Ping-pong team serves up diversity

Table tennis is uncommon in America, where you are more likely to find televised rock, paper, scissors tournaments than a game of ping-pong.

But, if the rapid sounds of balls hitting paddles in the basement of the Peter W. Stott Center is any indication, Portland State’s table tennis club takes its craft very seriously.

Despite a lack of American presence, table tennis is the second most popular sport in the world. It is not surprising, then, that PSU’s team is made up of mostly international students. The team is also talented-they took first in the Northwest Region last year before going on to place nineteenth in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association tournament.

Nine players of nine different nationalities represented PSU in that tournament, with players hailing from Burma, Turkey, the United States, Nepal and Japan.

One returning player, Suha Ardahan, of Turkey, expects this year’s team to be even better because of team cooperation and hard work.

Ardahan said he had a weak backhand when the team competed in the national tournament. He practiced on it regularly, and when he came back, it had improved.

Taught by his father, Ardahan started playing table tennis 18 years ago. He joined PSU’s team because he wanted to network and make friends.

“I didn’t speak English when I first joined the club,” Ardahan said. He took third in his first tournament in Idaho before learning English, he said.

Pemba Sherpa, from Nepal, said his personal goal last year was to qualify for the nationals for the first time, a goal the team met. Sherpa said he has been involved in table tennis since the age of 10, when he was discovered by a coach for older students at the boarding school he attended.

“We were trying to play with wood paddles on a cement table with bricks as a net,” Sherpa said. The coach saw them and decided to take them under his wing, he said.

Although the team has no coach, Sherpa stressed the importance of the team helping each other.

“Everyone coaches each other,” said Sherpa.

Brian Yoder, president of the Table Tennis Club, said the sport has failed to gain popularity in the United States due to a lack of youth programs and exposure here.

“People have a pretty clear idea how to see a basketball game,” he said. The club is dedicated to raising awareness about table tennis, he said.

PSU hosts the first regional tournament of the year at the Stott Center on Saturday, Oct. 13, at 11 a.m.