TRUMAN HIGH SCHOOL: Annual ping pong tournament goes to the seniors ... literally!

NOTE: The following story was published by Staff Writer Dave Komer of The News-Herald Newspapers. Photos published here, plus others in related posts, where taken by Karl Ziomek.

"Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance."



- David Mamet



TAYLOR — For the fourth year in a row, Truman High School’s ping pong club was no match for a skilled group of players from the William Ford Senior Center.

Tuesday marked the city’s unofficial ping pong championship with predictable results, as the older players defeated the high-school students.



A large crowd of onlookers including Mayor Rick Sollars were on hand to watch the donnybrook.

Organizer David Bechtol said the seed for the tournament was planted when resident Pat Woolley and then-student Zyke Bailey began friendly trash-talking about who would win in ping pong.

“Our first year I think we had 20 kids come out and we had our first match,” Bechtol said. “It’s been going strong ever since and we hope it keeps going. The seniors have not been defeated yet.”

Most of the loosely organized matches were doubles, with an occasional one-on-one match thrown in.

Freshman Justin Thole said that returning the serves from the older players was the hardest part.



“They are very good,” he said, adding that he didn’t know of any other high school players that had won a match. “Not that I know of.”



Bechtol said his youngsters have gotten better over the years. In the first year of the event, he said most of the high school players could not even return the serves.



Randy Walter, 55, a self-described “younger-old” player, said that experience of playing the game longer is one of their keys to success.



“We play doubles more, that’s pretty much all we play,” he said. “We know how to alternate shots and get out of each other’s way.



“The spin (on serves) helps too, I’m sure.”



Walter said that like anything, he tells the younger players to keep working at it.



“Keep playing, keep trying different things,” Walter said. “Watch players better than you and try to pick it up.”

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