Varsity Girls Table Tennis aim for another championship

The Varsity Girls table tennis are busily preparing and practicing for what lies ahead. This season, there are eight girls on the team: Annette Zhang (10B), Chanel Hsu (CT11A), Elyse Shan (10B), Jenny Seo (10C), Joy Chang (11B), Julia Park (CT11B), Karin Tan (11C), and Sophie Chao (11C).

“…This year we have more girls, which is great,” said Coach Neema Yazamaidi. “Our main goal this year is to make sure we can continue growing the sport at SMIC.” Karin, one of the veteran girls on the team from last year, also welcomed the new players. “It’s great to have new members coming in,” she said, “because once Joy, Sophie and I graduate, they will be the ones who will have to train their hardest to inherit the ‘thrones’ of #TeamJanitor.” (Later she explained, saying, “In the morning before the 2015 tournament, my sister said we look like janitors wearing the uniforms…and later [it was] adapted by Sophie, Joy, and [me].”)

Currently, the girls are practicing for the SISAC table tennis tournament. “I feel really excited for this coming season as we will face another year of challenges and will eventually perform our best to get the championship!” Karin exclaimed. The Varsity Girls won the SISAC Championship last year, and they are confident of winning this year’s championship as well. “My expectations this year would be for them to repeat as champions and have fun while doing it.” Coach Yazamaidi declared.

Even the new members are prepared for the up-coming games. “I feel nervous because this is my first year on the team, but [I’m] also excited to learn from my teammates,” Elyse said. They do feel nervous; however they’re all looking forward to the process of learning. Jenny agreed: “… I’m not confident that I’ll ever reach his expectations, since everyone else in the team [is] way better than me. Nonetheless, I feel like it’s going to be a great chance to learn for me, and I’m happy about that.”

When speaking of the future plans, Coach Yazamaidi also mentioned his hopes for some of the team members: “I would like to see the veteran girls help the up and coming girls get better at table tennis.” And such spirit of helping and learning is pursued every year before, and the same for every year after.

“… Everyone is constantly learning and enjoying the process of growing to become better at what they can do,” said Karin.

Featured photo courtesy of Wendy Shi