Ping Pong Club hosted its second annual Teachers vs. Students Doubles tournaments in the LGI after school on Oct. 23 and 24.
Sophomore Nicholas Lai won the elimination-style tournament on the first day with freshman Joseph Chii. Lai said he felt more confident in his abilities after making finals because he was guaranteed to win a Target gift card.
“I really love Ping Pong Club, and I want to support it to the fullest,” Lai said. “I think it’s a good experience for teachers and students to both improve their ping pong skills.”
Freshman River Dai, who plays ping pong professionally, and junior Jeffery Guo won the elimination-style tournament on the second day.
“I’ve never actually played with anybody [recreationally],” River Dai said. “It was really fun because people had different play styles: some people would try to add more power [when hitting the ball, while] other people would try to control [the ball]. People [also had] different ways to hold the paddle, so that [varied] their play style. I barely see this in actual tournaments because usually, people in actual tournaments know a little [technique], but these are average school kids just trying to [have fun].”
One of the teacher participants, Physics teacher and water polo and swim coach Gary Johnson, played a lot of ping pong when he was younger, but now only plays once a year at the tournament.
“I have a hard time saying no when kids ask me to do something,” Johnson said. “I just want to support whatever is going on with the school. In general, the more we’re [involved] as teachers supporting our students’ clubs, [the more] that just builds a relationship where kids see you. If you show respect to the kids and work with them, you gain respect, and it just makes it easy as a teacher to get to know students in a different environment than in the classroom.”
In contrast to Johnson, who had heard about the tournament from his students, Algebraic Reasoning, OnRamps Precalculus and IB Math SL teacher Johnston French joined the tournament because the sponsor of Ping Pong Club, On-level World History and Personal Finances teacher James Ware, had invited him to play.
“I love a good competition,” French said. “Plus, the whole reason I became a high school teacher in the first place was to beat students at various student-teacher competitions. So this is kind of my Super Bowl.”
Unfortunately for French, even though he felt “confident,” “limber,” “alert,” “strong” and “athletic,” he did not win his ping pong match.
“I really thought we were gonna take it,” French said. “I really did. I think that we were on our lucky side of the table, [but] at some point, it just collapsed. I was disheartened by my inability to hit the ball on the table. There’s a lot of work to do. I’m hungry for more, you know, [and I’m ready] to come back stronger next year.”
Vice president of Ping Pong Club and senior Dylan Wang has noticed that students tend to perform better than teachers.
“I think next year, one of our goals [would] be to advertise this as a beginner-friendly event because there are a lot of beginners [in our club who] play in our tournaments and go to practices,” Wang said. “Maybe [we could have] multiple divisions, pairing the best teachers against the best students and pitting the least experienced teachers against the least experienced students.”
Ping Pong Club president and senior Ellen Dai also hopes the next year’s officers will change up the formatting of the tournaments so that the finals will have a teacher and a student competing.
“I think I’ve come a long way from expanding [the club] in 10th grade,” Ellen Dai said. “I hope the future leaders will kind of do the same. I think they share the same values as me, so I’m confident the club will stay alive.”
To learn more about Ping Pong Club, follow their Instagram @bhs.pingpongclub or join their Remind @bpingpong.