe's champions, college students and other players for one splendid day in the dead of winter in the frigid Windy City.

"Every year people from all over the country come and watch some of the best players in the world compete right in front of them, up close and personal,'' said Richard Qian, a college player from Wisconsin who attended the event. "This year is no different. The Navy Pier's grand ballroom hosted world champions like Chen Qi and Werner Schlager, table tennis princesses like Biba and Sooyeon Lee and future champions who are barely taller than the table.''

Killerspin President Robert Blackwell summed up things rather nicely in an online forum. “It was really the best event we have ever held,” he said. “It was really terrific.”

Fans definitely got their money's worth. The winter tournament format was a bit unusual. Instead of playing games to 11 (and winning three games to take the match), single games went to 41 points.