NCTTA Newsletter  May 2014 |
| | | Sponsor Corner | Thanks to our sponsors... NCTTA would like to thank TMS International for their support of college table tennis. TMS is the title sponsor for divisional and regional competitions, as well as the TMS 2014 College Table Tennis Championships. NCTTA, would like to thank Butterfly for its support of college table tennis. Butterfly is the exclusive NCTTA League and Championship Equipment sponsor for the 2013-2014 season. Grab all your favorite Butterfly equipment in the online Butterfly store. Also, special thanks to NEWGY Industries, for its continued support of college table tennis Newgy offers a great way to fund-raise for your club and help out our sponsor as well by signing up and participating in their Newgy Robo Pong Affiliate Program. |
| | Dear Member, | Summer is here for many areas and about to begin with others, but don't let the break of College TT action bore you! There is plenty of action still to be had, read this month's newsletter to find out what this is all about! NCTTA Superlative winners, scrimmages, NCTTA Elections too and more! |
NCTTA End-of-Season Awards |  | Rookie Team of the year, Princeton Women
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NCTTA congratulates the following 2014 award winners! These athletes and teams are the best of the best as nominated by you all and voted on by the Board of Directors. Each will receive a Butterfly Gift certificate. - Male Athlete of the Year: Cheng Li (Mississippi College)
- Female Athlete of the Year: Ariel Hsing (Princeton University)
- Rookie of the Year: Arpit Bhopalkar (Tulane University)
- Coach of the Year: Ken Qiu (Mississippi College)
- Rookie Team: Princeton University Women
- Most Improved Team: Tulane University
- Division Director of the year: Keith Lam (Greater Toronto Division)
- Regional Director of the year: Keith Lam (Great Lakes Region)
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College Table Tennis Friendly Matches |  | | University of Louisville and Kentucky Table Tennis Teams |
Ben Hota of the University of Louisville organized a scrimmage between his school, and the nearby University of Kentucky. Hota describes the days events: "Members of the University of Kentucky traveled from Lexington to the University of Louisville today for an intra-state competition. After deciding who would play at which spot, the two teams' best six played against each other. The Cards (Louisville) took five of six matches and grabbed the win for the day." NCTTA is happy to see such a competition happen and hopefully the experience will lead to their programs getting started. Hota added, "It was a good opportunity to be able to compete against new players and increase one's skill and experience. This is the first time the schools have met for table tennis match play." University of Louisville and Kentucky had active NCTTA clubs several years ago, but as things sometimes go, "members graduated and moved on," and the clubs didn't survive. Evidence based on this event shows both clubs are eager to get going and rejoin the College Table Tennis community. NCTTA hopes to see both schools compete in the 2014-15 season starting in October! Nassau Community College (NCC) and current NCTTA New York City division member, Hofstra, got together a couple weeks ago for a similar tournament where Hofstra ended up defeating NCC. NCC point person, Babalola Alisafe states about the competition, "our team members were completely crushed by Hofstra, but that only further invigorated them to keep playing and get better. We look forward to what next semester and season brings us." We shall see next season, as College Table Tennis continues to grow! |
| | | |  | | NCTTA staff (board members) at recent conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
I know we sound like a broken record here, but I promise this is important.
NCTTA is looking for an "A-Team" of talented volunteers to step up and give back to collegiate table tennis. Opportunities are almost unlimited for men and women with a passion for this Olympic sport. We're looking for people who know the ins and outs of the sport, can organize and run tournaments in their area and promptly check and return emails. Division directors cannot be a competing player in NCTTA competition. There are some rewards for the hard work. The NCTTA will supply some financial assistance so division directors can attend the 2015 national championships. Plus an NCTTA polo shirt, USATT membership, and free umpire certification all come with the job. You say you feel you don't have exactly what it takes? NCTTA will supply the training. How to apply: We want to know a little about your background and experience in table tennis and a brief bio would help. Send us a short statement of no more than 500 words about why you want to fill these shoes. Please send it by June 1st to info@nctta.org. The following positions are open: Division Directors: - Canada East
- Georgia
- New York City
- South Florida
- Upper New England
Regional Directors:Email us at info@nctta.org for more information. In addition to these positions, 3 Board of Director positions will be open starting July 1st: - Vice President
- Treasurer
- Athlete Representative
These have 2 year terms and require a person to have been a previous division director, committee member or chair, or had previous management experience as determined by the NCTTA Rules/Audit Committee. These positions are integral to NCTTA's success; read more about what it takes here: http://www.nctta.org/doc/NCTTA_Bylaws.pdf Election information will come out in June, stay tuned! |
Media Team In Japan Includes NYU Standout Kenneth Lim | By Andy Kanengiser NCTTA Media Relations Chairman  China captured the titles at the global table tennis competition in Japan, but a man who plays the Olympic sport with no arms was the one who stole the show.
Getting a front row seat as part of the ITTF media team at the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo was New York University standout Kenneth Lim. A 24-year-old native of Singapore, Kenneth is studying journalism, philosophy and creative writing at NYU and on track to graduate in May. He worked with the International Table Tennis Federation as the recipient of its prestigious Media Scholarship. In Tokyo, Lim joined many fans amazed at the exploits of 41-year-old Ibrahim Hamadtou, who lost both arms in a tragic accident at age 10. Despite this disability, the Egyptian showed he never gives up as he battled the extraordinary Chinese duo of Ma Long and Wang Hao, top Japanese player Jun Mizutani, and Belarusian star Vladimir Samsonov. Ibrahim grips the paddle with his teeth! The armless man has a motto - anything is possible. While at the games, Kenneth got to put his pen into action as he watched, interviewed athletes, and reported on fantastic games involving the planet's best table tennis players - from Ma Long to Xu Xin. Other stars like Zhang Jike, Ding Ning, and Liu Shiwen were a big part of the action, too. Kenneth on top of his journalist duties at the ITTF World Championships had the pleasure of translating for many top coaches and players, see his gig with Xu Xin! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuSK5w3m3n4 Following three days in early April as a player with a mighty NYU team at the 2014 TMS College Table Tennis Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, Kenneth was flying to Japan. It was a wonderful opportunity for the NCTTA Media Relations Committee member to witness the world competition in Japan. The fast-paced games in Tokyo ended May 5th. The trip also opened the door, he said, to see "one of the world's greatest cities." The ITTF award provided free room and board and accommodations at the event's official hotel site. "It's such an honor to receive the 2014 ITTF Media Scholarship, and I'd like to thank the ITTF for this incredible opportunity to work with them at one of the best sporting events in the world," Lim said. In recent years, Kenneth has also polished his game against such NYU luminaries as Michael Landers of Long Island, N.Y. He loves playing for the NYU team that he calls his "second family." Lim played table tennis in middle school and high school in Singapore before coming to NYU to pursue a journalism degree in 2010. He played in the NCTTA championships in Rockford, Illinois in 2013. "We believe the NYU table tennis standout will be a shining star in his career field," said Andy Kanengiser, the NCTTA Media Relations Chairman. "NCTTA President Willy Leparulo and myself were thrilled to see Kenneth receive the ITTF Media Scholarship." Besides table tennis, Lim loves poetry, cooking, traveling, and live music. |
Upcoming Summer Table Tennis Tournaments | |
| The University of Minnesota won the first NCTTA YouTube contest; check out their nifty video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOn1LHo1LZc Other cool videos submitted by other schools are located on channel, including the famous University of Michigan "CHO" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiyDBJ5ABQU NCTTA plans to have videos from the TMS 2014 College Table Tennis Championships up on the site by June 1st, so check it out! |
NCTTA Tournaments - Behind The Scenes | By Vanessa Petroj NCTTA Media Relations Committee "What if something goes wrong?" wondered no NCTTA player ever while getting ready to go to an NCTTA tournament. Given the complexity of these events, things can very easily go wrong, yet for some reason everyone knows we'll be just fine. And why wouldn't we, when the heroes - the organizing team, division directors, and the other volunteers - will always be there to save the day and make everything run smoothly? Take a moment and think just why this is so. It is only fair to start with our one and only, the NCTTA President Willy Leparulo, without whose limitless energy and persistence, our entire College Table Tennis experience might not exist. Whether it is writing excuse letters for players who miss exams or classes, or invitation letters for teams to give to the Canadian/American border control, or dealing with a large number of people with an even larger number of questions and requests, or keeping the world updated about NCTTA every minute via social media; this guy can do it all. He does it with a smile on his face, and occasionally a few Italian expressions that we might not want to know the meaning of. What we do know is that he is the 24/7 superhero of the NCTTA. Although the tournaments make us forget it sometimes, we are still students and our school assignments don't go away just because we get transported to the magical land of the NCTTA once a year. In one particular case, a student from Mississippi College had a piano recital scheduled immediately after the 2009 Nationals in Minnesota, but she also couldn't miss the tournament because, well, the reasons should be obvious. Andy Kanengiser, the NCTTA media chairman, knew how important both things were, and arranged for her to have a piano available during the tournament so she could practice between matches. He went to her recital later, and of course she did great. I don't know about you, but this story always gives me goose bumps. It seems like sacrifices are often made, but perhaps Asif ud-Doula, the Pennsylvania Division director, took them to a whole new level. Asif was in charge of a divisional tournament, but he was also supposed to welcome his second child into this world. It seems that the baby also wanted to go to the tournament, because she decided to come into the world the day before the tournament. This left Asif with a very tough choice: will he allow the tournament to fall apart without its organizer, or will he be able to convince his wife to pick up the baby from the hospital a day later. His wife, knowing the importance of the issue, was understanding enough, so Asif showed up at the tournament the day after his baby was born and saved the day. Since then he's had a reputation of being "plain awesome" and we couldn't agree more. The next name will also remind you of pure awesomeness: Adam Bobrow. One of his stories can be found on YouTube under the brilliant name, "terminal ping pong". In this episode of Adam's adventurous life, a few NCTTA teams were stuck at the Columbus International Airport due to a two-hour delay, so Adam and friends decided to turn "boredom into passion". They found a random table, used a pair of shoes as the net - and turned the annoying flight delay into a show for everyone. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvXqJGCUC1s He did another amazing thing that also involved an airport. This time he ended up talking a bus driver into waiting 10 minutes for me (Vanessa Petroj) to get out of the plane and make it to the bus terminal. We then had a headphone-K-Pop party on the way from Chicago to Rockford for the 2013 NCTTA Nationals. So, realizing that these are just a few of many stories behind the scenes of the NCTTA events, it's really no surprise that the question from the beginning, "What if something goes wrong?" never occurs to any of us. Because whether it is the representatives of the University of Utah driving 14 hours through a blizzard with chains on their tires to make it to a tournament; or whether it is an amazingly coordinated teamwork by the DD of New York, Wayne Chin, who managed to set up, run, and break down a Table Tennis tournament in the middle of a basketball tournament; you just know that whatever happens, we will always have each other's backs. We all know that there is no obstacle big enough to stop a team as enthusiastic, as strong and as united as the NCTTA community from getting the job done and create great times and great memories together. |
Media Buzz Boosts Collegiate Table Tennis |  By Andy Kanengiser NCTTA Media Relations Chairman Media buzz is usually associated with Hollywood celebs, rising stars in the political world and big-time NFL players earning fat paychecks. It was refreshing to see a blitz of news stories showcasing the TMS 2014 College Table Tennis Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. From a daily newspaper in Pittsburgh to a front-page "Wall Street Journal'' story by Douglas Belkin on the Mississippi College-Texas Wesleyan rivalry to a nice piece in "China Daily USA,'' (with its 850,000 readers), table tennis reports keep coming. Belkin's excellent piece captured the dominance of Texas Wesleyan, winners of 11 consecutive coed team titles, and the growing challenge posed by Mississippi College, the No. 2 team the past three years. The Chicago-based reporter also shot remarkable videos of the three-day event in early April near Pittsburgh. After tracking the deadly tornadoes that left a dozen dead in Mississippi, award-winning Clear Channel radio newsman Randy Bell chased down Mississippi College's table tennis stars for interviews at the school in early May. Bell tossed questions at 2014 college men's table tennis champ Cheng Li, and his teammate, Yichi Zhang, who finished No. 2 at the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association tourney in the Keystone State. The two talented business students, both natives of China, will return for more action on the Clinton campus this fall. A former table tennis player, decades ago at Mississippi State University, Bell is a top-notch radio newsman. His beats cover the gamut from state politics to Mississippi weather disasters to crime and sports. Representing six radio stations in metro Jackson, Randy set his microphone near the table as Cheng Li and Yichi Zhang traded points during a match at Alumni Gym. The "New York Yankees'' of collegiate table tennis, the Texas Wesleyan Rams in Fort Worth and Mississippi College's team loaded with terrific Chinese players aren't the only schools attracting publicity. Adding to the list making headlines, Princeton University launched its first women's table tennis team this past season and finished No.1 in the land. The Princeton Tigers were led by U.S. Olympic team member Ariel Hsing, an 18-year-old freshman from Fremont, California. The fabulous New York University table tennis team sparked by standouts like Michael Landers and Kenneth Lim, is generating a good bit of positive media spin in the Big Apple. In the Show Me State, Lindenwood's team near St. Louis, Missouri attracts media attention, too. When the 2015 College Table Tennis Championships come to Eau Claire, Wisconsin next April, the media, no doubt, will be watching. With more than150 collegiate table tennis teams in the USA and Canada, "we have a great story to tell,'' says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. "We are delighted to see our media coverage is growing." Examples of schools getting press after the championships: NC State: http://ncsurecreation.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/april-club-sport-of-the-month-table-tennis/ Princeton: http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/05/14/pages/2782/index.xml Texas Wesleyan: http://www.wfaa.com/sports/bfont-color000000VIDEOfontb-Table-tennis-is-serious-business-at-Texas-Wesleyan-257447361.html |
Fede Bassetti Teaches Table Tennis Class At Northern Illinois University |  By Andy Kanengiser NCTTA Media Relations Chairman Fede Bassetti is doing a wonderful job teaching Table Tennis 101 at Northern Illinois University. Like a fine Italian dining experience, all the essential ingredients are in place to make this a terrific course for NIU students. It all begins with having the right teacher in the classroom. In many ways, Fede brings much to the table. Bassetti first learned to love the Olympic sport as a youngster growing up in his native Italy, and now serves as the USA Table Tennis Coaching Committee Chair. He also is an asset to the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association's executive board. In addition, Fede is fresh from his stint as an umpire at the 2014 TMS College Table Tennis Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania in early April. Despite long commutes to work on the NIU campus in DeKalb, 65 miles west of downtown Chicago, Bassetti brings a tremendous amount of zest to his teaching job the moment he walks into the classroom. That enthusiasm spills over to his students. His students in the spring, like senior Aksel Bolin of Norway, learned athletic skills that can help with other sports. Aksel was a standout small forward on the NIU basketball team. His table tennis game definitely improved each week at the 22,000-student research university. Another student, Andrew Ray, plays on the NIU baseball team. Putting this innovative class together didn't happen overnight in the Land of Lincoln. And it didn't come easy. Getting the right equipment is key to any successful class. "I had to start entirely from scratch,'' Bassetti said. "I had the room and a place to store, but no tables.'' He contacted vendors, but it wasn't working out. Enter longtime collegiate table tennis leader Ed Hogshead of Illinois. Ed came through big-time. "Ed was able to find, by magic, 11 tables and other useful goodies such as nets,'' Fede said. Members of the Champaign Table Tennis Club in Illinois stepped up by donating plenty of paddles. Add to the mix a splendid textbook by Richard McAfee, ITTF trainer and former USATT coaching chair. "I found particularly useful how every drill suggested has a measurable objective, which in turn helps with creating lesson plans.'' There's more to make this NIU table tennis course first class. James Yanik helped build a table tennis robot as a class project for senior mechanical engineering students. The machine helped NIU students develop their forehand loop. "Overall, it was a great help for building fundamentals. I wish we had more.'' At NIU, that's home to a table tennis club, Bassetti's course scored points with students. He wants to make the class even better next year. Is Fede Bassetti the best table tennis teacher in the Midwest? That's hard to say. A veteran NCTTA leader in the Upper Midwest division, Linda Leaf teaches a table tennis class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Leaf uses Richard McAfee's text for guidance. There could be more table tennis classes on the horizon. Mississippi College's Department of Kinesiology will consider the idea of offering a one-credit table tennis class on the Clinton campus starting next fall. Before it happens, top-notch table tennis teachers, like Fede Bassetti and Linda Leaf, will be consulted. To learn more about Fede Bassetti's table tennis classes at Northern Illinois University, contact him at fede@nctta.org |
Interested In Journalism? Write For NCTTA's Publications! b> | ANY JOURNALISM majors or better yet JOURNALISM, ENGLISH graduates out there want a great volunteer  gig? NCTTA is looking for an EDITOR and WRITERS for its website and newsletters: http://www.nctta.org/newsletters/ This is a great opportunity for anyone looking to get their work released to different media outlets and help NCTTA with Blogging, Newsletters, Twitter, etc. Click here to get involved with this committee or others. |
USATT Membership Discounts For NCTTA Graduates | NCTTA has recently teamed with USA Table Tennis to create a special opportunity where recent NCTTA grads can take advantage of a 2-year USATT membership for 62 percent off of the regular price. Yes, you read that right 62% off. USATT membership is the best way to stay involved with table tennis after graduation. So take advantage of this great deal! Read all about it at: nctta.org/alumni NCTTA takes care of its alumni hoping that they then will return the favor to their collegiate clubs by donating their time or money or both to keep programs and teams alive. Keep involved! Got an idea for a future story or newsletter topic? Email the NCTTA Media Relations Chair. |
| Stay tuned for more exciting NCTTA news next month. Don't forget to click on the link below (Update Profile/Email Address). Sincerely, |
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