The Alabama table tennis club has been building up a reputation in the Southeast and is hoping to put together a strong performance in the United States Table Tennis Association Regional tournament and challenge the regionally-dominant Mississippi College team.
That is pretty impressive for a club that didn’t exist three years ago.
Alan “The Great Wall” Chen, vice president of the table tennis club and one of its original founders, remembers these early days well.
“It started off with just a few of my friends playing in the [Ferguson Center],” Chen said. “People who were there were impressed when we played, so we decided to go to the Recreation Center and start this club.”
Even though it sounds like a few guys meeting at the Ferg for some ping pong, they were more organized than that.
Club members would play each other wherever they could, relocating to Ridgecrest or Lakeside if the Ferg table was taken. As long as the match had a witness, they could text Chen the results, and he would update the rankings after every match.
“It really felt like we were an underground club,” Chen said. “I mean, we had a rankings system, places to play and everything; we just weren’t recognized by Alabama yet.”
The ranking system even factors in style points. If you were lucky enough to have Blake Myers witness your match, he would grade your style points. Myers was the official style-points rater. He would give players extra points if they hit a no-look shot, hit one behind your back or even diving shots.
“It was mostly for street cred,” Chen said. “Style points didn’t really effect the overall standings very much. It was more of a bragging rights thing for the players at the time.”
Chen, a senior majoring in accounting, was the president of the club until he had to leave for an internship, handing over his job to James Reinecke.
“I’ve always loved playing,” Reinecke said. “So, when I found out I could play in college, I just had to.”
Anyone can join the table tennis club here at the Capstone. The player-player coaching philosophy gives the table tennis club a friendly interactive setting even in the heat of competition. Reinecke invites all who are interested to show up at practice on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. They take place in the south gym, where the table tennis club now has seven different tables.
“Our goal is to have 10 tables in the south gym,” Chen said. “Plus the two we have in the Rec. It would be enough for the club to expand and hopefully hold a tournament here.”
Reinecke and Chen have high hopes for Alabama table tennis.
“We plan on making some noise at regionals this year,” Reinecke said.
Chen said, “Our goal is to keep playing well at regionals. We have a rivalry with Alabama-Huntsville right now. We’re hoping Auburn and Alabama-Birmingham form up a team so we can have our own Alabama division.”
The rivalry with UAH has not gone well lately, with UAH’s David Laundry being the No. 1 player in the state of Alabama. Despite the hardships against UAH and in the regionals, the players still pride themselves on nicknames and diversity.
The team’s road to regional success is personified with players like Roger “The Graveyard” Vasquez and Tim “The Tornado” Richardson.
The team’s history has included players from 12 different countries, including China, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Nigeria and South Africa.
“It makes us much better,” Chen said. “A lot of our team is from right here in Alabama, and since ping pong is much bigger overseas, it makes our entire team a lot better and more competitive.”
