Junior Jimmy Li first tried table tennis in the basement of his cousins’ house in Washington state six years ago. When his family returned to Cupertino, they bought their own table, and Li has been playing ever since. Li joined Table Tennis club the first club day of his freshman year, and served as both treasurer and PR last year due to a lack of officers. This year, as vice president, he hopes that players of all experience levels will join him and his fellow members behind the B building at lunch to unwind while polishing their backhand.
El Estoque: What is unique about Table Tennis club?
Jimmy Li: Table Tennis club is really chill because some other clubs have requirements you have to meet to join, and here, if you pass by, you’re always welcome to join us. It’s also just a casual hangout during lunch where you can learn and meet new people.
EE: Do non-members ever come to meetings?
Li: All the time. Most of our members right now started out as non-members who had no idea about the club. They saw people playing and said, “What are you guys doing?” and we said, “Oh, this is Table Tennis club.”
EE: How do you set up for meetings?
Li: Currently we only have one table. We used to have two, but one of them broke. There’s one table, I don’t know whose. It’s behind the B-building, where they store all the science stuff. We roll out the table and set it up for lunch, but we don’t know how it got there.
EE: Do teachers ever join in?
Li: Last year [former MVHS teacher Brian] Dong came and said, “Can I play?” I said, “Yeah, sure,” and I gave him the paddle. He played my opponent at the time and [Dong] destroyed him. He played only two points, and each of them he smashed the ping pong ball, then he put down the paddle and walked away, like “What now?”
EE: What was an exciting moment from last year?
Li: We had a tournament. Basically we had everyone sign up on a sheet of paper, and we would assign them times to come play. We had a bracket that started with twelve players, then we narrowed it down to one. We usually have one tournament per semester but last semester we didn’t. Hopefully we’ll do it this year.
Table Tennis club’s next meeting is on Friday, Sept. 26 during lunch behind the B-building.
