It’s On Like Ping Pong

Ping pong has been quite a popular activity here at Liberty, and this year it has finally had a club come to fruition. 

Students regularly crowd around the ping pong tables before school and during all three lunches. Many of them come to play or stop to watch the games as something fun to do after finishing lunch. More and more students partake in the activity every year, and it brings a more lively and recreational ambience to the Liberty Commons.

Naturally, students have their own system of playing when it comes to ping pong. They usually play a best of seven or eleven set, and whoever wins stays at the table in a “king of the hill”-style rotation.

Ever since ping pong was brought back in the second semester of last year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has seen a significant increase in engagement and a larger variety of players than ever before.

Ideas of a ping pong club at Liberty had been in the minds of many people for a long time, but it was not until this year that an avid group of students had officially proposed an organization to LHS staff. It is said that Coach Wheeler and some students had notions of creating a club during the 2019-20 school year, but this was cut short by the pandemic.

Ping Pong Club founders and sophomores Jaden Flanery and Christian Stubitsch recognized how popular table tennis was with many of their fellow students, including themselves.

“We saw that everyone at lunches was starting to play a lot of ping pong so we decided we might as well start our own club,” Flanery said. “This year especially, there’s been a huge rise in the amount of players, so I’m thinking that everyone’s having fun playing it.”

Stubitsch also noted its benefits for increasing hand-eye coordination as well as acting as an outlet for students to be competitive with friends, try out their skills, or simply just have fun after school.

The leaders of the club are preparing to hold a large knockout tournament in the near future, and they will potentially incorporate different competition sizes, including doubles.

The club is sponsored by English teachers Mrs. Chenault and Mrs. Tarrant-Oliphant. Meetings take place on Tuesdays after school from 2:25 p.m. to 3:20 p.m in the cafeteria. Those who participate are required to sign their name on a sheet of paper given out during the meetings. You are able to email either Mrs. Tarrant-Oliphant at [email protected] or Mrs. Chenault at [email protected] for further information.