National Collegiate Table Tennis Association News

The summer before college, Helen Huang met Mr. Su, a table tennis fanatic who had ‘club hours’ every week at his house in Greenville, South Carolina. With only one table, the ten club members usually played doubles to give everyone an opportunity to play. It was there that the seed of Huang’s interest in competitive table tennis was first planted. Thanks to Mr. Su and his club, that seed of interest blossomed into an interest strong enough to compel her to join the table tennis club when she arrived at her school.

Within the next three years, Huang rose to become co-president of the thirty-member club, as well as New England Division Director of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA), the governing body of competitive collegiate table tennis in the United States.

Today, about four years after her eventful visit to Mr. Su’s club, Huang, a materials science and engineering senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been crowned president of the NCTTA. This past March, her enthusiasm for table tennis and the respect she has earned from her peers paid off – she was elected by NCTTA members nationwide to a one-year presidency.

Huang admits that the transition from 1999-2000 president, Karen Chang, a Wellesley graduate and former junior table tennis star, has not been easy due to a lack of consistency in rules and procedures across the divisions that the NCTTA governs. "The transition was difficult because we don’t really have anything set and for the organization to really expand, everything needs to be standardized so that competition is fair for all players."

Moreover, Huang notes the difficulty of bringing about changes because officers rarely get an opportunity to convene. Huang explains, "It’s hard to standardize everything especially when we can’t all meet up in person and discuss, and can only communicate electronically."

Among the many problems that Huang deals with is keeping players motivated. Thus, the NCTTA hosts a school-year long league that encourages competition among schools within each geographical region. The culminating event of each season is the NCTTA Championships, a crown that was captured this past school year by Johns Hopkins University. "Hopefully, by having this league," says Huang, "we can give even the former top junior players a reason to continue playing in college."

Despite such obstacles, the NCTTA has seen itself grow rapidly in the past couple of years. In fact, two new divisions – the Northwest Division and the Midwest Division – will be added this year to the already existing five divisions. The Northwest Division, headed by Tim Titrud, will include the Washington/Oregon area, while the Midwest Division, directed by Ty Petty of Purdue University, will include the Illinois/Indiana region.

Recently returning from the U.S. Open in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she met up with USATT officials and other interested parties, Huang has already begun to deal head-on with NCTTA issues. Among the major issues in question is the recent ITTF decision to increase ball sizes from 38mm to 40mm. As of now, the colleges participating in the league will vote at the start of the season. Whatever ball size is chosen by the majority of schools will be used for all matches played during this year.

When league competition begins this September, Huang says the only regret she has is that she won’t be competing this season. However, be sure to watch out as she’s certain to proudly represent the NCTTA with her leadership and direction (if not her table tennis skills).

Keep updated with results through this bimonthy column or by visiting the official NCTTA website at http://www.nctta.org. The NCTTA is proudly sponsored by Outblaze, Newgy, and TTSuperstore.com, and seeks additional sponsors.