Mentoring Youth--and Dominating Ping Pong

Published on November 17, 2011 by Jason

Game point. It was our fifth game in a row of ping pong. I had won the previous four. After I had secured a few fairly easy wins, my opponent, Casey, all 4 feet of her, managed to claw back into the game. Usually I would play casual early, still trying but not quite playing with every bit of my focus. Then after my opponent would get to 10, I would turn on the jets. I don’t believe in letting anyone win, it’s just my competitive nature. But this time Casey had gotten the look, face serious, eyes pointed, brow scrunched. She was not playing around. Even when trying my best, it was all I could do to push it to 20 to 20 after she had reeled off 10 points while I could only manage 2 to tie it up. Now, playing win by two, the score was 32-31, and she was up 1.

I didn’t always feel so comfortable at the Boys and Girls Club. On my first day, I was nervous. I never would have thought driving by that the fairly non-descript brick building at 230 West Sixth Street in Southie was hiding a state of the art facility for children. They come after school and during the summer to learn and play while their parents worked to provide, many of them blue collar single parents who came from the area and spent years of their own childhood at the club. The place was like a school building except instead of classrooms, each room contained something different: a band room with drums, guitars and microphones. A computer room with internet enabled PCs and a fully functional music studio. An indoor basketball court and swimming pool. An arts and crafts room with a kiln for pottery. A library and homework room. Separate teen and pre-teen lounges with multimedia capabilities. And my personal favorite, the game room.

Sitting on the bench waiting to start, watching the bee hive hustle and bustle as children passed through, a young girl walked by with a basketball uniform on. My ReachOut! site captain, Jordana, who was volunteering in her second consecutive cycle at the club, recognized the girl and called out, “Hey Casey! How were your holidays?” She smiled back and they exchanged a few words, smiles all around. Then I said hello. Her response was… well, let’s just call it less than warm. A small sneer was about all of the acknowledgment I had earned and she jogged away. My first interaction and I had failed. This wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

Over the course of my volunteer sessions some of the children were quick to warm up to us as volunteers. I loved playing ping pong with them, teaching some and just playing with others, using the game as a distraction while I asked questions. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “What’s your favorite subject in school?” I would ask questions while we bounced the ball back and forth hoping to get to know my opponents over some friendly competition. Casey barely paid me any mind for the first two or three sessions, but as the others got to know me, and dubbed me “Business Man,” things started to change. Before I knew it, we were engaging in heated games of ping pong, but I always won.

On the day of the 32-31 ping pong game, Casey had finally pushed me to the brink. She knew she had an opportunity to get me. I told her, “you know I can’t let you win, right?” She told me to “shut up and play”.

I was down a point when I got the serve, my specialty. Most kids didn’t have a chance when I felt like speeding it by them. I readied myself, bounced the ball off the table with my hand, and struck a skimming top spin serve cross table, utilizing the extra space that the angle provided for added speed. But she read me. Before I had even hit the ball, she was leaning towards the intended direction of the shot. As it crossed the net, she was already winding up her forehand. I was out of position… but as long as she didn’t hit it too hard, I could make a return. SMASH. She hit the ball straight up table with perfect timing, and as I twisted to my back hand, I already knew I had lost before the ball glanced off my paddle and down to the floor.

Can’t wait for our rematch.

Jason volunteered with Reachout! for the first time in the spring and will continue at the Boys and Girls Club this fall. Jason is a Property Manager for Universal Management, LLC who enjoys volunteering in his free time. He also likes playing fantasy football and claims he can "... really win it all this year!" Wish him luck. He is also not a fan of hurricanes. "Too windy."