President's and Executive Director's Report

March/April 2006

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman & Doru Gheorghe

USATT’s 2005 Annual Report

Dear USATT Members,

USATT promotes table tennis participation and the development of table tennis athletes’ skills at all levels through programs for table tennis coaches and officials. Below is a brief recap about USATT activities, programs and services provided to its members in 2005.

USATT Coaching Certification System – Ongoing process for certification and education of US coaches. Any USATT member who fulfills the criteria could become a certified coach and then advance to the next coaching level. The certified coaches help/teach the young kids and members of all ages the necessary skills to become good players, and keep their body in good shape.

USATT held four coaching seminars:

• Coaching seminar - Open to all coaches from US - Colorado Springs, CO, Feb. 11-13, 2005

• Coaching seminar - Open to all coaches from US - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, July 7, 2005

• Coaching seminar - Open to all coaches from US - Colorado Springs, CO, Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2005

• Coaching seminar - Open to all coaches from US - Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 15, 2005

USATT has 392 active certified coaches.

USATT Officials – Ongoing process for certification and education of US umpires and referees conducted by the Rules and Officials Committee. Any USATT members that fulfill the criteria could become a certified umpire and then advance to the next level. USATT has 264 active Umpires, including 39 International Umpires. There are 36 certified Referees, 8 at the International level and 8 at the National level.

USATT Sanctioned Tournaments – In 2005, USATT sanctioned over 220 tournaments during 2005. The tournaments were sanctioned by the Tournament Committee through the Regional Tournament Coordinators. These tournaments were open to all members and contained events for all ages and levels. The tournaments were organized according to USATT standards, under tournament director coordination and following the International Table Tennis Federation laws. USATT set and supervised the level of the tournaments, certified umpires/officials for those tournaments and processed the ratings of each participant according to the results.

USA Table Tennis Magazine – The bimonthly magazine issued by our organization contains information related to table tennis activities in the U.S., including coaching (tactics, techniques, sports psychology and nutrition), tournament coverage, player profiles and interviews, ratings & rankings, reports, and other information related to the sport. Magazines were sent to all USATT members. The magazine is now in many bookstores and newsstands, promoting the sport and USATT beyond the membership.

USATT Web Page – USATT maintained and updated on a weekly basis the USATT web page, www.usatt.org, in order to keep members informed about all aspects of table tennis activities in the US such as: schedule and results of sanctioned tournaments, ratings of each member updated weekly, ITTF news, USOC updates, coaching seminars, news about clubs in the US and programs throughout the country, officials and umpires listing, national teams news, results and other information related to table tennis activities in the US and all over the world.

National Teams – In 2005 USATT funded the following programs for its National Teams as follows:

 National Junior and Cadet Teams:

• Training camp and participation in the Swedish International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Junior Circuit (WJC), Orebro, SWE, Feb. 19-27, 2005

• North American Championships (juniors & cadets) and cadet training camp, Montreal, Canada, March 22-27, 2005

• Training camp and participation in Spain’s ITTF WJC, Plata D’aro, May 9-15, 2005

• NATT Women’s Developmental Training Camp, Vancouver, CAN, June 28-July 3, 2005

• US Open ITTF Pro Tour, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, July 7-10, 2005

• Summer Training Camp, Palm Beach, FL, July 11-22, 2005

• Canadian ITTF WJC (cadets & juniors) and junior training camp, Vancouver, CAN, July 29-Aug. 5, 2005

• USATT Women’s Developmental Training Camp (juniors & cadets), China, Aug. 6-22, 2005

• Brazil ITTF WJC, Piracicaba, BRA, Sept. 8-11, 2005

• World Cadet Challenge Cup, Santo Domingo, Oct. 23-30, 2005

• ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals - Santo Domingo, Oct. 23-30, 2005

Women’s and Men’s National Teams:

• Training camp, Shanghai, China, April 17-24, 2005

• World Championships, Shanghai, CHN, April 25-May 6, 2005

• NA Championships, Montreal, CAN, March 25-27, 2005

• US Open ITTF Pro Tour, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, July 7-10, 2005

USATT funded our top female player Gao Jun participation in 4 ITTF Pro Tours

• Pro Tour Panasonic China Open, Sept. 8-11, 2005

• Pro Tour Volkswagen China Open, Sept. 15-18, 2005

• Pro Tour Liebherr German Open, Nov. 9-13, 2005

• Pro Tour Liebherr Swedish Open, Nov. 17-20, 2005

• Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals, Fuzhou, CHN, Dec. 9-11, 2005

Competitions organized by USATT – USATT organized the following competitions:

• Liebherr US Open ITTF/Pro Tour - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, July 7-10, 2005 - over 700 participants - open to all USATT and ITTF members.

• Junior Olympics/Junior Nationals - New Orleans, LA, July 29-32, 2005 - for kids 18 years old and younger.

• National Championships - Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 14-17, 2005 - over 870 participants - open to all USATT members.

• US Collegiate Team Trials, Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 14, 2005.

• US Open Paralympics Table Tennis Championships, Las Vegas, NV, Dec.14-17, 2005.

• US National Team Trials (all levels), Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 15-17, 2005.

• USATT League, which has 155 active leagues, with 4451 players and 60,732 processed matches in its first 28 months.

The 2006 US National Team members are:

• Women: Gao Jun, Jasna Reed, Crystal Huang, Nan Li.

• Men: Ilija Lupulesku, Mark Hazinski, Adam Hugh, Barney Reed.

• Junior Girls: Judy Hugh, Atha Fong, Stephanie Shih, Barbara Wei.

• Junior Boys: Adam Hugh, John Leach, Trevor Runyan, Misha Kazantsev.

• Cadet Girls: Olena Sowers, Ariel Hsing, Amy Huang, Alicia Wei.

• Cadet Boys: Justen Yao, Amaresh Sahu, A.J. Brewer, Joseph Wang.

Results at international competition and awards accomplished by members of our National, Junior and Cadet Team in 2005:

• USA Women – Gao Jun – 2005 Female Athlete of the Year (See article page 9).

Junior National Teams

• Adam Hugh - 2005 Male Athlete of the Year (See article page 9).

• NA Championships - Adam Hugh winner junior boys’ singles, and semifinalist junior boys’ doubles with Misha Kazantsev.

• NA Championships - Judy Hugh finished 2^nd in the junior girls’ singles, 2^nd place in junior girls’ doubles with Barbara Wei and 3^rd place junior girls’ doubles Laura Xiao and Sophia Yi.

• Canada ITTF WJC- Judy Hugh/Barbara Wei 3^rd place junior girls’ team and junior girls’ doubles.

• Brazil ITTF WJC – Barbara Wei 3^rd place junior girls’ singles event, Barbara Wei/Laura Xiao 3^rd place junior girls’ doubles event.

Cadet National Teams

• World Cadet Challenge Cup - 5^th place cadet girls’ team event and 7^th place cadet boys’ team event.

• ITTF/WJC Brazil - 2^nd place cadet boys’ team event and 4^th place cadet girls’ team event.

• NA Championships - Jeff Huang 2^nd place, cadet boys’ singles and Steven Chan semifinalist cadet boys’ singles.

• NA Championships - Jeff Huang/Steven Chan, 2^nd place cadet boys’ doubles.

• NA Championships - Stephanie Shih 2nd place cadet girls’ singles, Olena Sowers

• 3^rd place cadet girls’ singles.

• NA Championships - Olena Sowers/Alicia Sowers 2^nd place cadet girls’ doubles, and Stephanie Shih/Jennifer Mast 3^rd place cadet girls’ doubles.

• Canada ITTF WJC - Jeff Huang/Steven Chan 1^st place cadet boys’ team and cadet boys’ doubles events. Jeff Huang 2^nd place cadet boys’ singles and Steven Chan 3^rd place cadet boys’ singles.

• Canada ITTF WJC - Stephanie Shih/Olena Sower 3^rd place cadet girls’ team event and 2^nd place cadet girls’ doubles.

• Tamasu Butterfly Scholarship Recipient - Olena Sowers

USATT awarded financial incentives based on performance and stipends to its National Team members and coaches.

US Paralympics

Although USATT is not the NGB for Paralympics, it does provide some financial and administrative support. USATT wishes to acknowledge the following achievements and programs:

• Para Pan Am Championships, Mar Del Plata, ARG - 11 medals and four players qualified for the 2006 World Championships.

• US Open Paralympics Championships, Las Vegas, NV - two gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.

US Collegiate Table Tennis

USATT provided financial support for the following events:

• ACUI Collegiate Nationals, Ft. Worth, TX, April 1-2, 2005

• NCTTA Women’s College Team Championships, Ft. Worth, TX, April 1-2, 2005

• US Collegiate Team Trials, Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 14, 2005

The 2006 Collegiate Team’s members are:

Women: Whitney Ping, Jackie Lee, Katherine Wu, Amanda Dubina.

Men: Adam Hugh, Han Xiao, Shashin Shodhan, Pan Lin.

We would like to thank all USATT members, volunteers, staff, Board and committee members, officials, sponsors and, of course, the USOC and the USATT Foundation, for supporting the development of table tennis in USA.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheri Pittman, USATT President

Doru Gheorghe, USATT Executive Director