Ping Pong Catching On
NEIRAD enilno edition
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DHS has a new afterschool activity, ping pong. One of the most popular sports in the world is now the high school’s newest club. Junior Britt Gordon is responsible for the creation of the club, whose goal he says is to “improve the necessary skills in ping pong so that one may be successful in life” he says. The staff advisor is Mr. Patrick Egan, although he credits Britt for doing the majority of the work in bringing ping pong to school.
The club meets every Wednesday after school in the cafeteria, where games are played on the school’s three tables. The tables are left over from the old high school, and have suffered damage due to their age and a lack of care. “Hopefully, we can get funding for [ping pong] and buy new tables” Mr. Egan said.
Britt lists the best players so far as juniors Evan Cunningham, Henry and Clarke Glavin, Charlie Taylor, Connor McCarthy, Robby Schindler, and himself. So far, Evan and Charlie have won the individual tournaments. Despite the fact these players as well as all the club members are all male, the club is still co-ed, and Mr. Egan stated that “we don’t want anyone to be excluded.”
Ping pong, while new to the high school, has been popular worldwide since its creation in the late 19th Century. It is estimated that there are more than 40 million competitive players worldwide, making it one of the most widely-played sports on the planet. The International Table Tennis Federation was founded in 1926, and currently lists 205 member countries. The sport was added to the Olympics in 1988, and this past summer in Beijing the sports’ competitions were dominated by East Asian countries like China, Taiwan, and South Korea, historically the epicenters of the ping pong world.
The United States is currently ranked 40th in the world, and has never received an Olympic medal in the sport. But despite its low worldwide ranking, ping pong is a very popular sport in the United States. There are 124 colleges in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association, including local colleges like UCONN and Wesleyan. Other high schools in Fairfield County have also created ping pong clubs. St. Joseph High School in Trumbull and Staples High School in Westport both have a ping pong club, and The Connecticut Table Tennis Association is based in Fairfield.
So far, Darien’s table tennis players have enjoyed their experience. Attendance at the meetings has grown every week, and those that have come have enjoyed it. “It’s a great experience, it teaches you about ping pong and life” Henry Glavin said.
But ping pong is not the only thing going on at these meetings. Students waiting for their turn on the tables talk, do homework, and “listen to cool music” as Connor McCarthy puts it. It isn’t even necessary to have experience in the sport; “some players have never played before” Mr. Egan said. All the members of the club are hoping that ping pong will become one of DHS’s most popular activities. While currently, Darien’s players only compete against each other, though Britt and Mr. Egan are hoping that the club will popular enough and receive school funding. Though he was only half serious, Britt said “we’re looking to becoming a full team next season and competing against other schools.”
