Sounding like something out of the hit TV series “Survivor,” members of the Utah table tennis team made the scary 15-hour drive through snowstorms in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to compete in NCTTA tournaments in California.

That incredible journey amid treacherous road conditions is history. Starting this spring, NCTTA welcomes a new Rocky Mountain Division that will keep teams like Utah much closer to home. There’s really no reason now for the Utes and others on the team to make the long trip to compete in the Northern California Division at Stanford University.

The Utah players definitely won’t miss the long ride to Palo Alto, CA. “They were delighted with the opportunity to play in a new division closer to home,” says Ed Toomey, NCTTA Recruitment Committee chair.

Give Toomey much of the credit for creating the new division. “I noticed on the NCTTA website that we have divisions in all parts of the United States except for the states along the Rocky Mountain range,” he says.

Toomey is familiar with the Utah landscape in Salt Lake City. He’s a Utah graduate and has two daughters who attended the school.
The Rocky Mountain Division is growing. Westminster College in Salt Lake City has an active table tennis club led by club president Zackary Burley. Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, both in Provo, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, also have active clubs. Two other Utah schools may join the league as well: Weber State in Ogden and Utah State in Logan.

Toomey says future plans (2011-2012) are to build the Rocky Mountain Division by attracting other schools in several other nearby states, such as Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. In time, this could end up leading to several new divisions in the western half of the country.

According to NCTTA rules, since the new division formed after the start of the Fall 2010 semester, they will not be eligible to compete in the College Table Tennis Championships until April 2012, says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo.

Got a lead on some new schools or divisions that could join NCTTA?
Contact recruiting@nctta.org