Photo of University of Iowa's Fatima Elmaleh in action. Photo credit to NCTTA

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

There are a few volunteers this year who have made a dual commitment as both a player and volunteer. These are the volunteers that NCTTA hope will continue to serve the organization upon graduating as well.

One such player/volunteer is Ryan Crichton, a PhD candidate in chemistry looking to defend his dissertation soon. He’s part of the returning Rutgers University team. According to Crichton, he “always wanted to volunteer”, but “never had opportunity to go to Nationals.”

Last year he came with the team, but he said he wanted to understand the capacity of being a “player first,” then he would later learn the ropes in volunteer work. Helping out NCTTA this year, he served in setting up the venue, as well as the banquet, and many other capacities.

He says that many players are “not consciously aware of what goes behind the scenes for the champs.”

Regarding his goals to expand his NCTTA volunteer capacity, he wants to be a “large tournament director in a collegiate capacity.”

Crichton is already giving back to his Northeastern regional community by organizing “scrimmages for the schools that didn’t make it to the nationals” after the Champs passes.

Another player/volunteer is University of Iowa senior Fatima Elmaleh. An industrial engineering major, Elmaleh had a 9 year hiatus from table tennis, but the bug caught her again, and she’s back with a vengeance. She said she “wasn’t sure [she] was going to qualify for nationals, so wanted to help NCTTA regardless in a volunteer capacity.”

Elmaleh says she has only played one other year back in 2019 for NCTTA, because the pandemic ended hopes of playing for a couple years. Since she has several years of eligibility left, she says if she returns to school upon graduating with her Engineering degree, she would try and play again. According to Elmaleh, she’s “met really cool people here.”

Elmaleh volunteered in registration, and with her jovial demeanor, she was a perfect fit for greeting those entering the venue.

In addition to NCTTA, Fatima would like to help out AYTTO if she gets a job in the northeast after graduating. A lefty, Elmaleh gave it her all in singles, eventually losing in consolation rounds.

Finally, Sergio Pulido of DBU served a dual role as player and volunteer in the capacity of scorekeeper. He followed in his two brothers’ footsteps regarding playing table tennis, and his brother

Erik is also coach of the DBU team and volunteered this year as an umpire.

Sergio is a first year Computer Science student, who also happens to be quite a good table tennis player. Over the course of next year, he would like to earn his umpire certification so he can further his table tennis officiating career and help in the NCTTA Champs and other tournaments.

Kudos to these great players and volunteers that have made dual commitments to NCTTA!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org