Todd Sweeris' Other Life

For years now, in issue after issue of this magazine, we’ve been reading about U.S. Team member Todd Sweeris’ on-court triumphs – how, for example, he’s been our Under 22 Champion, then our National Men’s Singles finalist, and now a 2-time Olympian. But what’s also praiseworthy about this 27-year-old is the success he’s made of his off-court working life with the much respected Deloitte & Touche accounting/consulting firm (90,000 employees in 30 countries, 30,000 in 100 U.S. cities). I’d like to tell you here how Todd came to be connected with Deloitte and why he feels fortunate to be able to have a career with them. And in the process I’ll tell you a little about Todd himself.

Of course, as you’d guess, all this has more than a little something to do with Todd’s background – his parents, his upbringing, his desire to win at table tennis. Take a look at father Dell’s Diary, for instance – the Aug. 30, 1983 entry:

"7 – 7:45 pm and 9 – 9:30 pm....

Practice routine same as usual. However,...I started a new drill where I mixed in chops that Todd was to loop and I blocked; then we countered steady till I chopped again. The key in this drill is to get the first loop in and then to handle what comes after that. This drill is very similar to actual game conditions.

Practice rating – very good.

PS. During the 15 minutes (17 minutes actually) of F.H. to F.H. Todd only missed 4 times."

And now the following account of Todd’s play at the CNE Open at Toronto, Sept. 1-4, 1983:

..."Dell," says Connie [Todd’s mother] excitedly, "did you see, in the Under 1200’s, Todd did his little flip and the other kid missed it!"

But sometimes Todd’s shots don’t always go in. "Oh," he complains, "you are playing so bad!"

"Todd," says Dell watching from the sidelines, "keep your cool now."

Todd is not winning – and you can tell.

His distress gets to Connie: "I never thought I’d see the day when Todd would be acting up at the table. And I certainly thought that if he ever did I’d take him out of the match."

Todd, as if his concentration is divided, as if he were always keeping a watchful eye, a listening ear, on his proud parents in the background, suddenly takes this moment to turn around, stamp a little, and says, "Don’t expect me to win. He’s better than YOU, MOM!"

To which Dell responds, "Naw. Now, c’mon, son, he’s not that good."

Would not many a reader looking backwards for clues to Todd’s future success find some here?

And it’s hardly a surprise after reading that precise Diary entry – "15 minutes (17 minutes actually") – to be told that Dell’s an accountant, and that, as Todd grows up, enters high school and begins to think not just about winning his next tournament but about going to college, he himself takes an accounting course. "You know why I liked it?" he asks rhetorically. "Because with problem after problem I always came to an answer. I like surety, I don’t like gray areas."

Later, taking university courses – "I knew, even while I was having success at table tennis, that sooner or later I’d have to have a job, ensure a future for myself" – Todd thought about becoming an economist. "But that wasn’t practical – not unless I was prepared to pursue advanced degrees, which I wasn’t."

So when did he approach Deloitte and Touche about working for them?

When he was a Junior at the University of Maryland. "I’d never had a job," he says – "other than being the serious table tennis player that had gotten me to the ‘96 Olympics – so I decided to apply for and was happy to receive an Internship with Deloitte and Touche. I had good credentials – the University of Maryland’s Business School was in the Top 25 nationally, my Personal References included, among others, my father’s partner, Walt Monroe, and, as Captain of our ‘96 Olympic Table Tennis Team, I could show that I’d been in a position of leadership, could handle responsibility."

As Todd pursued his ordered way to graduation and permanent employment with Deloitte and Touche, he must have continued to take some time off from his university classes to travel to tournaments, else he wouldn’t be going to Sydney now. Perhaps readers wonder, as I did, if his professors were always cooperative?

Turns out they were – all except one, his Business Law professor. "He was adamant, " says Todd, "that, as his Syllabus had insisted from the beginning, no one would be excused from his Final, which was scheduled at the same time I had to be playing in the National’s to be eligible to participate in the 2000 Olympic Trials. Perhaps not knowing me (there were 100 students in this class), he thought I was conning him, or perhaps he later looked up my grades and saw I had nothing but high A’s in his course. But when Bob Fox, our Team Leader who was also a Professor, personally called him, he relented, though reluctantly, and allowed me to take a make-up exam."

This professor was a guy who didn’t like any gray areas either? Never mind. Todd graduated without mishap, and, after taking full-time employment with Deloitte and Touche in 1998, went on to again make the Olympics. And now, a bonus, Deloitte agreed to sponsor the U.S. Team, at least to some degree.

"After the Toronto Trials," says Todd, "we knew we’d be sending our largest contingent of players ever to the Olympics (8 players in all), so a number of us thought that not only I but Khoa Nguyen, who works for an Internet company, might get some sponsorship help."

And they did. "Our Team had Stiga playing outfits," Todd explains, " but if Deloitte would provide us with leisure wear – for traveling, for sightseeing around the Olympic Village – they would get international visibility. And if, as part of our Olympic training, they’d enable us to go to the Brazilian Open immediately after the U.S. Open, we’d get some much needed practice in Singles and Doubles. In return, we could do demos and exhibitions for them." When they agreed, Todd thought, "This could be the start of a great relationship not only between myself and Deloitte, but between them and USA Table Tennis."

Deloitte and Touche has continued to give Todd time off to maintain his high standard of play. No wonder Fortune magazine for three straight years has named them one of the "100 best companies to work for." But what work, readers must be interested to know, does Todd actually do for them?

"Well," he says, "they draw revenue in two ways. One way is by counseling – they show you how to make your computer system better, or how and where to set up an office. The other way is by providing you with their traditional accounting and auditing services. I work with tax returns, particularly with real estate partnerships. Deloitte and Touche have been unbelievably flexible with me, for our two busiest times are February through April 15 and (since individual and corporate returns can be extended several months) Aug. 15-Sept. 15, and it’s precisely at these times that the Olympic Trials and Olympic Games are held. Getting returns out the door, even when partner-clients want small changes, involves me doing essential preparatory work. So, as was the case just recently, I can’t abuse the leeway that’s been given me, and so couldn’t make the Traverse City, Michigan Too Much Fun golf and table tennis outing. I had Too Much Work to do."

Todd likes the casual company environment and the young group of people he works with. He also likes being given lots of responsibility – "right out of college," he says, "I had talks with clients on a daily basis." What he most dislikes are things left undone. There have to be a lot of those around ever-hectic tax time and Todd says, "Until you do them, and do them right, they can drive you crazy."

Of course Deloitte is pleased by Todd’s conscientiousness, but they must also be very impressed by the fact that within a few months of being hired he passed all four parts of the CPA exam on his first try – which I understand only about 10% do. Todd says he managed that by staying focused. "Since I don’t like to leave any rough edges, I over-prepared. Followed the advice my father gave me when he said that, if you’re pressed for time, it’s better to practice table tennis an hour a day for 20 days than for 20 hours in one concerted session. I took this stay-with-it-everyday, business-like approach and never felt that much pressure – especially since if you pass two of the four sections and get 50% right on the other two, you don’t have to re-take those two you passed. At worst it would just be a matter of time before I did what I had to do.

Yes, as we saw from Dell’s Diary, the key, 17 years ago or a decade and a half later, is to get the first loop in and then handle what comes after. Editor Larry Hodges calls Todd a table tennis "technician." And Todd says that perhaps there are connections between his analytic approach to work and table tennis. "Five years ago I saw I had a backhand weakness and that I could be a better player by switching to pips on my backhand. Since I have a heavy-spin loop with my forehand, the dead pips provide me with a combination that my opponents have to constantly adjust to. I’ve never been thought of as a flashy shotmaker, but now I’m considered a solid all-around player, one who can wear you down with his steadiness. When I felt that I could have trouble with the Auditing part of the CPA exam, I took a course in it, and that made me a better all-around candidate – a complete player, so to speak."

Todd expects to continue playing table tennis seriously, though just how much of a difference the 40mm ball will make to him remains to be seen. He thinks the argument that the new ball will be viewed better on TV is bogus. His theory is that the Europeans are trying to catch China by slowing the game down, and so hope to make the play more dependent on power.

Working full-time and playing fiercely competitive table tennis doesn’t leave Todd much time for anything else. But he does enjoy golf, and his idea of a great vacation would be to play the best courses in England, Ireland, and Scotland. He also likes to read – says he’s just finished Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, which he liked much better than The Sun Also Rises – and wishes he were less a matter-of-fact person and had more of a creative, artistic side.

I told Todd I sometimes picture the early Hemingway, whom I much admire, looking over my shoulder as I write, and then I try to imagine, alas, what he’d think of this or that, and so I try to do better. I ask Todd if there’s any particular athlete he much admires. "Cal Ripkin," he answers. "He played for the Baltimore Orioles for 19 years. Was a total professional. Showed up to work, to play every day, and didn’t endorse products he didn’t believe were worthy of him."

Todd obviously has strong values. The qualities he says he most likes to see in a person are "Honesty, loyalty, humor, and ‘heart.’ Especially honesty."

When, preparatory to ending this Profile, I asked Todd to name someone he knew personally who embodied those qualities, his answer might have been found in a longtime Diary of his own. "I commend my mother," he says, "for her perfectionism, for the excellence she demanded from both my sister Michelle and me in our youth, and for her competitiveness – she’s always been even more competitive than my father. But from him particularly I learned to be decent and personable, straightforward and honest. I saw some of my friends’ fathers urge their sons not to use vile language, drink, or smoke, yet these fathers indulged themselves in this "Do as I say, not as I do" way. Not my father – and for what he did, and didn’t do, he was a great role model for me, and I continue to thank him for it."

Cool, Todd. Cool.