Photo of UC Davis Women's Coach Niyu Jian

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

Not all NCTTA teams have coaches. An NCTTA coach, usually unpaid, must devote a sizeable and selfless amount of time and resources to make their team tournament ready. But the rewards are priceless and intangible at times in the form of loudnproud cheering, verbal gratitude, and sometimes just a hearty laugh or smile of acknowledgement and thanks.

And coaches are committed to their craft, constantly wanting to find new ways of helping their team improve, learn new techniques, and just be better human beings in general.

After speaking with Niyu Jian of the University of California, Davis, this further solidified my regard for coaches. Jian is the coach for the UC Davis Women’s team and is quite proud of all his players.

“Our women's team has been playing exceptionally well this year,” Jian said.

“The team was able to beat UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UC SantaCruz in the Northcal divisional, winning first place. All the girls were super excited to play in the West Regionals and came to practice often despite the academic stress (it was the midterm week for us when regional happened). Additionally, the club is struggling financially to cover the cost of attending the nationals but we eventually overcome the problem.”

It's the balance of school and table tennis that an NCTTA coach must contend with, and as you can see, Jian respectfully acknowledges all the priorities that his players have.

The largest number of coaches coming this year to the Champs are from schools in California, followed by the host state of Texas. Be sure to watch how coaches in Round Rock use their knowledge and motivational strategies to hype up their respective teams and keep their players in top shape for the battle of the paddles!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org