July 11, 2012

Coach Jack Huang, the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Junior Olympics

I spent last night going through old USA Table Tennis Magazines and online results, from 1992 to present, going over junior results from Junior Olympics, Junior Nationals, the U.S. Open, and USA Nationals. The reason? I'm putting together an application for fellow MDTTC Coach Jack Huang as a member of the Hall of Fame. So far I've identified 124 MDTTC juniors who medalled at the Junior Olympics or Junior Nationals, with over half of them winning gold medals. Next step is to figure out how many of them were Jack's students. Then I'll put this together with the rest of his coaching resume, and send it in to the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame Committee.

If Jack were inducted, it would be as a "Contributor," for his coaching. (The guy averages about sixty hours coaching per week - no exaggeration! - and has kept this up for over twenty years, producing a steady progression of top juniors.) I was also inducted as a Contributor, for my coaching and writing, while our other longtime MDTTC coach, Cheng Yinghua, went in as a player, though he likely could make it as a coach as well. Of course, if Jack were playing in the U.S. during his prime (he was on the Chinese National Team from 1976-83), he'd have dominated table tennis in the U.S., and would have gone in as a player long ago.

I haven't done a final count, but I believe MDTTC juniors have won over 300 gold medals in its twenty years. From around 1992 to about 2005 MDTTC won over half the gold medals. For various reasons we haven't been sending full teams since then. (For one thing, many of our top juniors spend their summers training in China.) For about twelve years we'd always show up with a team of about thirty kids, always the largest contingent, and compete in every age group in singles, doubles, and teams. However, like little league baseball, most give up the sport once they enter college. A few stay around as players, like Han Xiao (who's also a player rep on the USATT Board), or as organizers, such as many of the North American Table Tennis and JOOLA USA crew (Richard Lee, Katherine Wu, Michael Squires).

I've coached at about fifteen Junior Olympics. It's been a few years since I last went, but there's a good chance I'll be going this year. I'll know in a few days. It's in Houston this year. Cheng and Jack didn't go to all of the past Junior Olympics, while I went to all of them in the 1990s, and coached about 250 of our gold medallists in their medal matches.

CCTV at MDTTC

This morning CCTV America, a Chinese TV Network, is coming to MDTTC to do a feature. They'll be here around 11AM, as well all our top junior players, hopefully in their MDTTC uniforms. I'll post here when their broadcast goes up.

Michael Mezyan Table Tennis Artworks

Michael now has about a zillion of his table tennis masterpieces - why not check them out? They've been featured in Matt Hetherington's blog and on the ITTF Facebook page.

Two-Time USA Olympian Khoa Nguyen

Here's a story (with pictures) where Khoa reflects on his Olympic experiences.

U.S. Open Recap

Here's a recap (1:37) of the recent U.S. Open. Plus you get to see Ronald McDonald play Captain America!

Old Spice and Timothy Wang

Old Spice is teaming up with USA Table Tennis Olympian Timothy Wang! It's all part of their new campaign: "Believe in Your Smellf." (That's not a typo.) "For world-class athletes like Timothy Wang or ordinary guys, believing in your scent can truly be a powerful personal motivator," said Josh Talge, brand manager for Old Spice North America. "Old Spice Champion captures the essence of manhood, confidence and a sense of achievement, and celebrates the true champion in every man. It's designed to give guys the self-assurance that they can do anything if they put their Smellf into it." Check out the article to read Timothy's quote.

Wavy Table Tennis

The new wavy ping-pong table, which will become the standard for table tennis throughout the world in January, 2013. Start practicing!!!

Non-Table Tennis - The Wonderful Wizard of Os

My fiction story "The Wonderful Wizard of Os" was featured yesterday on Orioles Hangout, the web page devoted to Orioles baseball. It's the story of five Oriole players (i.e. Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion) traveling to see the Great and Wonderful Os to solve their baseball problems (They want a bat, a glove, an arm, and one just wants to go home, i.e. score runs). There are a number of inside Oriole jokes, so you might not get it all. Also a takeoff on "Damn Yankees."

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