Ping pong club outgrows LSU

By Lina Chung

With the interest in the sport increasing each year, the Langara ping pong club has been struggling to keep up with the demand — and hopes either the student union buys a second table or the college will add some on campus.

The club has approximately 100 members who all play on the sole table owned by the Langara Students’ Union. The tournaments have scheduled times to play, though they also allow informal practice day to day. On the day members want to play, they text their interest via their Whatsapp group, Langara friends, and hear back from others who also want to play.

Long waits

Sometimes there’s a wait.

“There’s over 12 people and you need to wait for 30 minutes to one hour,” said Alex Utsumi an engineering program student.

Saransh Kumar, a biology student, has seen increased interest from students in the ping pong club especially on Clubs Day in September.

That day, “60 people enrolled,” said Kumar.

Demand for new table

Reza Shamekhi, president of Langara’s ping pong club, has more than 200 signatures from Langara students who would like LSU or Langara to purchase another ping pong table.  He says the gym would be a great place to locate a second or third ping pong table. Shamekhi even suggested outdoor ping pong tables located around campus.

Shamekhi said in addition to loving the sport, he’s made friends at the table.

“I didn’t know anyone,” said Shamekhi, a first-year general sciences student. “One day, I went into the Langara Student Union (LSU) building, saw some people playing ping pong and asked if he could play and they said yes.”

Shamekhi will decide what his next steps are to lobby for more ping pong tables on campus.

“I’m improving my leadership actually,” said Shamekhi.