Honor Members

Samuel Liu is a middle schooler who lives in Livingston, NJ. He began learning table tennis in September 2023. After a few months’ practice and learning, he started developing a passion for this sport. When he found out about the Joola 26th Annual North American Team Championships in November 2024, he decided to practice a lot to prepare. Now he practices it every single day whenever he has some free time. This is just the beginning, he is here to play the long game, and table tennis will be his life long passion. Outside table tennis, he is an avid Roblox gamer and YouTuber.

Jerry Zeng is a sophomore in New Jersey high school. I joined BTT because I wanted to promote the sport I loved. Table tennis has really changed my life, pulling me out of a dark episode during the pandemic. At that time, we switched to remote learning, something that did not work for me. I poured my excess energy into a video game addiction so severe that I started skipping almost all my classes.

Some time around the summer for 2021, my mom heard about my friend Alan attending a table tennis class at a local club. I wasn’t very interested at first, but the thought of reconnecting with my friend and a little pressure from my parents eventually led me to trying it out. The group lessons I took at first were with little kids half my age (maybe around 5-6), but I still had a lot of fun just hitting the ball around. I started looking forward to the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that I had my lessons. I owe a lot of my initial love for table tennis to the coach running those lessons, who made them fun and engaging. I got invested in the sport as I improved and it pulled my attention away from video games and improved my mental health a lot. Recently, I became the 95th New Jersey U15 State Champion. 

I’ve met people from all different backgrounds and all different ages and have learned so many things in my journey. Since it is a mostly individual sport, I learned to take responsibility for any mistake that I made instead of blaming it on outside factors, something that has made me much happier with everything I do in general. Table tennis is a really amazing sport. It’s accessible to anybody. People with disabilities, elderly people, and very young people can all enjoy the sport. It’s easy to pick up a paddle and start playing but you can still take it to the highest level.

Angela Li is a 6th grader that goes to MPM in Livingston, NJ. She's been playing table tennis for 3 years. When she isn't playing table tennis she likes to draw and listen to music.