New clubs on campus are proposed and approved every week here at Slippery Rock. One of those more recent clubs is the SRU Table Tennis Club, led by sophomore healthcare management major Anh Quan, President of the Table Tennis Club.
Quan said the club has been around for a few years now, but it has not been officially recognized by SGA until recently when he proposed it at one of the bi-weekly meetings.
“I know that table tennis is pretty popular at SRU,” Quan said. “Students are always playing it in the residence halls with their friends, and I wanted to open the club to new students.”
Professors and students alike are members of the Table Tennis Club, Quan said. It’s a place to be open, relax, and meet professors and students outside of class. He said some older members of the club have been playing table tennis for years, and some have been playing for upwards of four decades.
Quan himself has been playing table tennis since he was five years old, around the same time he began playing chess. As he got older, he chose to focus more on chess and become a more professional player of the game. He said he still plays table tennis at home with his brother and parents, and he’s won a lower level championship.
“Our two-hour meetings consist of an hour of practice and an hour of playing,” Quan said. “The practice time is for teaching the younger, newer members new tricks, tips, and improving their skills, and maybe one day, they’ll be able to beat me and the older members of the club.”
The club is open to students and faculty who are seasoned veterans of table tennis as well as those who are brand new to the game. The more experienced members would be willing to teach new players the tricks of the trade, and train them to get better and better, Quan said.
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a national league that holds table tennis tournaments all over the country, including in Erie and Pittsburgh. Quan said there are some members of the SRU Table Tennis Club that frequent these tournaments, whether in singular competition or as an audience member. He hopes that once there is a larger number of members, the club can apply to be an official part of the league.
“We’re looking into working with the new Chinese club, as well as some of the recreational clubs on campus,” Quan said of possible collaborations. “We also want to look into starting an intramural tournament through the Aebersold Student Recreation Center (ARC).”
Quan said the ARC never really did an intramural table tennis tournament because they never had the facilities, but they are available in the wrestling room at the Morrow Field House, which is where SRU Table Tennis Club weekly meetings are held. The club meets every Monday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information, contact Anh Quan, President of the SRU Table Tennis Club, at alq1001@sru.edu.
