By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

We at NCTTA are extremely excited for the newest crop of youth table tennis athletes that could potentially join our ranks come time to make the college decision.

Children being exposed to our favorite Olympic sport at a young age provides the perfect infrastructure that will make table tennis thrive at all levels of organization.

That being said, it is important to highlight two great youth championships coming up quite soon in the month of May.

To start, tomorrow May 18th, LA Ping Pong will be hosting their championship tournament at South Bay Table Tennis in Torrance, CA for the first time. The actual event is a result of a seasonal league play of 22 teams and 111 players! According to Jordan Yee, a veritable table tennis organizing workhorse, the championship will feature the final teams that made it through the playoff rounds.

“Many of our teams have students that are new to ping pong and playing a sport for the first time,” Yee notes.

“A few teams from South Bay Table Tennis have middle school teams that are coached by high school students who are volunteering their time and talents to help the next generation of players. A few of these high schoolers have volunteered at the SoCal NCTTA divisionals to help me set up, process results, etc.”

It’s great to see that the volunteering spirit is being cultivated way before players are even in NCTTA!

It’s also important to highlight as well that LA Ping Pong was founded by future USA Table Tennis Hall of Famer David Del Vecchio, who does all things video production at NCTTA’s Champs, and the “Voice of Table Tennis,” Adam Bobrow, who founded NCTTA member team Ping Pong Posse!

Check out LA Ping Pong’s Tourney live-streamed through YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@Lapingpong).

Furthermore, another excellent organization, American Youth Table Tennis (AYTTO) is having their own event, The National Scholastic Table Tennis Championships, on May 25th from 9am to 5pm, expecting 12 schools, with 8 high schools and 4 elementary schools projected to participate. In total there should be 50 students and 20 adults in attendance, with schools from New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Texas, California, and Washington! The event will be held in Louisiana.

According to Thomas Hu, self-proclaimed “Table Tennis Evangelist” (and all his accomplishments can attest to spreading his love of the sport!), the AYTTO leagues have “several Jr. National Team members.” But, he says.

“The bigger the metro area, the bigger the spectrum of skills levels. The AYTTO focus is not just on competition. Although we have several high-level players, we are more proud that the high-level players are able to lead a group of less skilled players to expand the sport.”

I sense a commonality here between LA Ping Pong and AYTTO: mentorship and volunteerism are at the forefront, and NCTTA embodies those ideals as well.

In fact, to partner with these great organizations, NCTTA is also giving out neon NCTTA bracelets at both events.

Brace yourselves for two great upcoming weekends of competition, camaraderie and volunteerism that arises from our future: youth table tennis.