Forming a school sports team, especially at a large place like Dewey may sound easy- but in reality, it involves a lot of time and energy.
As the season begins, the Table Tennis team is short on players, since players last school year consisted mostly of seniors who all graduated. The team now is faced with the task of finding and recruiting enough players to play for in the upcoming season. Furthermore, if there aren’t enough players they’ll be forced to forfeit.
While finding new students to join the team was hard, it was even more difficult to find students that are interested and willing to make time for the team. In addition, students on the team need to be committed to the team by going to practice every day, as well as being able to travel to other schools on game days. Moreover, students would be required to stay at a later time after school which can be time consuming for them.
“I decided to join the team since I was interested and enjoying playing sports” said junior Yimien Feng Wu.
After a while, the team finally found new players who are a good fit in the team. With the help of both team captain and previous players, new team members were able to train and improve on their skills.
“I felt like I was well prepared before the game, but at the same time when the game starts, I feel I was not well prepared because I didn’t see the results I wanted after the game,” Feng Wu said.
With the new team members found, there are still some concerns and thoughts about this year’s team.
Along with the newfound concerns, there is also some reassurement and excitement felt by the players.
“I’m worried about not going into the playoffs because this year’s team is weaker as most of the players are either in new positions or are new to the team. But I also feel like we can because I’ve been going to the first practice, I was able to improve drastically and I can rely on my captain to lead us.” Singles 2 player Joana Jinyan Huang said.
In the first week of December, two games have already taken place with one beginning on the 3rd and the next one on the 5th. On Tuesday, there was an away game against James Madison and on Thursday was an home game against Edward Murrow.
“I felt very nervous at first, but after the second set, I gradually began to calm down,” Doubles 1 player Feng Wu said. “ I also am looking forward to future games with other schools.”
During previous years, Edward Murrow has been a very strong competitor and had close games with us. Despite our many practices, competing with them would be the most difficult out of all the games. As for the upcoming game with Murrow it’s very exciting to see how the girls table tennis team will perform this year.
“I think that they are a very hard working group and I admire that about them. They play very well and know many skills and techniques that some teams don’t have in our district. I remember since last year they were one of the schools we had trouble with and this year as well so I think they can make it far, ” Singles 2 player from Edward Murrow Candace Xiao said.
As for the future of Table Tennis, Mr. Moody believes the team would become better as time passes on.
“Next school year, we will have one returning player [Yimien] and we would have to rebuild the team along with recruiting stronger players by putting up posters and making announcements which can lead to more people being involved in joining the team,” Mr. Moody said. “We also have a lot of tables so we’ll definitely be able to practice and improve quickly.”
