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Five brothers. One table. Endless competition.
“We have a pingpong table at my house and I have five brothers,” OHS science teacher Kendedrick Jones said. “Over the holidays, they have pingpong competitions, but I can’t play, because I don’t know how, so my plan was to learn how to beat them when I got home for Christmas.”
Who better to sponsor a new pingpong club at OHS, right?
The club was started in September by two brothers – senior Andrew Brown and sophomore Bennet Brown – and junior William Solomon. Their purpose in starting the club was to bring students together and have fun.
It is a club “where people can come, hang out, and chill,” according to Bennet Brown.
“Pingpong is a fun activity that all types of people with all types of ability can play,” he said.
Normally about 15 to 20 people show up to the meetings that take place every Tuesday after school.
“It’s a pretty good turn out considering our small infrastructure and this is our first year,” Andrew Brown said.
The two ping pong tables were donated by Andrew and Bennet Brown and senior James Cutler, a member of the pingpong club. When the students arrive, they set up the pingpong table (one of the two tables is broken), and then then they play, rotating so that everyone gets a turn.
“Generally people play a game and rotate out and rotate back in, so everybody gets a very equal amount of playing time when it’s all said and done,” Andrew Brown said.
Jones feels that what makes the club different from the rest is that it is less structured that other clubs.
“They just get to bring in their ping pong table and get to play and socialize,” Jones said.
As far as the future of the club goes, they are going to buy two new tables with the money that they raised at the homecoming carnival.
“It’s about as organized as it can be, but once we get more tables, people are going to get a lot more playing time,” Andrew Brown said.
They are also considering giving the club a more competitive nature.
“Some people want to make it more competitive and have a match-making ranked sort of system where people play each other in tournaments every once in a while,” Andrew Brown said. “Some people are going as far as saying we should go to tournaments.”
He feels that the club will most likely end up going in a competitive direction over the next few months.
“William Solomon and I were discussing having a competitive nature to the club while also keeping it fun,” Bennet Brown said. “We might try to do an in-school tournament.”
