By Michael Reff

NCTTA Media Committee

(Deepa Bhujbal from University of Toledo featured above)

The Lone Rangers are back!

So you know the drill!

We’ll tell ya about them,

To hype them up still.

The story is this:

They play just in singles

Sometimes with no teammates

So they’ll have to mingle!

First is Yurong Ren,

Grad student at Pitt,

She’s played tt 16 years,

(A lot of time to commit!)

She’s overjoyed about playing

And she has many objectives:

Not be nervous, no regrets,

Perform well, make friends in this pong collective.

Next we have Mark Hendricks

Third year undergrad from Akron,

He started pong his freshman year,

In quick time turned his game on.

His goal for this champs is

“To try to win 1 game”

Also learn from higher opponents,

Improving’s a worthy claim.

Deepa Bhujbal’s a new freshman,

Uni of Toledo athlete

No stranger to pong,

In India she did compete.

Her goal’s to be adaptable

In this national tourney,

And also to enjoy this ultimate

Table tennis journey.

Zhe Feng studies in Colorado,

Fourth year PhD scholar

He excitedly watched the wild card results,

And knew he’d receive playing honor.

Before he’s coached a nationals player,

This time is his time to play,

He has one teammate coming,

Zhe’s goal’s to fight and have fun all day.

Congratulations to you lone rangers,

Make your teams and schools quite proud,

Make the most of this experience,

Fight for each point, “cho” out loud!

The 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and Sports & Properties Inc. and Greensboro CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.  The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, SPI, Greensboro CVB, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the iSET College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday April 12th and continues through Sunday April 14th. Tickets on sale at ticket master

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Chair

Volunteers from across the USA and Canada are a driving force helping make the NCTTA’s championships a success from one year to the next

That’s been the case when the collegiate table tennis tournaments were played in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas in recent years. And dozens of dedicated volunteers should shine again when they perform a variety of tasks at the 2019 championships. The games are set for Greensboro, North Carolina April 12-14.

“Volunteers are the meat and potatoes of the NCTTA family all season, but that’s especially true when the national championship games arrive,’’ said NCTTA President Willy Leparulo.

Whether they operate video cameras to live stream the marathon of games, umpire key matches, manage practice areas or work registration tables, volunteers tackle many tasks. “They arrive early and stay late,’’ Leparulo said. “And usually, the do so with smiles on their faces. We can’t say enough nice things about our volunteers. Each day, they are valuable from start to finish.’’

With the championships attracting nearly 300 of the best collegiate table tennis players in North America, volunteers pitch in to make the event run smoothly. The work stretches from setting up tables and flooring prior to the event to shuttling players from the region’s airports. Each year, about 75 volunteers lend a hand at the NCTTA’s biggest tournament of the year.

Some NCTTA volunteers like David Pech are veterans. Others like Logan Zimmerman are relative newcomers to the organization overseeing more than 150 college table tennis teams.

Active in NCTTA circles for four years, Pech grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Married to Lia, who’s a native of Panama, Pech, 56, has worked as an international table tennis umpire. He played the sport for fun in college. But his two sons are pretty good at the Olympic sport with ratings in the 2300 to 2400 vicinity.

He brings interesting skills to the table. “I have been a photographer most of my life,’’ David Pech says. But his career path suddenly changed gears. “I am now a coffee farmer in Panama. For the last four months, I have been pulling in this year’s harvest.’’

The NCTTA’s leader for more than a decade, Leparulo appreciates this year’s bumper crop of  volunteers.  A Florida State University staff member and a coach of the Noles table tennis team, Leparulo first got to know David as a player when he visited the FSU club over ten years ago.

Leparulo speaks highly of Pech as a hard working umpire who volunteers at NCTTA tournaments. “He and his family are great people for our sport. David is a strong advocate for our sport.’’

Florida’s Logan Zimmerman also stepped up his game for the NCTTA. Since the summer, he’s served on the coaching committee assisting in the development of the NCTTA’s coaching certification program. Logan will work as a volunteer four days at the 2019 Nationals.

Year-round, Zimmerman works closely with Leparulo to coach the FSU Seminoles table tennis team. That started when he began helping at practices on the Tallahassee campus.

Zimmerman and Leparulo recently joined forces to launch a new table tennis club in Florida’s capital city. Their venture received nice coverage in the media, including the “Tallahassee Democrat.’’ Logan serves as head coach of this new club. 

Growing up in San Diego, California, Logan loved other sports, like golf. He received golfing certifications through the Titleist Performance Institute and picked up an MBA in professional golf management.

Fast forward to the time his brother-in-law whipped him in table tennis matches. After that stinging setback, Logan, then living in North Carolina, began training with talented players at table tennis clubs in Raleigh. His brother-in-law got slammed the next time they played. Improving his game upon returning to San Diego, he later moved to Tallahassee to work as a state employee. His passion for table tennis got stronger in the Sunshine State.

Willy Leparulo is thrilled he moved to the Florida Panhandle and shares his passion for this amazing international sport. “Logan is a Renaissance man,’’ Leparulo said. “I am really excited he’s bringing his logistics experience to the NCTTA championships.’’

The 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and Sports & Properties Inc. and Greensboro CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.  The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, SPI, Greensboro CVB, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the iSET College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday April 12th and continues through Sunday April 14th. Tickets on sale at ticket master

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Chair

Table tennis players at schools from California to the Midwest and deep in the heart of Texas are thrilled about advancing to the national collegiate championships.

That’s especially true for teams making their first-ever appearance at the NCTTA’s biggest tournament of the year. This time, the annual event will be staged in Greensboro, North Carolina from April 12-14.

Case in point is the University of California at Irvine. The UCI players from Southern California are talented and definitely for real as they prepare for their first trip to Nationals.  Known as the Anteaters, they proved they could play by winning the NCTTA West Regionals on March 9. UCI knocked off foes like UC Davis and Cal- Berkeley to make it to the top and punch their ticket to the 2019 Nationals.

Coach Jason Chauv is elated and so is the rest of his awesome squad at his West Coast university that enrolls nearly 30,000 undergraduates.

“Our athletes are extremely excited with the opportunity to compete on the national stage and represent UC Irvine,’’ Chauv said. “Our primary goal this coming Nationals is to have fun, meet up with old friends, and hopefully make new ones. We hope to play some good table tennis.’’

The season began for UCI with no big expectations, but just grow as a team, the coach noted. Things began to change in a hurry. UCI grabbed first-place honors in the SoCal East Fall Divisionals.

But the team didn’t rest with that one great accomplishment. UCI fared well at the next divisionals in February, including a nail biter when they defeated UC San Diego in a match going to doubles.

Topping UC Davis and Cal-Berkeley at West Regionals for UCI (in only its second appearance) was a “milestone achievement,’’ Coach Chauv said.

So who’s on the University of California-Irvine team?

The diverse squad includes three California players: Newman Cheng, 19, of Huntington Beach, Krish Avvari, 19,  and Ray Yi, 20, both of Fremont.

Making their team of standouts even more diverse are players like Hoiman Chu, 20, of Hong Kong, China, Neal Thakker, 18, of India, and Yoshitomo Matsubara, 27, of Japan.

Newman Cheng and Krish Avvari  both competed on the USA National Table Tennis Team.  Neal Thakker won the high school table tennis championship for three straight years.

If basketball success is any indication, UCI should make noise in North Carolina. The UCI hoops team advanced to the NCAA’s Big Dance and defeated Kansas State 70-64 in the tournament opener before losing to Oregon.

Also expected to make some noise in Greensboro after earning their first Nationals invite are members of the University of Illinois at Chicago team.

UIC is proud of its progress in 2018-19 in NCTTA divisionals and regionals tournaments. Players like Ali Fakhari are pumped to soon be flying to North Carolina to showcase their skills.

Traveling from the Windy City with paddles in hand to compete against the best collegiate players in North America will offer new challenges.The UIC squad also includes players like Pramod Anantha of India, Xing Li of China, Hamza Godil of Pakistan and Khang Nguyen of Vietnam.

Players like Xing Li say it’s a great honor to be invited to Nationals, especially for the first time. He points to a dedicated bunch of teammates who play their favorite Olympic sport with passion. It’s been a rewarding season of “hard work and sweat’’ for the UIC players, Li says.

The players from the Illinois metropolis are anxious to bring their best brand of table tennis down South.  “I’m so excited and proud of these guys,’’ said Ali Fakhari, the UIC team’s leader. “They’ve worked really hard to reach this huge achievement, especially while all being extremely busy students. I feel fortunate I even know these guys.’’

Equally excited about going to Nationals for their initial visit is the University of Texas at San Antonio squad. Players Leijie Qi of China, Mark Conrad, who was raised in Australia, Nicolas Alvarez of Cali, Colombia, and Deven De Leon of San Antonio, are fired up about going to Greensboro. Contributing to their success in the Lone Star State was their fever for table tennis plus the steady grind at practices.

For more information on the 2019 collegiate table tennis championships in Greensboro, North Carolina April 12-14 go to nctta.org

The 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and Sports & Properties Inc. and Greensboro CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.  The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, SPI, Greensboro CVB, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the iSET College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday April 12th and continues through Sunday April 14th. Tickets on sale at ticket master

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org

There is a numbers game to be played with College Table Tennis. Just take a gander at our amazing display of numerical nuances for the 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships. 

51 Colleges/Universities

80 Men's Singles

40 Women's Singles

24 Men's/Coed Teams

16 Women's Teams

32 Men's Doubles

12 Women's Doubles

268 Athletes and Coaches

100 Volunteers

29 Countries

We are the melting pot of sports; table tennis as a whole is one of the most popular sports in the world. NCTTA, which is the governing body of college table tennis, is excited to bring to Greensboro, North Carolina a plethora of "international" flavors. We have male and female athletes from as far as Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, to European countries like Hungary and Italy, to Africa (Egypt and others), to Canada and South America and everywhere in between.  Plenty of United States players are represented from the west coast where 14 schools will make the cross country flight to even some local talent from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Duke (right down the road). 

Come check out this truly international event and amazing display of North America's best college table tennis teams and players. 

The 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and Sports & Properties Inc. and Greensboro CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.  The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, SPI, Greensboro CVB, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the iSET College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday April 12th and continues through Sunday April 14th. Tickets on sale at ticket master

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org

NCTTA's Regional Championship weekend is here featuring 5 Regional Championships!

(picture above by Leslie Chen of Syracuse University)

Winners go to the ISET College Table Tennis Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. NCTTA Midwest Region already crowned its victors but the rest of the College Table Tennis Nation gets its shot this weekend. 

Check out the live streams!

South Regional Championships hosted by Texas Wesleyan University

Powerhouses like Texas Wesleyan, Mississippi College and others will be featured!

Click here for live stream

Northeast Regional Championships hosted by Westchester Table Tennis 

Defending National Champions New York University begins its road to defend its title

Click here for live stream

West Regional Championships hosted by OCTTA

The University of California schools always look strong (Berkeley, Irvine, Davis), but nothing is certain!

Click here for live stream

Mid Atlantic Regional Championships hosted by Triangle Table Tennis Center

Maryland, Pillar College and others looking to mix it up!

Watch Page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIV2zq8wXbc

Great Lakes Regional Championships hosted by University of Akron

Cornell, Syracuse and others looking awful strong, tune in to see what happens!

Watch Page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaERPXGXTyk

Watch Page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spVZjdklC8

• Donate directly from your paycheck from work, check here to see if your company will match your donation!  
• Submit your contribution online through PayPal:
  • $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 

Please email treasurer@nctta.org if you wish to donate a different amount! 

By Michael Reff (Florida State Alum)

NCTTA Media Committee

Although a baby pong player's on the way,

The passion project of table tennis at FSU,

Started with a young man in 1998,

Who was about to embark on Graduate school.

A platinum anniversary, Willy Leparulo

Has been a stalwart founder and active coach,

For 20 years he really has much to show,

His legacy as a leader's beyond reproach

FSU TT has been in the champs 5 times,

Leparulo's been a player, coach and advisor,

Womens, men/coed teams and singles have seen their prime.

Each new experience makes him the more wiser.

We all know Willy as NCTTA president,

But when it comes to twenty years we salute you for club building well spent.

For 2018-19 season, the best price that Doublefish balls can be purchased through its US distributor is $110 for every 100 balls. This is an increase of 37.5% over previous years and this is after the negotiation by NCTTA representatives.

The purpose of this is to establish a new avenue for NCTTA member schools to purchase balls directly from Doublefish factory in China for a heavily discounted price.

The 2018-19 NCTTA season will be using the latest version of Doublefish V40+ balls.

These balls are different than the ones used in previous seasons and can be identified by the yellow star on the top left corner of the box with text ‘TEAM WORLD CUP 2018-2019’.

Price (including shipping)

*Duty/Customs: may potentially be charged to the recipient, especially given the capricious US/China economic relationship right now.

SHIPPING

Balls will be shipped directly from DF factory in Guangzhou and the estimated time to arrive in the US would be 1-2 weeks. It will be harder to pinpoint the exact delivery date since customs is an unpredictable factor.

If you need balls by a specific date for a specific purpose, please order directly from the US supplier.

I want to order

We are currently looking for a few buyers to test out the purchase process. You’ll obviously receive all of your money back if we are unable to fulfill the order.

If you are interested, please fill out the form here, a seperate mail with payment link will be sent to you ~Wednesday Oct 3rd.

Limit: 1 order per person/school as we are in the alpha testing stage

Q&A

Q: Can I resell the balls

A: No. These balls are meant as a member benefit for NCTTA schools/athletes to practice with.

Q: Can I receive the balls in China and bring it back to US/Canada by myself.

A: Not right now. Shipping to China requires more logistic efforts, will roll out in the near future if there is sufficient demand. Here is the approximate price to have the balls shipped to China

Q: I have more questions!!!

A: Either add a comment here directly on this document or email: vp.internal@nctta.org. I will add common questions to this Q&A section.