Chinese students create nationally ranked table tennis team at Governors State

UNIVERSITY PARK | The first challenge for Governors State University's first team was not finding funding.

It was not finding players and it was not searching for a place to play.

It was convincing students that this is really a sport.

"It's very easy to lose weight playing this game," Governors State master's student Liuzhen Zehng said. "You have to focus your eyes, focus your attention and move quickly. This game is the quickest game in the world. This is sports."

Now that they're ranked 23rd in the country, their school has embraced its first sports team: table tennis.

This weekend the team from Governors State -- a school that is so new to sports it is still without a mascot -- participated in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association Championship in Waukesha, Wis.

"It's not that popular here. Baseball and basketball is more popular," Wenyi Liang said. "But people started to know that this is a sport after we started a team."

Started a year ago as a club sport by former ranked player and accounting professor TJ Wang, who also launched a program at the University of Wisconsin, the squads earned "team" status in the fall of 2009. The men's team ended its season after the qualifier, but the women's team earned its way into this weekend's national finals.

An open call for athletes went out when the team was formed in September. With experience starting at a young age and classes in pingpong during their undergrad studies, the master's degree students from China were almost a lock.

Both the men's and women's teams are composed of players originally hailing from Guangdong Technical University in China, part of a two-year exchange program with GSU.

"I was a little surprised there weren't more Americans," Wang said, "but the perception of this is that it's an activity, or a recreation. But this is a sport. This is the fastest sport in the world. In less than a second you need to react, not just mentally, physically, too. This is like playing chess while you are jogging."

This team didn't start without its obstacles. First, the group had to request a competition table, as the one in the school's rec room was a little wobbly.

Next came finding a practice space.

Some days, the team will gather on a racquetball court, playing with as many members can work around their MBA schedule. Other days, the table can be moved to the gym, giving the team an open arena in which to practice.

But once the team started to see some success -- and a national ranking -- their pictures and posters appeared all over campus, lofting the players to notoriety.

"In my classes, after they saw the poster, they commented: 'Now you've become a celebrity,'" Liang said with a laugh. "Your poster is everywhere."

The school has embraced its first team, funding travel to tournaments and using table tennis as a springboard for more intercollegiate sports.

"We're very much in our infancy here," said Dean Jennings, the director of GSU's Rec & Fitness Center. "With the success of the table tennis team, we are in the process of developing a couple of different programs."

On the docket next to join the GSU sports roster is women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball and golf.

The volleyball team began competing last week in the Oak Lawn Rec League, and callouts for the basketball teams have drawn interest.

Until the administration gives word to begin the process of applying for NAIA status, the school will be competing with only club teams.

"I'm getting a lot of feedback from faculty and staff, people that have been here for a long time, and this is exciting for them," Jennings said. "To hear that athletics are going on is exciting. ... We want to be viewed in the community as a legitimate university, and this is just another service that we can offer students considering coming to us. We don't perceive ourselves as a two-bit school, it's just that historically we have an older student population. That's starting to change and with those dynamics changing, we want to start offering more conventional college opportunities."

To start with a table tennis team is a source of pride for the Chinese students who three years ago had never been to Illinois.

"This is exciting for us," team captain Yi Chen said. "To be the first, there has never been another team at GSU before. The school is so supportive of us. When we go to tournaments, they rent a big bus when other teams have to drive themselves. We tell people that and they say, 'Maybe I should transfer to GSU.'"

COLLEGE SPORTS

Governors State Women's Table Tennis Team

Yi Chen, captain

Liuzhen Zheng

Xiaoke Yi

Wenyi Liang

Xini Zhang