OOAK Table Tennis Forum

U.S. Men left out in the cold

Our U.S. Men's Team and top players have not been given a fair shake by our association. It is in fact embarrassing to me as a past President to see our team ranked 50th in the world. It's as if nobody cares.

Our Men's team has not competed in one single Pro Tour event for years. The Olympic Trials and Continental qualifiers are scheduled for April and the Canadian Men are ready. They are currently in Europe and last week they played the Hungarian Open and this week the Slovenian Open and their results are impressive.

Why isn't Fan, Mark, Timothy, Michael, and Peter going there? The Olympic Continental qualifier is by far the most important event that one can imagine yet nothing is being done. Will we beat the Canadians? I sure hope so. Does it look good? No, it doesn't.

Why has this administration just looked the other way? How can there be no budget for these guys? I don't understand this at all.

At the Continental qualifiers there will be 4 Men from each country with the top 3 finishers going to London. Whichever country wins 2 or more spots will receive the Team invitation to London. Could anything be more important than that?

Many people have asked me why I resigned as coach 2 years ago and it was the total lack of support that convinced me that we couldn't begin to compete at that level.

With all due respect for Mr. Seemiller resigning in the face of adversity and then complaining in the media would not seem a viable or constructive way to address the issue.

If you know for the past twenty years how our USATT works you will understand his frustration. No one is really in charge at the top. NO ONE. The USATT "President" actually has very little power. Virtually every decision is made by committees that meet up a few times a year.
Danny knows as well as anyone how this disfunctional "system" works, and those in charge will never change it.