Table Tennis Club Finishes Short of National Gold

Table tennis player Tiziano Aiello plays ping pong at Santa Monica College's Main Campus Gym in Santa Monica California on Sunday, February 4th 2018. (William Greenblatt/Photo Contributor)

Founded in the 1970's by Jo' Kidd, the Santa Monica Corsairs table tennis club is the only community college team in the state of California this year to compete in the national championship against 4-year universities like USC and UCLA.

Ayush Kapoor and Tiziano Aiello competed in the 2018 iSET College Table Tennis National Championships in Texas during the weekend of April 20. The duo lost in the first round of doubles action; in the singles competition, Kapoor lasted until the 32nd round, while Aiello made it the semifinals, but had to forfeit due to injury.

A mathematics major at SMC and a native of Delhi, India, Kapoor explained how he became interested in table tennis. "I started 10 years back, like just started off as a hobby, but once I got used to it, once I started playing it professionally, I thought it had a lot of potential," Kapoor said. "First of all, it's an indoor sport, so people think it's easy, but once you really get to play, it has a lot of variations."

Kapoor has been living in California for seven months, and came to SMC because of the school's transfer rate, and so he can play with the table tennis club. Kapoor believed the program to be very helpful in developing his skills. "Every Sunday we have a round robin at SMC, and we get to play a lot of players," Kapoor said. "It's pretty intense to play a lot of good players, so you get a good practice. You don't need to go anywhere if you just come here for Sundays."

Kapoor's teammate, Tiziano Aiello is a business major and native of Catania, Sicily. "I used to play soccer, and actually my friend in middle school introduced me to table tennis when I was in the second year of middle school," Aiello said. "I started playing everyday, and you know everything got fast as I started playing in a room with two tables and like no coaches at all."

The club is coached under Kamran Khairzad, who was once a student of the founder Jo' Kidd. Coach Khairzad mentioned how SMC's appeal to international students has helped attract starting players. "Both Ayush and Tiziano... competed back in their respective countries, and they were very excited to see that SMC has such a competitive and well-known table tennis program in Southern California," Khairzad said. "For me, it was very easy to recognize their talent and train and coach them to compete against the best players in the country. I'm very proud to see Ayush and Tiziano representing SMC at the national level."

When asked about Nationals, Kapoor said, "I've played in a lot of nationals, but as an international student here, it means a lot. Coming to a different country, and still doing good playing the nationals, it really means a lot. I think it is one of the most competitive tournaments after the U.S. Open.”