By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

The most recent NCTTA Championships held in Rockford, IL were a success in many ways. First, we had elite college table tennis players battling it out for exquisite 3D-printed trophies and the glory. But also, our volunteers, who are the pivotal backbone of our organization, ensured that everything ran smoothly.

Volunteers have multiple reasons to come help out at the Champs and beyond, and some can even be inspired by the tournament itself to figure out new ways to help the college table tennis organization we all love and support.

One such volunteer is Mr. Chance Key. Returning as an umpire to volunteering for the first time in almost a decade, he was so positively affected by the logistics of it all, that he has decided to make a generous donation to NCTTA’s scholarship fund on behalf of the Doris M Rice Foundation (Named after his mother) and matched by his workplace Wells Fargo. The total donation is $4000!

Many college table tennis aficionados would have known Mr. Key as an Assistant Head Coach (2010-2012) and then Head Coach (2013-2016) of Lindenwood University’s team.

Mr. Key first became enamored with the sport in his native Detroit, Michigan when he “saw the Chinese National Team play at the Cobo Hall Arena Detroit, Michigan.” He started out “with a Chinese pen holder grip with short pips on one side only.” Then, he changed to the J-pen style with smooth rubber. Reaching as high a rating as close to 1800, a knee injury sidelined his playing, and so he pivoted to coaching at Lindenwood. Lindenwood would eventually make it to a No.3 national ranking in teams at one point!

When asked further about the reasons for his generous donation, Mr. Key stated:

The idea of donating money did not enter my head until I started feeling the excitement and electricity from all the players. It reminded me of the excitement my players had in playing at the championships. In addition, I noticed how Willy had a nice Taco bar, hot hamburgers, and hot chicken with all the trimmings for the volunteers. I started to think that if [NCTTA President] Willy treats his volunteers with this level of care, concerning food, then he will treat my financial investment with the same level of care.

Additionally, Mr. Key explains how his mother’s fiscal responsibility has shaped who he is and how he hopes to empower young students in NCTTA to take care of their finances as well.

My mom has a philosophy of zero credit card debt, paying cash for everything, and keeping her “wants” to almost zero therefore she spends little money. Using that same philosophy, I conducted an experiment in which instead of spending $9.00 for my daily Starbucks coffee and $6.00 for my Starbucks muffin, I placed that money into a savings account for one year. It added up to $3,900 ($15 per day X 5 days X 52 weeks). I brought my own coffee from home, in a mug, and now I eat a granola bar and lose approximately twenty pounds. I decided that not only can I financially donate to NCTTA, but I can hopefully inspire young people to make a choice to sacrifice their immediate “wants” and have the power to save money instead of digging deeper into unforgivable credit card debt purchasing things that they “want” instead of “need”.

When asked about the stipulations of the Doris M Rice Foundation contribution, which included highlighting women’s teams, Mr. Key noted:

I wanted to ensure that empowering women must be the focus of the foundation because my wife, mother, grandmother Debbie, and great-grandmother Georgia are all strong women that helped shaped my life. I wanted to ensure that the women players in NCTTA had financial assistance to inspire them to compete in NCTTA throughout the college careers and beyond college. Chelsea Edghill graduated from Lindenwood University in 2019 and is a Two time Table Tennis Olympian and Founder of Edge Sports Management in Guyana, South America.

It’s only fitting that this article coincides with the same month as Mother’s Day, to honor all the powerful mother figures in our life who shape us to make great decisions.

NCTTA President Willy Lepearulo is very grateful for the donation. “We are excited at Chance's contribution and at being a part of the Doris M Rice Foundation and further thankful for their assistance for Women's College Table Tennis"

NCTTA expresses its utmost gratitude to Mr. Chance Key and the Doris M Rice Foundation for this generous donation.

Featured in the above photo is Mr. Key's mother, the namesake for the Doris M Rice Foundation