Canada’s Table Tennis Teams Stay Hot
An NCTTA Feature - January 2012

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chair

Canada is always freezing cold in the winter, but stays awfully hot year-round when it comes to the sport of table tennis on college campuses.

New NCTTA reports show a whopping seven of Canada’s 10 college teams are ranked in the top 25 in the coed/men’s division. Teams from Canada are also strong in the women’s rankings.

The newest NCTTA Mid-Season rankings for 2011-2012 were released in early January, around the time of the coldest weather in Canada. Take a look at the temps in Canada on Saturday January 14, 2012. Ottawa recorded a frigid minus 18 degrees, and it was a teeth-chattering 11 degrees below in Toronto. Calgary rated as one of the nation’s warm spots that day at 3 degrees.

Evidently, some of the sharpest table tennis players on college campuses throughout Canada are avoiding the ice, snow and strong wind gusts outdoors. They are improving their game indoors when the cold weather hits, but also polishing their game year-round.
Having seven of the ten colleges in Canada that play the Olympic sport ranked in the NCTTA’s Top 25 is really quite remarkable.

“It’s absolutely amazing” says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. “We added a new Canuck Division this season, but even still the overall strength of the Canadian teams is impressive.”

Take the NCTTA’s women’s teams, for instance. While always powerful Lindenwood of Missouri (one of the schools that offers big scholarships to top players) is a potent No. 1 again, three colleges from Canada are not very far behind. British Columbia is rated No. 2, Waterloo is No. 3 and Toronto sits in the 4th place spot. And the list doesn’t end there. McGill manages to sneak into the top 10 and Western Ontario also lands in the top 25 ranked No. 16 overall.

On the coed/men’s side of the ledger, top 10 teams include Toronto at No. 5 and Simon Fraser at No. 10. Rounding out some of the heavyweight teams, Western Ontario is No. 13, and Montreal is currently ranked 15th in NCTTA.

The US teams had better be practicing hard this season, as Canada is quickly developing a reputation as the home of rising collegiate table tennis stars!

Got an interesting story idea for a future feature article?
Drop us a line at publicrelations@nctta.org