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CONTACT: Kenneth Lim PHONE: (800) 581-6770 |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April
12, 2013 No Teammates, No Worries Singles Players See Beyond the Challenges at
the 2013 NCTTA National Championships This
weekend, 112 collegiate athletes will compete in the 2013 NCTTA National
Championships’ men’s and women’s singles competition in Rockford, IL. But not
everyone will have a coach or teammates to offer support and advice from the
sidelines. Sheena
Tsang, a graduating senior at UC Davis is her school’s only representative at
the National Championships. Tsang will compete in the women’s singles
competition, and this is the 22 year old’s first
year playing in the NCTTA. “I’ve
been in sports where cheering for teammates involved screaming and yelling
for each other in support,” the sociology major and aspiring law student
said. “So it’s kind of a big change and
something that I’m not used to.” 21-year-old men’s singles player
Clément Le Coz will also make his way to his first National Championship
alone. Originally from France, the University of Oregon junior faces a
language barrier in addition to the opponents standing in his way. “It is a bit scary for a foreign guy like me who does
not speak English so well,” Le Coz said. “Going to Nationals requires a lot of preparation and furthermore, I am
going by myself.” But despite not having teammates or supporters
around, players like Le Coz and Tsang see the opportunity to compete and do
well for their schools as enough to make the National Championships a
challenge to relish. “My first goal is having fun and I’m not going there for
regrets,” Le Coz said. “I want to play as good as I can and represent my
university as well as possible. It will be tough but I love adversity.” And
it’s not just the singles debutants that fancy their chances against the
odds. Seasoned player Olmo Sebastian Zavala Romero
will represent Florida State University in the men’s singles competition this
weekend, and remains unfazed by the pressure of being his school’s only
representative at the National Championships. “I
believe some players play a lot better when their have support from their
teammates and others don't,” said Zavala, a 3rd year Ph.D.
student. “And I’m not really worried about not having support. I kind of like
playing against the crowd.” Zavala, 33, is a 4-time under-18
Mexican national champion who stopped playing competitively when he was 22. Zavala
also coaches the FSU table tennis team. “The team is great. We have a
motivated group and people are getting better fast, but most of them didn't
play when they were young and it is very difficult to be rated 2000 in less
than 2 years of training,” Zavala said. Zavala believes he can help his
team a lot more by training them rather than getting a good result for
himself at the National Championships, and hopes to share as many pictures
and videos of the experience as he can. Hence instead of being over concerned
with his tournament performance - Zavala admits he hasn’t trained as regularly
as he’d have liked to - the former Mexican national team member sees this
year’s competition as a potential teaching tool for his charges instead. “My main objective is not to go to
the nationals and do great,” Zavala said. “What I want is to share this
beautiful sport with others and give them some of the experiences that the
sport gave me when I was younger. I hope to teach them things through the
sport that will help them in life.” Participating
in her second National Championships is Vanessa Petroj,
a graduate student at the University of Connecticut. Petroj,
who first started playing table tennis when she was 8 in her hometown of Uzdin, Serbia, is looking forward to the competition,
thanks to the support of her teammates, club and school. “I'm
happy to say that my teammates, friends and fellow Huskies are all behind
me,” the 24-year-old linguistics student said. “I’m proud to represent UConn
at the Nationals for the second time in the history of the table tennis club
and I will do my best to not disappoint them.” For
Petroj, the camaraderie shared by collegiate table
tennis players has all but eliminated the psychological advantage of being a
school’s only representative as well. "I
felt like a part of the NCTTA community the minute I walked into the gym,” Petroj said, referring to her first Nationals experience
at last year’s championships in Plano, TX. “The NCTTA community has made me
feel at home in a country that's still so foreign to me.” Though
none of her schoolmates were present with her last year, Petroj
did not feel alone. Together at the 2012 National Championships with her were
friends Haley Huang from Northeastern University, Jurica
Bulovic from Brown University and childhood friend Brana Vlasic from the University of California, San
Diego. “Even though I had
no one from UConn, I still had friends with me,” Petroj
said. “This year is a different situation, and even though Haley and Jurica won't be there, I'm coming back to a bunch of
awesome people I met last year.” Ultimately, for NCTTA members
like Romero and Petroj, it is this sense of
community and friendships made through competition that keeps them coming
back year after year. “I
think being the only representative at the Nationals is a disadvantage only
because it would be amazing to have a whole team to share this experience
with,” Petroj said. “The pressure is always on,
either external or self-imposed, but last year's Nationals made me realize
that while I am among table tennis players, supporters and fans, I am never alone.” The 2013 College Table Tennis Championships
is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Rockford Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and
is one of the most competitive table tennis tournaments in North America
featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed
Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Newgy
Industries, Butterfly, PR etc. Rockford Table Tennis club, Fitzgerald
Equipment, Rockford Park District Full list of participants and
seeds: http://www.nctta.org/champs/2013/news.html Players and spectators alike will
enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the 2013 College
Table Tennis Championships.
The event starts Friday April 12th and continues to Sunday April 14th at the
Forrest Tennis Center in Rockford, Illinois. About NCTTA The National Collegiate Table
Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established
exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As
the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and
Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America.
www.nctta.org About USA Table
Tennis Headquartered in Colorado Springs,
USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States,
serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a
year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States
Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org ### |
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