By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Ralph "Radar'' Presley retired as the NCTTA's Georgia Division director to devote more time to another love - ownership of a pro basketball team in Atlanta.

After ten seasons at the helm, Presley saw his collegiate division in the Peach State grow dramatically - from four teams to a dozen schools. He's also given up his duties as the Georgia Tech table tennis coach.

"As I retire at the young age of 61 years, I am moving on to live my lifelong passion of basketball,'' Presley says in a July email to NCTTA headquarters.

Presley will soon start his third year as owner of the American Basketball Association's Southwest Warriors team. The hoops league is getting a media boost with ESPN to broadcast 40 ABA games starting in November. Other teams in the league include the Jacksonville Giants, the South Florida Gold in Boca Raton, the Shreveport Mavericks, and Montgomery Black Hawks.

The ABA dates back to 1967 with star players like Julius "Dr. J'' Erving, Moses Malone and Rick Barry and lasted until its merger with the NBA in the mid-1970s. The ABA's classic red, white and blue basketball and incredible slam dunk contests were instant hits with fans.

Presley put his footprint on both sports decades ago. "I was your classic basketball gym rat and would play table tennis for fun.'' A local coach noted his skill level and got Ralph signed up for an Atlanta junior table tennis tournament. He captured first place and made a second place finish in a statewide tournament. Ralph kept playing table tennis through his college days and continued to win intramural tournaments.

His son, Big Al Presley, got started with table tennis as an 11-year-old, and later played at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth.

Over the years, Ralph Presley says he's trained many inner city Atlanta kids to play table tennis and coached over 300 juniors to improve their game in Georgia. He's also helped host many table tennis tournaments over the past 17 years in his area in the South. In addition, he's served as a scorekeeper at NCTTA national tournaments in places like Rochester, Minnesota; Rockford, Illinois; and Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

As an NCTTA Division director, it's strictly a volunteer job that sometimes can involve long hours.

It will take two people to replace one Ralph Presley. Calvin Lam and Tuan Phan are signed up as the new Georgia Division co-directors this fall.

Without table tennis on his agenda, Presley wants to see his Southwest Georgia Warriors make progress after their 13-13 finish last year.

After a table tennis career spanning a half-century, Presley is fired up about basketball like LeBron James is pumped about returning to the Cleveland Cavs in his native state of Ohio.

Will Radar ever return to the table tennis world? He's still leaving the door slightly open.  "I wish the NCTTA well as they grow and move into the future,'' Radar says. "I will be around to volunteer at anytime if you need my assistance.''   

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Thomas Nguyen says he started playing table tennis years ago because his dad is a "fanatic'' about the Olympic sport.

With table tennis DNA in the family tree, the Portland native showed his own love for the game as an Oregon State University undergraduate. And now as an OSU doctoral student, Thomas wants to step up his involvement a few notches.

NCTTA officials are delighted to welcome the Oregon native aboard this summer as the new Northwest divisional leader.

It's an enormous assignment for the bright student who's a dual degree pharmacy doctorate/MBA graduate student at the Oregon State/Oregon Health & Sciences University. He's on track to graduate in June 2015. When he's not hitting the books on campus, Thomas works as an intern at a pharmacy called Pharmaca.  But table tennis is clearly in his blood.

"The thing I like most about this sport is that anybody of any age can play at a competitive level,'' Nguyen said.  While he doesn't play as much as he used to, serving as the NCTTA Western Division director gives him a chance to pay back and stay involved with a fast-paced sport he really cares about.

Table tennis doesn't draw big crowds like other intercollegiate sports on the Corvallis campus. Thousands of fans are pumped as the Oregon State Beavers will open their 2014 football season at home against Portland State on August 30 before facing Hawaii on the road a week later. Last year's 7-6 OSU football team ended the 2013 season with a 38-23 victory over Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl.

While Nguyen might not be able to bring huge crowds to watch table tennis action on campuses in Oregon and Washington, he's going to help elevate interest in the region. Thomas once competed at U.S. National levels in table tennis. At NCTTA headquarters, we believe his energy level, administrative skills and love for the game will prove to be a valuable asset to the Northwest Division.

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Ohio State vs. Michigan is one of the nation's fiercest sports rivalries. Just like Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Florida State, and Southern Cal-UCLA, this competitive series attracts fans and a blitz of media attention year after year.

OSU-Michigan is really huge when it comes to football. The Buckeyes edged the Wolverines 42-41 in a nail biter last fall as nearly 110,000 fans looked on at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The two Big Ten rivals battle again on November 29 before an anticipated packed house at 102,329-seat Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

The intense rivalry in the Midwest has also been spiced up in the collegiate table tennis world. The time is drawing near for the third annual Friendship Cup this fall that brings superb table tennis players together for a friendly pre-season NCTTA tournament.

The two NCTTA teams were among the schools making the trip to the TMS 2014 College Table Tennis Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania in April. As players from the two Big Ten schools gathered for lunch at the three-day national tournament near Pittsburgh, conversations over sandwiches drifted to the upcoming 3rd annual Friendship Cup this fall.

Last year's event saw the Michigan A and B teams win the Sept. 14, 2013 tournament on the Ohio State campus. Even though Big Blue was the winner, the Buckeye players stayed upbeat. "We all had a lot of fun,'' one Buckeye table tennis player posted on the OSU table tennis team's Facebook page.

The Michigan team is diverse with players from Canada, China, and the USA. So is the Ohio State coed team that finished 18th at the NCTTA tournament in Pennsylvania. The Ohio State players come from Taiwan, China, and USA states like Ohio and California. Ohio State player Karen Pon hails from Australia.

Allen Hung, then the Michigan Table Tennis Club president, helped launch the series in 2012. The event has helped boost friendships between players at both institutions. They all share a common bond - they love table tennis. Look for friendship to continue to blossom when the two Big Ten rivals face off once again in September. Folks at NCTTA offices applaud the Friendship Cup tournament, and encourage other schools across the USA and Canada to break bread, break down barriers and have fun during the 2014-15 season.

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Mississippi College graduate Yang Yu played his heart out as a table tennis star on the Clinton campus.

The tall native of China was a big reason why the MC Choctaws finished No. 2 in the nation with their coed team at the 2013 NCTTA championships in Rockford, Illinois. It was the second year in a row that MC achieved that mighty distinction thanks to Yu and other talented players.

Now coach at the growing Austin Table Tennis Club in the Lone Star State, Yu commands a great deal of respect in the table tennis world. This summer, he's in the spotlight again. He was recently selected as the USA coach to participate in the 2014 International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program.

What is ICECP?

In its 6th year, it's a 30-day series of lectures, projects and activities to develop the highest standards in coaching in 14 sports - from archery, swimming and boxing to volleyball, basketball and taekwondo. Yang Yu was selected as the top candidate from USATT. He will learn about sports nutrition, injury management, sports psychology, sports administration and coaching methods, among the key topics.

A partnership between the University of Delaware and the U.S. Olympic Committee launched the innovative program to elevate coaching skills. "We're going to build on last year's success,'' said program director Matt Robinson on the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program website. "The faculty was incredible last year.''

Elite table tennis instructors in the annual program have come from such countries as Peru, Jordan, Liberia, Greece, and Guyana.

Being a part of this celebrated program is a nice feather in Yang Yu's cap.  It's certainly a stellar accomplishment that the NCTTA family is very proud of.

Fede Bassetti, a longtime table tennis coach who teaches a course on his favorite Olympic sport at Northern Illinois University, raves about Yang Yu.

He's a good example, Bassetti said, of how "his hard work, dedication and passion are being recognized and rewarded. I look forward to see him develop young talent and see him grow into a professional table tennis coach.''

There are other accomplishments that show Yang Yu is a rising star on and off table tennis venues.  Right before the U.S. Open, the Texas resident passed the exam for being an ITTF Level 1 course conductor. With that passing grade, it means the Mississippi College alumnus will be able to teach and certify future table tennis coaches. In addition, Yang has passed the club umpire exam and he's working toward regional certification.

NCTTA President Willy Leparulo applauds the success of Yang Yu, and expects he will be involved in the organization's committee work during the 2014-15 season. "Yang Yu is a class act in my opinion.''

Yang Yu once ran a fitness business and gym in China before coming to Mississippi College. "He was a valuable asset to the university as a gifted player, hard worker and bright student," said Andy Kanengiser, sponsor of the MC table tennis team, and the NCTTA's media relations chairman. "We extend our best wishes ahead as Yang Yu advances up the ladder as a successful table tennis coach.''

By Vanessa Petroj

Media Relations Committee

Meet Cody Hatcher, a future PhD student in Psychology at the University of Connecticut who, as many of us, has table tennis running through his veins. Prior to getting into the graduate program at UConn, Cody has done things and been places. This is his condensed, but rich story.

Currently living in Himi, Japan, he's wrapping up his 5-year teaching position at Himi Senior High School as an English teacher and also saying farewell to his fellow table tennis friends at local middle and high schools where he played and helped with coaching. Prior to Japan, he lived in Virginia where he completed his BA in Biology and his MA in Curriculum and Instruction at Virginia Tech.

Getting ready to go back to the North American soil and to start his life in Storrs, CT, Cody thinks that going back to being a student after being a teacher for 5 years will be a little challenging, but he's embracing the opportunity, ready to learn and offer more. He, like every other avid table tennis player, made sure there was a club at UConn before applying for the PhD program. So, I don't mean to sound too snotty, but YOU'RE WELCOME, UConn Psych Department!

Playing both in the US and in one of the meccas of table tennis, I asked him to give us some perspective on what it means to be a table tennis player in these two parts of the world. Cody explains that "[a]s far as quality goes, Japan has a very interesting system for producing players. In elementary, middle, and high school, students practice in clubs six days a week year round but in the last term of their last year of high school students stop. For most students they will not play again except for fun in college or in clubs after college. Only the very best players in each prefecture will continue to train to become a professional player. In other words, unless a person can become a good pro player after high school, they won't continue to train and compete regularly. This means that at the club level like in the Himi club you have a lot of players that were very, very good but just not quite good enough to be pros."

I am always inspired by special stories players have, and Cody has a very precious Christmas memory from Japan. Given that Christmas is not a Japanese national holiday; the clubs are open on Christmas day so he went to a club at Hokubu Junior High School to spend his Christmas morning. He remembers it had snowed the night before and was snowing as he biked his usual route to school. "It was actually very fun riding the bicycle in a foot of snow with my Santa hat on and carrying my big red sack of presents over my shoulder. I practiced the entire morning wearing my Santa hat and big sweat shirt because it was about 30 degrees in the gym. After practice we went into a separate room and I got to hand out the presents and I actually received a present from each student. After opening presents the homeroom teacher responsible for the table tennis club brought in cake and we had cake and cookies." He said it was an incredible experience for him and that he hoped the students enjoyed the day as much as he did. Well it looks like Santa Claus has some competition - I know his sleighs are cool and all, but he can't compete with a Ping Pong Santa riding his bicycle in a foot of snow!

In addition to inspiring him to be a better player, seeing the level of dedication of both adults and children has made Cody determined to transfer some of that energy to American primary schools and contribute to the American table tennis community. Well, Cody, I have two things to say to you: First, congratulations on becoming a Husky and a part of the NCTTA community; and second, where have you been till now??

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Table tennis players at schools like New York University and Columbia University are always at the top of their game in the Big Apple.

Showcasing powerful slams, they typically play with intensity, passion and excellence at table tennis venues around metropolitan New York City. The collegiate table tennis stars never get the media recognition of big names in sports like New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter or New York Giants star quarterback Eli Manning.

In the NCTTA's highly competitive NYC Division, this fall's new co-directors are both devoted to seeing an uptick in collegiate table tennis growth not far from the bright lights of Broadway.

Leading the NYC division as the 2014-15 season begins in August are Yufan Lin and Jeremy Pachter.  "We welcome Yufan and Jeremy aboard to our dynamic division in NYC, the city that never sleeps,'' says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. "We're sure both will excel.''

A native of Delmar, New York, Lin is a 2014 Dartmouth College graduate. He competed in the NCTTA's Northeastern Division during his four years at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire. During his senior year, Yufan stepped up his game and served as team captain. At the same time, he hit the books as a human biology and psychology double major.

Away from the lively Olympic sport of table tennis, Yufan works as an analyst for CBPartners, a global pharmaceutical management consulting firm.

Yufan loves table tennis for a number of reasons.

He enjoys the "level of mental focus involved,'' especially when the momentum in each 11-point game can shift dramatically from one side to the other in a couple of minutes. 

The New Yorker also appreciates the technical side of the game involving spins, player reaction time and hand-eye coordination.

In addition, Yufan Lin is a table tennis fan because the game brings people together from various ethnic backgrounds and cultures from around the world. It's truly a game for players of all ages and skill levels.

The Dartmouth table tennis team is a good example of what he's talking about. No matter the weather conditions outside in New England, the indoor game, he said, blends "an eclectic group of people from different ethnicities, majors, and participation in other sports.''

Lin and Pachter will lead an NYC Division that's produced awesome teams with stellar players in recent years.

NYU standout Michael Landers 19, of Long Island, for instance, ranked No. 3 in North America immediately prior to the TMS 2014 College Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. The NYU coed team ranked 4th and its women's team was rated 7th. The Columbia University coed team was ranked 12th prior to the April 2014 tournament near Pittsburgh.

The NCTTA oversees more than 150 college table tennis teams in the USA and Canada.