After nearly two months of dedication and perseverance, senior Khoi Le has finally pieced together Northview’s first ever formal Table Tennis Club.
With the assistance of teacher Nate Lisenbee, who is also the club sponsor, Le reached out to Principal Mark Thomas, Athletic Director Patrick Marsman, Performing Arts Center Director Michael Frank and Highlands Middle School Principal Jaymey Vermaat.
With each of their contributions Le received each element necessary to form the club. Frank provided space in the PAC lobby, Lisenbee ordered new equipment and the club received tables from Vermaat, who sent them over from Highlands where they had been sitting in storage.
“It was the enthusiasm I saw from them that made me want to help out,” Lisenbee said. “The effort and excitement in organizing and getting the word out, how could I not want to be a part of that?”
Le and the Table Tennis Club plan to meet nearly two to three times a week in the Performance Art Center lobby after school on Mondays and Wednesdays.
“Eventually we would like to find other schools who have a table tennis club and see if they would be interested in playing,” senior club member Benjamin Warner said. “We know Grandville has a club, so we’d just have to contact them sometime and see if they’d be down to play.”
To advertise, posters have been hung up in the halls to spread word about the club and to provide information for donations.
“[Donations] could be from cash to ping pong balls,” Le said. “[Anyone] can drop the donations off to Lisenbee’s classroom [room 1249].”
Gifted funds would contribute to purchasing equipment such as paddles, ping-pong balls, nets and new ping-pong tables.
“We’re limited to only juniors and seniors being able to join, because we only have four tables currently. If more were to join, there would be a longer wait time to actually play,” Warner said. “Donations would help us have enough equipment to allow all grades to join in.”
With lots of progress to be made, the Table Tennis Club members are eager to see what the future holds.
“I’m excited to see what happens with this,” Warner said. “To be able to host competitions against other schools and get more members. I’m especially excited that we were even able to start this club, and hopefully make it so it’ll stick around after we’re gone.”