NCTTA Newsletter
May 2008

In this month's newsletter we'll talk some about the recent past (2007-2008 Membership Growth), a little about the present (Superlative Award Winners) and a lot about the future (Board Nominations/Elections, 2009 Championships Location, NCTTA Committees and a new Newgy-NCTTA Scholarship Program). Let's get right into it ...

Board Nominations and Elections
Run for the board, become a division director, join a committee ... lots of ways to get involved.
Ever wanted to get more involved in NCTTA? Like to help set the direction of the organization? Have ideas about how to take NCTTA to the next level? 

Ever think "Wow, the NCTTA Board really has no clue what they're doing, I could run this organization better than those fools!" ?

Well now, here's your opportunity to do just that. Five of the seven positions on the NCTTA Board of Directors are currently open for election(use the links above to see detailed descriptions of each):

• President
• Vice-President
• Treasurer
• Historian
• Athlete Representative

Once all nominations are in elections will move forward according to this timeline:

Superlative Award Winners
Recognizing the most outstanding players and teams of the 2007-2008 Season
The votes have been tallied and though there were many deserving candidates nominated, not everyone could win. The best of the best for 2007-2008 are:

• Male Athlete of the Year:  Adam Hugh (Princeton)
  Nominated: Avant Amin, Misha Kazantsev, Han Xiao, Dave Llona, Khaleel Asgarali
• Female Athlete of the Year:  Ines Perhoc (Texas Wesleyan)
  Nominated: Judy Hugh, Fiona Yu, Whitney Ping
• Rookie of the Year:  Judy Hugh (Rutgers)
  Nominated: Ganesh Balasubramanian, James Roeder, Misha Kazantsev, Kristen Schram, Kwok Cheung, Khaleel Asgarali 
• Coach/Manager of the Year:  Juan Torres/Joel Alvarado (Universidad de Puerto Rico)
  Nominated: Jordan Fisher, Richard Wagner, Karun Singh, John McInerney, Keith Evans
• Rookie Team of the Year:  Universidad de Puerto Rico
  Nominated: Minnesota, Wisconsin (women)
• Most Improved Team:  University of Michigan
  Nominated: Rutgers, Cornell (women), Central Florida
• Division Director of the Year:  Rajeev Sharma (New England Division)
  Nominated: Herb Bennett, Jordan Fisher, Victor Leung, Dalton Hoffine, Siva Sankrithi, Chris Wang

Thanks to everyone who sent in nominations and congratulations to all of this year's winners! 

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

This month at TTP enter a chance to win 2 free sheets of your favorite rubber in the Perseverance Trophy Competition! Nominate your teammate, practice partner, coach, faculty advisor, or anyone you know from the table tennis world that you think exemplifies perseverance and determination. If nominating people isn’t your gig check out Killerspin’s fantastic apparel, equipment or DVD’s. Either way you have a winner!

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 DISCOUNTS (up to 20%) on tables, racquets, rubber, balls and just about any other table tennis equipment your club might need.

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!

2009 Championships Return to Rochester
Rochester, MN narrowly edges Atlanta, GA and New Haven, CT to host 2nd straight Championships
The bidding process for the 2009 Championships began last December when the Championships bid information was made available to several hundreds of colleges, universities, sports commissions and visitors bureaus. After fielding inquiries from dozens of prospective host organizations NCTTA was excited to be able to choose between three quality bids:

• Rochester, MN submitted by the Rochester Amateur Sports Commission
• Atlanta, GA submitted by Ralph Presley representing Atlanta Table Tennis
• New Haven, CT submitted by the Greater New Haven Convention & Visitors Bureau

Following a thorough evaluation of all the bids, many follow-up questions for each organization, and much discussion about the merits of each bid, NCTTA is delighted to announce that the 2009 Championships will be held in Rochester, Minnesota for the second consecutive year!

The final voting couldn't have been any closer, but after a very successful 2008 Championships, NCTTA is excited to be returning to Rochester for the 2009. We're confident we can make 2009 the best Championships ever!

NCTTA Adds 13 New Schools in 2007-2008
Record 121 schools joined NCTTA this past season
NCTTA has enjoyed consistent growth throughout much of its history as an organization and 2007-2008 continued the trend. After a record 108 schools participated in NCTTA in 2006-2007, the organization set a new record in '07-'08 with 121 colleges and universities throughout the US and Canada participating. 

With so many new schools joining the college table tennis community, we thought it might be good to highlight some of these new NCTTA schools that distinguished themselves with outstanding play during their rookie competition season. Head over to the Features section of the NCTTA website and check out the interesting profiles of table tennis teams from: Mississippi College, Puerto Rico (Rookie Team of the Year), Cal State Easy Bay, and Minnesota all of which participated at the NCTTA Championships.

Lets hope the growth continues with even more schools competing in 2008-2009!

Join a Committee
Committees are critical to NCTTA's success; join one and make a contribution
Sure, people are always urging you to do things for a 'good cause': end poverty, fight hunger, cure cancer, recycle, save the whales. Well now you can add one more to that list, join an NCTTA committee. Ok, so it might not be on exactly the same level as the other causes, but if you care about college table tennis, don't you think it might be a good idea to contribute to improving college table tennis? And the best way to help college table tennis, of course, is to make a large six- or seven-figure financial contribution to NCTTA. But if you don't have a few spare mil. lying around, the next best thing is to join one of the many NCTTA committees:

1. Media Relations
2. Marketing
3. Financial
4. Championships
5. Women’s
6. Alumni and College Relations
7. Rules and Audit
8. Website
9. Coaches
10. World University Games
11. Disabled Athletes
12. Recruiting
13. Ratings
14. Eligibility