TMS International Semester Smash League

By Shashin Shodhan, www.californiatabletennis.com

USATT has been developing a USATT League to turn recreational “ping-pong” players into USATT league players. While this league aims for the recreational masses, a league needed to be started for the elite players. With the San Francisco Bay Area having many clubs and being one of the strongest table-tennis regions in America, it became an ideal place to start a league for the top players. The league has star power with 2-time Olympian Khoa Nguyen, 2-time Olympian Michael Hyatt, Olympian Whitney Ping, World Team Members Barney Reed and Jackie Lee, and a double-digit number of former and current junior and cadet national team members.

Avishy Schmidt has been the surprise of the league so far, just one deuce-in-the-fifth loss away from a perfect 8-0 record. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2005.

The search for sponsors became the toughest part of setting up this league. A triple-digit number of phone calls were made to look for sponsors, and in the end we reached the goal of finding a sponsor for each team. All team members would wear shirts with their team sponsor on the back of the shirt. The title sponsor is the marketing arm of the ITTF, TMS International. We also found a team restaurant for each team since if the players were happier and treated better, the league would be closer to being a success. Each home team restaurant would provide free meals for the players and officials after each home match. We gave them some publicity on the league website but most restaurants provided the free meals as a gesture of support to the league or something they thought was minor.

The league matches have taken place at clubs during club hours on Fridays and Sundays, with special events on Saturdays. The smaller clubs such as Oakland, Mountain View, and Milpitas have had the best atmosphere with an average of about 40 spectators in each match. We have had over 30 spectators in seven of the nine matches that have been played which has been a great boost to the league’s morale. The matches in Oakland and at the India Community Center in Milpitas have had the best crowd involvement and home team atmosphere. With the league match being the only match going on in their hall, there was focused attention on it. With the larger clubs such as Palo Alto, it would not be possible to stop club play for the league match and there was lots of other play going on. However, bleachers were pulled out from the sides in front of the league table and the spectators could sit on them to give more focused attention to the match. Club tables were used and the barriers around the league table were from TMS International. TMS International was also the logo on the front of every player’s league shirt which they wore during play.

We have been fortunate to receive a large amount of publicity for the league but unfortunately, very few spectators have come from that. All five major SF Bay Area TV stations and every major San Francisco Bay Area newspaper did features on the league. Over fifteen newspapers ran features on the league. We hope that if the media is willing to run features annually, more spectators will come from the mainstream public in future years. The majority of the spectators in the league matches have been club members, friends of players, tournament players, and bystanders. Avishy Schmidt has been the sole player to have fans with signs such as “Go Avi!” cheering him on. He also had fans chanting his name in their match against Palo Alto so he seems to be the crowd favorite in this league.

As for the play, Khoa Nguyen of Sunnyvale Chevrolet Team Mountain View dominated as expected, losing only two games in his seven matches. Michael Hyatt has gone 8-1. The surprise of the league has been the spectacular play of Avishy Schmidt who is two points away from having the best record in the league. His one loss was a deuce in the fifth match to Auria Malek that ruined his otherwise perfect record. Avi’s record stands at 7-1. Michael and Avishy led Go Table Tennis Team Oakland to a 3-0 start but unfortunately, Michael missed their next match which contributed to dropping their team record to 3-1. The strongest league team, Sunnyvale Chevrolet Team Mountain View, has gone undefeated thus far as expected and is definitely the favorite to win the league. Realtor Voltaire Benedicto Team Palo Alto is 2-1 and with the addition of Barney J. Reed, will be a threat to Sunnyvale Chevrolet Team Mountain View. Alpha Pong Team Concord, led by current or former junior national team members Freddie Gabriel, Peter Zajac, and Trevor Runyan, is at 1-2. Aigoprotect Insurance Team Milpitas, led by Shashin Shodhan, and Burlingame Saab Team San Francisco, led by Misha Kazantsev, are still winless.

Barney joined the league midway as a replacement for Voltaire Benedicto who suffered a serious motorcycle accident and broke his femur. Barney, Jackie Lee and Auria Malek accounted for the five Palo Alto victories in their most recent win over Go Table Tennis Team Oakland. Over 50 spectators were on hand to watch that match at the new Oakland Club which will be run by photographer-extraordinaire Kingston Gee when it opens in October. The match strategically took place nearby Oakland Chinatown Streetfest which had over 100,000 people in attendance over the course of the weekend. Kingston Gee made fliers and many were handed out to the Streetfest crowd.

The next big event for this league will be the all-star game as something new will be tried for the first time ever in table-tennis. For those in the area, we highly recommend you come watch the matches. Next year, we plan on expanding to lower divisions with team captains selecting the teams for each division so anyone of any level in Northern California will be able to play in the leagues. The India Community Center in Milpitas, California, the largest Indian Community Center in North America, will have 8,000 square feet of wooden floor for table-tennis when it moves to a larger facility next year and all league matches for Division 2 and below will take place there. Results, features, player bios, a schedule and more information are available at www.californiatabletennis.com. Do not hesitate to contact me at shashin1@yahoo.com if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Below: Mountain View Team Members Steve Nguyen, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Khoa Nguyen, Kevin Au, Umpire Mark Copeland, League Founder Shashin Shodhan, Mountain View Club Owner Robert Chen, Palo Alto Team Members Auria Malek, Terry Young and Sean Lee.