Manitoba Table Tennis Association

Racketlon Tournament! Challenge your racquet sport skills against fellow racquet sport players!

What is it: 4 Racquet-sport event! Compete against your opponent in a game to 21 in each of table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis.

Where and when to enter: Enter at www.racketlon.net (click on tournaments) or the following link

Manitoba players were at their best this past Saturday April 8th at the Tournament of Champions. The top 16 players in each of the Open, A4L/>40, Youth and Cadet Circuit categories were invited to compete and they did not disappoint. Terry “Tian” Zhang bested Biruk Bekele to claim the Open title. However, unlike the see-saw match at the Manitoba Open, Terry won this one 4 straight…6, 12, 13 and 11…really a much closer match than the 4-0 game score would indicate. In simple terms, Terry dropped back to the second position and used an array of depth and trajectory change shots to not allow Biruk to get in with his fast-over-the-table attacks that usually put Terry on the defense early. Biruk was feeling the pressure as he muffed a few easy balls at critical junctures that could have changed the outcome of the match. Jeremy Tran and Alex Mendoza dropped their challenges in the semi-finals to Terry and Biruk respectively.

The Active 4 Life final was again another absolute classic match between Alex Mendoza and Michal Rybak. Rally after rally of spectacular shot making and “cho-ing” and sreaming-fist-pumping and looks of disbelief were displayed by both players. In the end, Michal prevailed in a 5-set marathon at 12 in the fifth.

Some upsets were in the making in the Youth Singles event. Rumor has it, that at home, in the confines of their basement, one sister regularly kicks her little but “better” brother’s backside. Well, here it was on display for all to see! First off, Naomi knocks out the always tricky second seed Yunyang Deng before knocking off the “one-and-only, inside-outside-lefty extra-ordinaire” Jeremy Tran in a five-set final. Well done Naomi, and I do hope that Jeremy is talking to you still?

In the Cadet event, young ben Vu bested Sparsh Agrawal in a five-set final that really could have gone any way…-9,10, -8, 10, 8…can’t get much closer than that. Top five results are posted to the right.

A reminder that double Circuit Points are still up for grabs in the Winnipeg & District Super League that will run till June 16th or 23rd and updated standings can be found to the right…Alex Mendoza and Jeremy Tran in a real war for league dominance.

Ron Edwards Reporting

…so the schools all have their play-downs with the top two boys and two girls each advancing to one of 6 Area playdowns. From these 6 area playdowns, the top two boys and two girls all come together for these finals along with players contesting seven other sports including trap-setting, archery, snowshoeing, indoor soccer, badminton etc. So this tournament featured the best of the best of young athletes in grades about 5 through to 7/8.

This year, congratulations go out to players from Frontier Mosakahiken School in Moose Lake. Their players captured Boy’s Gold & Silver and 4^th in the girls. Thanks again to the tireless efforts of Heather Lowe and Brian “Big Mac” McMillan…no easy task rescheduling these Games for over 500 people due to last week’s snow storm to this week.

Gold: Peter Dorion, Moose Lake/ Silver: Taylor Buck, Moose Lake/ Bronze: Jonathan Fourre, Mel Johnson School-Wabowden.

Gold: Krista Bird, Black River Anishinabe School/ Silver: Delaina Sutherland, Skownan/ Bronze: Mary Prest, Wanipigow.

Ron Edwards and Arvin Tronco visited Valley Garden School on February 13th to kick of the schools table tennis club program. Valley Garden is in the River East Transcona School Division where there is a rich history of table tennis…Bernie Wolfe, John Pritchard, John Henderson Jr. High, Munroe Jr. High and Miles Mac all have lots of activity. Garden Valley teacher and Communtiy Initiation Certified Coach Elizabeth Edwards wanted to institute a club at her new school. After the club kick-off and several weeks of practice, she organized several tournaments. Here are the prize winners…count the fingers to figure how they fared…well done!

TOURNAMENT C: 1ST - Polina Romadanova/ 2ND - Carter Mykachik/ 3RD - Sam Adesuyi.

Four times a Canadian Cadet Champion, Terry “Tian” Zhang is used to living in the fast lane…(I think he even drives a Porsche?)...but I digress…at the Manitoba Open, he started slowly but then put the pedal to the “medal” winning the maximum prize monies offered for the Pro-Open, Pro-Doubles and 2-Player Team events. In the Open, he dropped the first two games to a very, very tricky and crafty Biruk Bekele but then got going to take the next four straight games. The same pattern occurred in the doubles final where partnered with Youth Champion Yunyang Deng they dropped the first game but then stormed back three straight to shock Bekele and young Jeremy Tran. In the 2-Player event, Zhang partnered with former Provincial Team player Rick Ward of St. Andrews defeating Tran and Gordon Chow in an exciting final thus sweeping three of three events he entered.

This year’s tournament featured record entries with players from not only Manitoba but also the Yukon, a player from France as well as a strong contingent from Saskatchewan under the guidance of former Bundesliga coach Paul Noel. Kudos to Marin Pinku and Howard Liou for the tough fight they put up right to the end in their events…all of Saskatchewan had departed but these two stayed to do battle.

Complete results are attached here and Circuit Standings as well.

Next up is the season ending Tournament of Champions scheduled for Saturday April 8^th and a reminder to all players that the Friday night Winnipeg & District League counts for DOUBLE-CIRCUIT WEIGHTINGS for Manitoba Circuit Standings. Contact Coach Tronco to get involved!

Ron Edwards Reporting

Saskatchewan Table Tennis hosted a joint athlete training camp and Introduction to Competition Coaching Course for coaches. Selected are five athletes from our “Squad and Hopefuls” with a good performance and attendance record with a rating close to 500 were sent to attend the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba joint Canada Winter games camp last February 17th to 19th at Fort Qu’Appelle, SK. They were supervised by Arvin Tronco as their head coach and Phuong Nguyen as their female chaperone/apprentice coach. Meng Yu and Raul Bernales also joined the team to attend a coaching course together with Phuong. The coaching course was run under the auspices of the Coaching Association of Canada and Table Tennis Canada. Course conductor was former Bundesliga coach Paul Noel. Paul integrated a lot of hands-on practical components as opposed to just class-room theory.

Everyone had a great time as the cadets immediately blended with their Saskatchewan counterparts the moment the camp started Friday 7pm. We all thought that we’re going to have a rest that evening, but they made everyone work right away which was a good decision at the end. While the squad are training in the gymnasium, Phuong, Meng, and Raul started their coaching course at the school’s library. They were joined by four aspiring coaches from Regina and Saskatoon.

All in all we learned a lot from our coaching course as it made us realize that coaching is not knowledge on the sport. Coaching is making us open our minds that not everyone has the same skill level and should be always ready to adopt to the situation that is presented to you. Hope to see the same set of coaches in the next course or even more so we can all make a difference in our community.

Raul Bernales Reporting

This past Saturday February 11^th, X-Cues Café Lounge on Sargent played host to the inaugural “MANITOBA CUP” Table Tennis Team Challenge. Table tennis fans were treated to an exciting see-saw battle which saw Eric Hernandez’s Team Phillipines triumph 7-4 over the tough Polish squad lead by M.T.T.A. President Darek Mikita.

The match really could have gone either way with 4 ties going to deuce in the 5^th and deciding game. Key factors in the Phillipine’s win were Hernandez and Alex Mendoza who each won both of their singles matches. Team Poland however dominated doubles play winning both these matches. However, Mendoza, during one of the doubles games, made a shot that all only wish had of been captured on camera…Rybak and Kusal for Team Poland were on the attack and had driven Mendoza and Manalo back from the table…several exchanges into the rally, a smash by Kusal hit the top of the net, trickled over and caught the table beside the net post…Mendoza came diving down the side of the table, managed to get his bat under the ball and somehow made it go up and under the post set to skid across the table leaving Polish ace Michal Rybak absolutely speechless. Rybak was quoted as saying “ Holly, I have only ever seen Jan-Ove Waldner do a shot like that”.

Thanks off to Hernandez and Mikita for getting their crews together. Hats off to Sal Infantino and his X-Cues crew for providing the venue and to Butterfly for provision of some prizes.

Any crew of M.T.T.A. Active Members, hailing from one country, are free to challenge Team Phillipines, for the right to hoist “The Manitoba Cup.”

The Golden Boy Open was held on Saturday February 4th and featured a massive entry of players from not only Winnipeg but also Central, Eastman and Interlake Sport Regions as well as a player form the N.W.T. and another from Puerto Rico. Several players made their first 2016-2017 appearance and took home titles. Their results of course tightened up some of the Circuit Standings. Terry “Tian” Zhang knocked off Pro-Open leader Biruk Bekele in 6 sets. Bekele remains in firm control of the standings with a comfortable margin over 2nd place Jeff Kitong. Yunyang Deng and Alex Mendoza are tied for 3rd-4th. In the deep and intense Active 4 Life Division, Duc Dao Tran knocked off Alex Mendoza in one semi and then knocked off Canadian Over 50 Champion Michal Rybak in the final. Michal holds onto top spot in the standings. Yunyang Deng captured the Youth title defeating Vy Tran in a 5 set nail-bitter with every game going to deuce. Yunyang has opened up a commanding lead over Jeremy Tran. Young Ben Vu continues to dominate in the Cadet Division going 3 for 3 now in title wins. He again bested Sparsh Agrawal in the final. Complete results are attached here for the Golden Boy and Circuit.

See Golden Boy results here.

See Circuit Standings here.

Ron Edwards Reporting.

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Powerview - Pine Falls "Ping Pong" Kick-off

Ron Edwards and Arvin Tronco traveled to Powerview School to introduce table tennis on February 6th and 7th. As part of our “Sport Initiation” programming, “New Clubs Development”, we delivered 2 tables and net-sets and ran 1 and a half days of clinics for about 150 kids aged 10/11-17/18. For many kids, table tennis was a new activity but not for others…hailing from Little Black River, twins Jesse and Jade Abraham proved that they had not lost their skills nor lost their appetite for table tennis that they had gleaned while students at Little Black… they both should make great helpers to Phys. ED teachers Mr. & Mrs. Larry Sharpe.

Ron Edwards Reporting.

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Frontier Games Area 3 Results

Area 3 held their qualifiers for the Frontier School Divisional finals on February 2nd and 3rd in Little Black River. 13 boys and 10 girls contested the table tennis event. They represented 7 different communities from the Eastman, Norman and Interlake Sport Regions. Referee for the event was Ron Edwards and again thanks to Heather Lowe from the F.S.D. for their continuing support and promotion of our great sport…every year the level of play is improving.

Boy’s Results:

Gold: Brady Bushie, Wanipigow/ Silver: Peyton Moneyas, Wanipigow/ Bronze: Marcus Abraham, Little Black River.

Girl’s Results:

Gold: Krista Bird, Little Black River/ Silver: Mary Prest, Wanipigow/ Bronze: Sylvia Semple, Beren’s River.

The finals for all of the area winners will be held March 8-10 in Norway House.

Ron Edwards Reporting.

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Table Tennis Alive & Well in Central Sport Region

Even before the communities of Morden/ Winkler hosted the 2014 Powersmart Manitoba Games, table tennis had a strong presence in the Region. Linda and Jerry De Vlieger have been running the St. Alphonse and Bruxelles table tennis club for over a decade, Bob Kowalchuk has been running his club for almost as long based out of the Seniors centre in Carman. They also play at the “Back Door” in Carman as well as at the elementary school, the Christian school and the collegiate. There used to be a small group playing as part of the Pentecostal Youth Group as well. In Winkler, Dave Goertzen ran and organized players in Winkler playing out of Garden Valley Collegiate. This school is still a “ping-pong” hot-bed and I am hoping to be able to facilitate inter-school play between Garden Valley and their rivals over at Northlands Parkway Collegiate. Table tennis is/was used to be played also at Elm Creek, Sanford and William Morton Collegiate in Gladstone.

More recently, a group has started to play Tuesday and Thursday nights in Lowe Farm under the guidance of Jonathan Breanne…but the main centre remains the Monday night club operating out of the Access Event Centre in Morden. Ron Edwards and Provincial Team Head Coach Arvin Tronco paid a visit to the club on Monday January 30th after a day of clinics at N.P.C. David Charriere is the man in charge of this club along with “side-kick” Victor “Big Nasty” Klassen…so named for his absolutely miserably hard to return wide-angle cross-court blocks! The club now features 6 Butterfly Europa tables and they average about 20 players on any given Monday night. Moving forward, working with David, Victor and the good folks at the A.E.C. , we hope to hold an annual “Central Region Open” potentially good to start for either the 2017-2018 or 2018-2019 seasons. Below is a group shot of the Morden gang.

Ron Edwards Reporting.

We are now 7 weeks into the Winnipeg & District Super League which is both a 2 Star Rating event and double weighted one counting towards Manitoba Circuit Standings. It designed to allow all players from entry level to high performance improve the level of their game. Results will factor into the selection of Manitoba’s Provincial teams for major events such as the Canadian Table Tennis Championships!

Rising to the top, undefeated so far, is Alex Mendoza. Mendoza is off to a blazing start with twenty wins/ zero loses. In second, is fellow W.F.P.P.G. club member R.J. Averillah with a record of 18-2. Junior Jeremy Tran sits in third with a record of 14-3 followed by Phuong Nguyen at 18-7.

A reminder to the numerous top-level players hoping to make our team for major events…it is really hard to make our teams if you are not in the gym! Athletes are selected to our Provincial Teams for major events based upon objective level of play criteria such as Circuit Standings and rating level. The Provincial Team Head Coach also has power to select athletes. Once selected, how much an athlete pays, then depends upon their participation levels. Full details can be found in the document to the right: “2016-2017 Performance Pathway: Squad & Hopefulls Program Information.”

Lots of time left to try and qualify…Golden Boy Open Feb. 4^th, Manitoba Open March 11-12, Tournament of Champions April 8^th…and of course the double weighted Winnipeg & District Super League every Friday night 6:30-9:30 pm. Coach Tronco and I hope to see you out.

Here are some words about Finland! So, I was very excited to meet Matthew in Europe and play team together, like representing Manitoba in Europe:). The tournament was huge, players from 34 different countries, like a Marathon race! In the team event we played against Spain (Spain had six teams:)). I think we played the longest team match in the tournament - more than 3 hours and a half! We lost by 3:2 , the crucial moment was in the doubles game, we were leading by 2:0 and also in the third set, unfortunately we lost 3:2, but for first participation in kind of this tournament was not bad I think. In the singles event matches were the best of seven and the young Matthew made his international wins against the good players from Europe and played very tired matches with very good shaped players:). For me was an extreme challenge with all these long matches... lost many games with 4:3 and still hurts..., but I am happy, it is still passion! It was great to see again Canadians who are practicing in Europe…Antoine Bernadet, Marko Medjugorac and of course Manitoba’s Matthew. I wish a Merry Christmas, successful and all the best in the New Year to everybody in our MTTA family! Happy Holidays, Ron, Executive, Coach Tronco and parents and players.

Well, here we are, winter solstice just passed and the holidays upon us…the fall Block of the MTTA’s 2016-2017 season is over. The Manitoba Circuit Standings are attached…after 2 tournaments, Biruk Bekele is in firm control of first place in the Pro-Open Division followed by Jeff Kitong playing out of the W.F.P..G. Young Jeremy Tran sits in 3rd place just ahead of junior rival Yunyang “The Hammer” Deng…but where is Terry Zhang?...Matthew Lehmann we know is playing in Austria this year! In the over 40 years, “Active 4 Life Division”, Alex Mendoza and Michal Rybak are knotted at first with 180 points each. However, I think they will each have to watch Thadeus Jimenez, the man with pips both sides who could be the “sleeper” in this event.
Jeremy holds down top spot in the Youth Circuit ahead of Yungyang and Phuong Nguyen. In the Cadet Division, young Ben Vu is a perfect 2-0 with victories in each of the Red River Open and Manitoba Closed events; (results attached to the right). Next Circuit event will be Februaries Golden Boy Open. Please remember to register and pay on time.

The Winnipeg and District Super League meets every Friday night. This year the League counts for “double-weighting” in the Circuit Standings. M.T.T.A. Head Coach Arvin Tronco has the athletes fighting hard in the 6-8 divisions of play that are contested each night. Tied for first overall are three players…all with a perfect record…Alex Mendoza (11-0), Naomi Tram (11-0), and R.J. Averilla, (12-0). They are just ahead of Jeremy Tran and Thadeus Jimenez. Also perfect, with a record of 4-0, is former #7 Female in Canada, Rongge Zhang. But, right now, she is out of the hunt for the $500 prize monies as she has not played enough overall matches.

The M.T.T.A. will be holding Xmas and New Year’s training camps out of Cornerstone Alliance Church. Preparations are long-term for the Nationals and the 2019 Canada Winter Games. Early in the New Year, Coach Tronco hopes to select players for out-of-province events in Saskatchewan and Quebec. So if you want to impress the coach, better make the New Year’s resolution to train very hard…physical conditioning and sport science programming starts up as well.

Pro-Open Sgls: Biruk Bekele def. Jeremy Tran 6,9,5,-3,-8,9.
A Sgls: Yunyang Deng def. Alex Mendoza 8,9,-8,-6,7.
B Sgls: Michal Carrillo def. Juanito Sioson 4,7,-7,-8,7.
C Sgls: Sparsh Agrawal def. Anna Liu 3,-7,8,-11,6.
D Sgls: Tianyi Xiong def. Victoria Shevchenko 4,6,4.
Pro-Open Dbls: B. Bekele/ Michal Rybak def. Arvin Tronco/ Devin Chong 2,10,6.
A Dbls: Naomi Tran/ Phuong Nguyen def. Noel Cantada/ Marcos Sioson -7,-9,6,6,9.
Youth A Sgls: J. Tran def. Y.Y. Deng 10,9,9.
Youth B Sgls: Phuong Nguyen def. Dave Hose 4,8,4.
Cadet A Sgls: Ben Vu def. Kieran Buchberger 3,5,-12,-11,10.
Cadet B Sgls: Jason Li def. Jeremy Huang 4,9,7.
Active 4 Life >40 A Sgls: M. Rybak def. A. Mendoza 4,9,9.
Active 4 Life >40 B Sgls: M. Carrillo def. Irwin Raymundo 16,-9,9,10.

Gruess aus Oesterreich! Greetings from Austria. As you may know, I am spending the season playing, training, studying, and living in Europe. I train twice a day at my club and play league matches once a week. The club is considered the most successful club in the Women's European Champions League and there are usually around four Olympians training in the gym at any time. I will be playing a team tournament in Finland with Milcho - we always said we would play doubles together some day! I am enjoying my time here - everyone is very nice and I have made a lot of new friends. The training is very good - and my German is getting better!

The 2016-2017 Manitoba competition season kicked off with the Red River Open Provincial Championships held Saturday November 19th at Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate. This tournament was the first of 5 provincial level events which when coupled with the season-long Winnipeg and District Super League comprises the 2016-2017 Manitoba Competitions Circuit with over $2,500 in cash and prizes. Results from the Circuit are used to help select Manitoba’s teams for major events such as the Canadian Championships.

The “Pro-Open” Singles title again went to Biruk Bekele. Biruk dominated this event last season and with Matthew Lehmann playing in Austria and Terry Zhang absent (?)…who will challenge…perhaps former Canadian Female #7 Rongge Zhang who unfortunately had to work Saturday. Regardless, Biruk won the event relatively easily over last season’s Junior Boy of the Year award winner Yunyang Deng. Yunyang-also one of last year’s most improved players-knocked out #2 seed Jeremy Tran in the quarter finals. The other two semi-finalists were Alex Mendoza and Jeff Kitong who lead a large contingent of players from the Winnipeg Filipino Ping Pong Group. Mendoza topped over 40 years favorite Michal Rybak to capture the Active 4 Life crown. Tran took a measure of revenge in knocking Deng out of the Youth event and then won in straight sets over a fast improving Gordon Chow. Phuong Nguyen proved to be the tournament’s top female player placing in the Open and Youth events. Tina Liu was playing injured and young Vy Tran and Anna Liu show great promise.

RESULTS:
"Pro"-A Sgls: Biruk Bekele def. Yunyang Deng 7-11,11-8,11-4,11-2,11-4.
B Sgls: Jerzy Kusal def. Phuong Nguyen 10-12,11-9,6-11,11-7,11-7.
C Sgls: Tina Liu def. Thadeus Jimenez 18-16,8-11,11-9,11-6.
D Sgls: Trysten Dyce def. Paul Devitt (N.W.T.) 11-5,11-9,11-3.
Youth A Sgls: Jeremy Tran def. Gordon Chow 11-7,13-11,11-8.
Youth B Sgls: Vy Tran def. Devin Chong 11-5,11-8,11-7.
Cadet A Sgls: Ben Vu def. Sparsh Agrawal 11-8,11-7,11.9.
Cadet B Sgls: Julian Liu def. Anna Liu 11-9,8-11,11-6,7-11,11-9.
Active 4 Life >40 A Sgls: Alex Mendoza def. Michal Rybak 3-11,12-10,11-8,7-11,11-8.
Active 4 Life >40 B Sgls: Andrezj "Bob" Wiewiora def. Evelyn Aldaba 11-6,12-10,11-9.
A Doubles: B. Bekele/ M. Rybak def. Y.Y. Deng/ J. Tran 14-12,11-6,11-7.
B Doubles: D. Chong/ G. Chow def. Noel Cantada/ Marcos Sioson 0-11,11-7,11-7,10-12,12-10.

Ron Edwards Reporting

Last night, the Manitoba Table Tennis Association held their 2016 A.G.M. and an awards recognition night to honor our 2015-2016 season champions! Unfortunately the nasty weather and construction kept a lot of members away…indeed, City of Winnipeg Parking Ticket Predators were of more abundance than members were with many members upset about receiving tickets when they exited. The Sport 4 Life Centre will be one of the show pieces for next summer’s Canada Games and 150^th Canadian birthday celebrations. The construction mess is terrible and it is quit pathetic that the City are out giving out so many tickets to the same bodies that will be needed to volunteer to drive the Games in 2017. Shame on the City and their insidious ticketing policies! How do they expect to attract people to core areas like the Waterfront & Exchange District with antics like this?

Manitoba Order of Sport Excellence Awards: The following players who represented Manitoba at the University of Winnipeg Canadian Championships this past summer all receive this award certificate. They will also all receive recognition from the Province of Manitoba. Congratulations to: Biruk Bekele, Terry “Tian” Zhang, Matthew Lehmann, Phuong Nguyen, Jeremy Tran, Yunyang Deng, Jacie Liu, Naomi Tran, Tina Liu, Vy Tran, Manuel Zaki, Victor Yu, Matthew Fossay, Devin Chong, Joyce Liu, Gordon Chow, Kieran Buchberger, Sparsh Agrawal, Carol-Jean Wong, Anna Liu, Asha & Ria Donnelly.

Order of Sport Excellence Bronze & Silver Medal Winners: Veteran player Garry Eng won the highly esteemed “Bronze Medal Award” for his third place finish in the over 60 Year’s singles at the Nationals. Manitoba’s only Canadian Champion at the event was Michal Rybak who received the “Silver Medal Award” for his Canadian dominance in the over 50 years singles event.

Congratulations to all winners. Coach Tronco will present awrds at upcoming practices to those who were unable to attend.

President-Darek Mikita.
Vice President-Osama Zaki.
Vice President-Greg Dzioba.
Treasurer-Ha Nguyen.
Secretary-Royle Derbitsky.
Athlete Representative-Don Kokan.
Member-At-Large- Anil Contractor.

Well done everyone and Arvin and I look forward to working with you all in order to develop our sport.

The Saskatchewan Open Table Tennis Championships will be held on October 29 and 30 in Saskatoon. The entry form and tournament details can be found here.

Former M.T.T.A. Executive member and "SUPER-DUPER VOLUNTEER" Louise Page was recently honored by having a park named after her in Transcona. Besides her 15 yearlong involvement with the M.T.T.A. (Executive member, 1990 Western Canada Summer Games, Manager 1991 Canada Winter Games Team, Protocol Officer 1999 Pan American Games, mother of players Susan and Stephan Page, wife to player/ honorary Life Member Roger Page who still helps with our bingo volunteer program) Louise was involved with multiple other organizations...and I mean multiple! Louise always had a ton of energy and this was reflected in her looking after our numerous players...Larry B./ Glen M./ Kadar N.A./ Dave K./ Nuno T./ Boris R. etc...you all had Louise on you guys keeping you under control (LOL) the "good-old-days". Besides the strong-arm enforcer for our Squads Program, Louise volunteered for: Transcona Memorial United Church, Age & Opportunity Centre, Operation Christmas Child, Manitoba Horticultural Association, Breast Cancer Fundraising, Transcona Food Bank, Christmas Cheer Board, Transcona Garden Club, Transcona Hi-Neighbour Festival, Feed My Lambs Street Mission, Rotary Club International, Park Manor Personal Care Home. Well done Louise and our continuing thanks to Roger for his continued help despite the horrible MS. Appreciate it a ton!

Hello all Manitoba Table Tennis players, in many towns the table tennis season has begun, this coming week of September 19^th, it begins in Winnipeg. The M.T.T.A. have been working through some challenges this late summer/ early fall period after the hosting of a very successful Canadian Championships. A couple of our gyms are under repair/ construction so we have had to look for replacements. Also, Tomas Chromec, our Athlete Development Director at the end of last season, replacing Ian Kent, accepted a new job in his home country of the Czech Republic; refer to Tomas’s farewell post below.

I am very pleased to announce the hiring of Mr. Arvin Tronco as our new Athlete Development Director. Arvin brings many years of professional experience working as a coach in the Philippines. In his position, Arvin will be working to develop athletes from the entry level up through high performance with particular emphasis on preparing our 3 boy/ 3 girl team* for the 2019 Canada Winter Games. Another area of focus will be on the development of coaches. If you would like to help coach any of the following programs, please contact Arvin.

The M.T.T.A. will again be running three levels of programming for children and youth: Junior Developmental (entry level to table tennis), Hopefull’s ( already acquired basic skills) and Provincial Squads (Canada Winter Games) training program. For many, these groups will be in the gym at the same time and inter-mingling with players from the other groups.

Junior Developmental program kicks off Saturday September 24^th from 9-10:30 am. For the next 10 weeks - except Oct. 8-long weekend – until Dec. 3^rd, the program hours will be 9:30 – 11:30 am. Sign-up is through the City of Winnipeg Leisure Guide (info on p. 21) 311 phone or online Winnipeg.ca/leisureonline. Canada Winter Games Coaches Arvin Tronce and Phuong Nguyen will be running this program. It is suitable for newcomers to table tennis or younger players with limited experience. The program will repeat in the winter, from Jan. 14 to March 18^th.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Open Athlete Tryouts for Junior Developmental, Hopefull’s and Squad Players:

Starting Tuesday September 20^th, Thursday September 29^th at Darwin School (175 Darwin St.) and Wed. Nov. 2^nd at Dufferin School (545 Alexander) there will be open tryouts for athletes of all ages and all levels.

● 7:30-10 pm will be for advanced level juniors and senior aged players who have already been part of our Hopefulls & Squads programs.

● Friday nights, 6:30-9:30 pm, Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate…open drop-in play for all advanced players until the Winnipeg Super League kicks off on Nov. 7^th…all Hopefulls & Squads should be out and A4L players welcome to play as well.

Head Coach Arvin Tronco will be tracking attendances and interest and after 3-4 weeks of practices, will formalize his training groups. Each night we have 7-8 tables at our disposal and will have at least 2 coaches on duty at all times! Fees will be similar to last season but may be reduced in some cases; more information will follow.

This program we have run for years and is for players of all ages who want to come out and play for fun. There is no formal coaching per se, however the Club Coordinators we have are more than welcome to help players who ask for skill development tips and drills. More serious players often play matches and they count for player ratings and ratings; “Club Individual League Program.”

● John Pritchard Jackson Gym, (1490 Henderson Hwy), 6:30 – 10 pm, starts Tuesday October 4^th and will run every Tuesday (excepting cancellations that are already posted on MTTA calendar) until May 30^th.

● Dufferin Public School (545 Alexander) will feature Monday and Thursday A4L play from 6:30-10 pm starting Thurs. Nov. 3 and Mon. Nov. 7. Practices will run through to June 19 & 22.

● Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate, Friday nights 6:30-9:30 pm commencing Friday September 23^rd… all A4L players are free to play until the Winnipeg & District Super League kicks off on Nov. 7^th.

● Tuesday & Thursday nights at Darwin from 7:30 – 10 pm…all Active 4 Life players are free to come out and knock until Coach Tronco and the M.T.T.A. have finalized the training groups…so basically the month of October A4L can come and knock until Dufferin opens up.

Fees: A4L fees will be reduced slightly this year to compensate for the facility changes.

Club Coordinators: We still are in need of a couple people to oversee these clubs on a regular basis. If interested, please contact Ron at 925-5690.

Play will occur Friday nights at Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate 6:30-9:30 commencing in November. To start, Head Coach Arvin Tronco will be overseeing the running of the league. The league will again be individual in nature designed for players of all ages and all ability levels. Players move up and down divisions and statistics are kept. Participation is expected from our high level players hoping to represent Manitoba on the inter-provincial scene. More information will be provided moving forwards.

The team tournament will be dropped for this year due to lack of entries last year plus due to the later start this season. We intend to increase our events next season with hopefully one out-of-town Circuit event added; Morden or Winkler.

All 5 Circuit events will be held at Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate this season. The tournaments feature events for all ages and abilities with players advancing from the first round-robin in events into final round-robins based on ability…don’t be scared to play tournaments…they are for everyone. Players living in Winnipeg hoping to represent Manitoba at the inter-provincial level, must play in the Circuit tournaments. More information will follow.

Persons wanting to help umpire at our tournaments and league can start off by taking their Club Umpire Seminar & Exam that is free and can be accessed on the Officials Page. Once they have done this, one of our many fine National and International Level umpires will take you under their wing and help train you a the competitions we host…once you have attained your Provincial (Level 2 status) you are eligible to be selected for events such as the Canadian Championships and Canada Winter Games.

The MTTA are always looking for person to get involved as coaches. We hope to offer 1-2 training courses later this season plus Head Coach Arvin Tronco will be working with volunteer coaches on a regular basis at the above programs. Now is the time to get involved!

Respect In Sport: This free, online program is mandatory for all coaches in Manitoba. It has recently been reworked and all coaches who took the course prior to 5 years ago, MUST REDO the course. You can link from here.

Our yearly AGM and awards will be held at the Sport 4 Life Centre, 145 pacific Avenue, on Wednesday November 2^nd commencing at 6pm. Full details will be mailed out shortly.

Kudos: …congratulations and good luck to Matthew Lehmann who is playing this season in Austria for the Froschberg Club (TTCAN Article). Matthew started out his table tennis career over ten years ago with Coach Andy Bachmann playing out of Winakwa and in the last couple seasons is threatening to make Canada’s Senior Men’s team with a 10^th place finish in Canada’s Rio qualifier…remember Matthew, “Get to 11 First!”

ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS…PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT RON @ 92505690 OR ARVIN @ 925-5943.

www.mtta.ca is regularly updated with information on all programs…and we welcome articles by all players for posting! The Calendar of Events at the top is updated constantly for all known gym cancellations.

Contribute to the sport you love, write an article and get it published right here!!!