HUNTSVILLE – The highly anticipated USA Table Tennis National Championships promise to provide fast action, plenty of matches and stars in the sport that include Olympians who are tuning up for Paris.
The is the first time in its 90-year history that USA Table Tennis will play its national tournament in Alabama.
Outside the lines, so to speak, where players will furiously battle to advance through brackets Wednesday-Sunday at the Von Braun Center’s South Hall, will be tournament officials, city administrators and crew, volunteers and others who make the tournament possible.
Meet Michael Wetzel of Decatur, perhaps the biggest table tennis promoter in the Tennessee Valley.
Though an avid player, he’ll be among the 22 umpires working the event. Of that number, seven are internationally ranked. Wetzel is one of them with a resume to rival any who’ll be overseeing matches.
“I once named my cat after former world tt champion Jiang Jialiang of China. We called him JJ. My car license tag reads TBL10S.” said Wetzel, a longtime sports writer/editor at the Decatur Daily with previous newspaper stops including the Dothan Eagle and The Birmingham News, a photographer and currently the communications director for the Morgan County Commission.
Wetzel has officiated U.S. Opens and Nationals since 2005 and the 2021 World Championships. He worked in communications at 1996 Olympics, directed more than 100 tournaments including all 25 Decatur Opens from 1992 to 2016, has played competitively since 1978 and holds the record for most state championships played beginning in 1980.
Wetzel won’t be in the field this week, but his tournament playing days reach back to 1978 when he entered the $10,000 Louisiana Open in Baton Rouge. The prize money was certainly notable at the time.
He’s also a fan when not on the court participating.
“I have been to about 20 or more U.S. Nationals or U.S. Opens over the years including the 1985 U.S. Open in Miami Beach, 1990 in Baltimore and many in Las Vegas,” he said.
As for the event, matches begin Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and will start at the same time daily through Sunday.
Local participants from the North Alabama Table Tennis Club include club President Chip Patton and Alabama state champion David Landry of Huntsville, the highest rated player from the NATTC.
LOCAL PLAYERS:
(North Alabama Table Tennis Club)
- David Landry
- Charles Richard Patton Jr.
- Temitope Isibor
- Tuo Wang
- Haibia Zheng
- H.Q. Yang
- Yong Wang
- Gang Wang
- Sawyer Mcguire
- Daniel Grecu
- Wenhu Liu
- Scott Godchaux
- Xuejing Xing
- Runtian Li
- Lina Ma
- Davin Lee
- David Duke
- Yantong Liu
- Zhiwei Fang
(Northeast Alabama Table Tennis Club)
- Kip Chappell
- Mitch Conroy
- Putman, James
- Michael S. Harris
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