Guiding Forces Behind College Table Tennis Success-Coaches

By Willy Leparulo
Press Committee Member

Behind every college table tennis athlete are coaches mentoring and providing, at many times, intangible elements for a successful tournament. NCTTA places a very important emphasis on coaches in every aspect of the collegiate table tennis season but especially on the NCTTA Championships where it is the coach’s time to shine.

NCTTA Coaching Committee chair, Willy Leparulo says, “Coaching at the NCTTA Championships isn’t just about winning, but preparing our teams and players for the best competition they will face.”

Coaches in college aren’t like coaches in the rest of the sport of table tennis, who solely focus on the technical aspects of shots and shot-making. Coaches in NCTTA are expected to manage the team, the budget, the basic, everyday, in and outs of the school’s table tennis program.

At the 2025 NCTTA Championships, we have a mix of new and veteran coaches working to make a difference for their respective teams and student athletes.

Chris Mar, coach of the University of Central Florida who has been around NCTTA quite a bit but never coached a team in the championships says, “I never got to compete as a student, but I did get to coach as a student and regardless of the position, that still counts in representation of the school especially as my graduate school final semester year as president and club tournament manager back then a symbol of achievements of accomplishing getting players to breakthrough into the nationals level.”

One such veteran coach from Texas Wesleyan, Coach Doru Gheorghe, who also comes with a myriad of coaching accolades including “Coach of the Year” in NCTTA, says that coaching for the Championships is a little bit different, “[m]ore intensive training sessions considering the higher level of play”.

Table Tennis may be an individual sport, but we can bet the world that coaches live and die point by point with their players. Welcome to the NCTTA Championships and welcome to our coaches who also fought to get to this point!

(pictured here is Texas Wesleyan coach, Doru Gheorghe)

About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes elite intercollegiate competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org