Go Beavers!

If a small baseball program can build a championship team, then perhaps there are lessons of hope for US table tennis.

The 2007 College World Series Champion was— the Oregon State Beavers? I’m a sports fan, and since the Beavers do hail from Oregon State University, my father’s alma mater located a hundred miles outside of my hometown, it was only natural that I followed their run. The hype was great in 2006 when the orange-and-black clad Beavers took the college baseball world by surprise, winning Oregon State’s first ever baseball national championship. This year, when Oregon State, a team that was supposed to be in a rebuilding year, was selected as the 64th team out of the 64 that are allowed into the NCAA Regional Bracket Tournament, and subsequently qualified by for the College World Series by winning their region, Beaver fans were more than pleased. But when the Beavers continued their outstanding play, never even having had to rely on the double elimination format of the CWS by going undefeated, we were ecstatic. No one knew about Beaver baseball just years before, but as back-toback national champions, Oregon State may now rightly be feared.

This is a table tennis magazine, and my boasting about the Beavers of Oregon State is not to draw attention to my crowned interest of the month of June, but because their victory really got me thinking about my primary interest of the last ten years— our sport— and I hope it will shed some light of optimism for you, the reader who would one day like to see American table tennis be rightly feared, too. I say this because I found myself asking the same question after watching the Beavers celebrate the last pitch thrown to seal the championship as I do when I evaluate the state of our sport in my role as an athlete in the system and as a member of the USATT Board; that is: What does it take for the underdog— the one with an outside chance if there even is one, the competitor that has to face stronger and more established opponents— to win?

For table tennis in the U.S., the answer is not so simple as to follow the model of the world’s best table tennis nations, China for instance, because some aspects of their systems are not feasible in ours. But to me, there is still no reason why we should leave behind hope for the future of American table tennis even in light of the difficulties that it faces, as other programs are challenged too, but find concrete ways to break through the limits of what was thought to be conceivable. I view the challenges that the Oregon State baseball program initially faced to be relatively similar to ours, and it comforts me in a way. I’ll elaborate:

The US Team competes against the world’s best, Asian superpowers like China and Korea and the long-standing programs that are set up in Germany and elsewhere. Oregon State University competes in the Pac-10 conference in NCAA college sports, but its athletic program is no real match for others within the conference, which includes Arizona and USC. Thinking in the context of OSU’s baseball program, national powerhouses hail from larger and more successful athletic programs, which are also traditionally hot-weather teams, the likes of Louisiana State and Texas. And because of Oregon State’s lack of prestige, the Beavers cannot match the recruiting power of their rivals. They also face a shorter season due to the stubborn Oregon weather, opening their season by playing away games to avoid the rain. Oregon State baseball does not have the most money, the best facilities, or even the most talented group in the nation, and yet they continue to win. Likewise, USA Table Tennis will never be able to get the governmental support that other nations receive; our talent pool is smaller, and our program is not as established, and so the everlasting question posed earlier beckons. I don’t know the exact answer for American table tennis, but it is something I am helping to work on, and I do so because I still believe in our potential, especially after watching Oregon State solve the same question, and prove the success of their methods not once, but twice, in the consecutive national championships that the Beavers now hold.

And how did Oregon State do it? They started by hiring and supporting the right coach, Pat Casey, who began the transformation of an existing baseball team into the nation’s best. Casey played minor league ball before beginning his coaching career at a small college in Oregon before taking over the Oregon State baseball team in 1995. The program has progressed in steps, from battling to a winning record to gaining a national ranking to being the College World Series champion. Casey has since been recognized for his work through the two Coach of the Year awards he has received.

I like to think that American table tennis has a Pat Casey within our ranks. If we freeze our current coaching situation and compare it to the past, the number and level of capable coaches may be unprecedented. Our men’s national team coach, Danny Seemiller, achieved one of the highest ever world ranking for an American born player, and Doru Gheorghe recently guided our women’s national team members to claim titles in both the team and singles event at the Pan American Championships. Also working with our players in the U.S. are former world champions Stellan Bengtsson, Zhang and Zhenshi Li; Emilia Gheorghe and Fan Yiyong, coaches for our younger national teams; Sean O’Neill, responsible for the US Paralympic Team; and also those who lead successful junior programs— Stefan Feth and Dennis Davis in the Bay Area, Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang in Maryland, and others around the country. If coaching is an area we are not lacking in, then what is needed? Perhaps more support coming from the association to help unify the efforts of these coaches, just as Oregon State backed coach Casey in a ten-year contract and renovation of Oregon State’s baseball stadium.

Pat Casey has never complained, as far as I’ve read, about being a coach at Oregon State and the hardships that may come with it; instead, he took what he had and believed in its potential. Because Corvallis, the small college so-called “cowtown” is not exactly high on the wish list of most of America’s top baseball talent, Casey and his coaching staff turned to recruiting primarily in-state kids, players who are often overlooked by bigger programs. That Casey was able to build the Oregon State program around good, but not always great, talent is a testament to both his coaching and to his players, as they continue to turn good talent into great play, which is all that matters.

When I evaluate the talent of some of America’s best young players, I see no reason to think solemnly. The selection pool is smaller than most everywhere else and is something that must be worked on, but the talent is good, and good can be turned into great. Although the Beavers have a core group of Oregon-grown players, the team also must rely on kids who grew up playing elsewhere. Similarly, our U.S. Team is made better by athletes who contribute their energy and effort in playing for our country after careers abroad, and as such, we should be thankful for players like Gao Jun and others who raise the level of our potential. They are the best addition to supplement the players who learned table tennis here in America.

While respectable coaching and strong players are critical components to reaching athletic success, they are nothing without a burning desire to do so. From watching and reading about the Beavers all June, there was no mistake that the want to win among the team was what led them to their national championship. To compare the body language found in the dugouts between OSU and their respective opponents during the CWS was to almost instinctively know the winner. We need this passion and commitment for our sport to excel in the United States, and it must come from the leaders of our association, from our coaches, from our players, and from our members. I witnessed it now growing among our women’s team when Tawny Banh e-mailed me immediately after her gold medal win in the team event at the Pan Ams about how cool and exciting the whole thing was, and I hope that the momentum and passion will continue to carry through the Beijing Olympic Games next summer.

In the end, I would like nothing more than to be able to match our U.S. National table tennis team’s achievements with that of what the Beavers have accomplished. There are many pieces that fall in between that guided Oregon State to overcome the obstacles that it faced, pieces that we still have to unravel and resolve in our own sport, but this article is not to serve as road map for how we can play catch up. Rather, it is to share the renewed hope that I found with you that the possibility for substantial success is real.