El Estoque sits down with PE teacher Jeffrey Thomas to discuss the equipments necessary for potentially creating a new ping-pong unit.

El Estoque: Why do you need ping pong tables?

Jeffrey Thomas: We have a racquet sports class, and we wanted to offer another activity. Even though ping pong it’s not technically a racquet, it is a net sport. I think a lot of the kids would enjoy [having ping pong tables] so that was the main impetus. We wanted to get [the ping pong tables] for the racquet sport class, but then we started thinking whether it would also be good for PE 9 and PE elect to have enough tables to do an actual table tennis unit.

EE: Why is the department not supplying new ping pong tables?

JT: We want to get [the ping pong tables], but they are expensive. Therefore, we hope people [will have gently used ping pong tables].

EE: What did you do before you had ping pong tables?

JT: Well, we just didn’t have a unit. We’ve never had a table tennis unit. We haven’t had tables on campus for a while. To make it work we would need about 10 tables. I know Lynbrook has a table tennis unit that they run, and they have a racquet sport class as well. They do it, so we just want to copy what they’re doing.

EE: What can students do if they have a ping pong table to give to the PE department?

JT: They could email me and we could figure out a way to either pick it up or have it delivered or dropped off. I’m guessing they’re a lot of kids that have tables at their house that aren’t being used so ask yourself whether this could be used for a better purpose.

To contact Thomas for available ping pong tables or for more information, please email him at [email protected].