A ball. A table. A racket. Simple enough?
There’s more to table tennis than meets the eye.

In February 2017, 11 of I.S. 125Q’s table tennis students participated in the Middle School Championship Playoffs at P.S. 126M to secure their position for the championship playoffs.

In March 2017, 14 of the team’s students participated in the Middle School Championship Finals. Students have been practicing since January for this tournament, as 125Q has been the reigning winners of the New York City Middle School Table Tennis Championship since 2014. This year, 125Q won 1st place in the Boys Varsity; 1st place in Boys Junior Varsity; and 3rd place in Girls Varsity.

125Q’s table tennis team Coach Sydney Christophe has worked at the school site for 6 years. He was recently asked how he felt about winning the NYC middle school championship: “Once again, it was a great honor working with these awesome kids. They trained very hard and sacrificed a lot of time on weekends practicing and fine-tuning new skills for this event.”

Students echoed Sydney’s sentiment. “I felt happy because it was my first time winning a trophy,” said 7th grader Pasang Sherpa.

The school’s table tennis victory did not stop there. In celebration of World Table Tennis Day, students were invited to participate in the United Nations’ International Day of Sports for Development and Peace in March. This unique opportunity had many prominent figures in the table tennis community including Prince Albert of Monaco, Thomas Weikert and Joel Bouzou, P&S President. Additionally, students met and played table tennis with Olympian Kanak Jha and Paralympic Gold Medalist Tahl Leibovitz.

“I felt special and honored for being selected since they are some of the greatest,” exclaimed 8th grader Eduardo Alvarado.

At the “Peace in Sport” event, children learned how the sport could be played with minimum equipment, including handmade rackets and a simple table with an artengo rollnet. There were games and an exhibition.