Turning over a Green Leaf Local-food café opens for second year in Somerville House >> pg. 5
thegazette
TODAY high 20 low 14
Breaking our toes since 1906
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014
WESTERN UNIVERSITY • CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
TOMORROW high 10 low 7 VOLUME 108, ISSUE 20
Table Tennis:
Breaking Out of the Basement Bradley Metlin SPORTS EDITOR @BradAtGazette
“I really don’t think I’m going to get this,” I said as I failed to return the ping pong ball for a third consecutive time. The head coach of Western’s table tennis team, Sam Howes, was being incredibly patient. “One more time,” he replied, reassuring me. He served to me again and this time I returned the ball — only to have it fly past the table. Attending their practice last January, I discovered that my skill level was utterly pathetic. It was easy to be struck by the prowess of each player. This is ping pong played with a skill level most seldom see. The constant returning of the ball at intense speed seems a little jarring to someone used to watching a casual game with their friends or family. Howes, who admittedly was not excited for the prospect of grade nine gym class, said he got interested in ping pong after seeing others at high school playing spiritedly. “Ping pong was more of a social thing because a lot of my friends in high school played it,” Howes said. “We had three tables in the cafeteria so that was it — that’s how I got into it. There were kids in my high school and they were so amazing. Which was interesting because to me because I thought ping pong was a game you play in the basement.” That attitude of ping pong as a perennially casual hobby likely destabilizes efforts to have it viewed seriously. “People see it as a hobby game, you go bowling, you play billiards, you play ping pong. I’m all for that side of ping pong but I think it does play a role in diminishing the seriousness of the sport,” Howes said. It seems it’s the hope of the table tennis team at Western, as well as others who play it seriously, to “break out of the basement.” Even the name of the game can draw questions to its seriousness. “Officially it’s table tennis but the Chinese word for table tennis is not table tennis — it’s ping pong. It’s a tough call to make — a lot of the countries that are really good at table tennis don’t call it table tennis,” Howes explained. Third-year BMOS student Rongge Zhang offered a different opinion on what to call the sport, “table tennis sounds more professional. Ping pong sounds like a goofy game for babies.” Western’s table tennis came from humble beginnings. During the 2010 season, they were still practicing in the old gym at the University Community Centre (now
the Mustang Lounge). Back then, the team was playing on two low-quality tables with equipment that was likely bought from a department store. Bobby Song, a since graduated Ivey student who was on the team from 2010-2014, noted that “during my first year, we finally got to use the upper gym.” The upper gym in question is located at the Student Recreation Centre. After years of lobbying and with persistent players and coaches, the team began to get some movement to eventually get them to where they are today. “Well, this is a touchy subject for table tennis,” Howes said. “The way it actually works is the Rec Centre does everything they can to treat us just like a varsity team — we get the gym space, we get the jackets, we get the uniforms, we basically get everything except for the funding,” Howes noted then explaining the reason for the lack of funding. “Table tennis, unfortunately in Canada, is still not recognized as a university sport.” >> see TABLE TENNIS pg.7
Photo by Winnie Lu • Graphic by Bradley Metlin • GAZETTE
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