Hall of Fame Induction
Courtesy of Joseph Wells
Good evening!
Truth be told I so wanted this to be an opportunity to roast Willy. But Willy’s mom still thinks I’m such a nice young man, that I said I would be good and not rip him a new one.
With that said, when I was told that Willy was being nominated for the Hall of Fame, my first thought was “FOR WHAT”, certainly not as a player. Why would you induct a lobber into the Hall of Fame? He’s what 1850 at best. Then they said, no……as a contributor. My second thought was, “FOR WHAT”, sending a bunch of e-mails and wanting to hold meetings over every major holiday on the calendar. Because if you ever had the chance (notice I didn’t say pleasure), you would know he loves…. loves sending e-mails. So, a week later I finally got over it, and realized that Willy has contributed a lot to table tennis in the United States.
But in all seriousness, Willy and I meet in 2003 at a practice at FSU in the Leach Center. He started grilling me about the game and some of the people I know. Now keep in mind I had been away from the sport for 7 or 8 years, but he was shocked that we knew some of the same people. And I looked at him with this puzzled look, I said of course I know them it’s ping pong in Florida. But there was something different about him that I hadn’t really seen in TT in a long time, and it was just his pure excitement about the game. He treated every day like it was his first day.
He wanted to practice, he wanted to go to all of the tournaments, and talk about all the different characters and personalities that we have in table tennis. Most importantly, he wanted diversity and inclusion. Everyone that walked through those gym doors, young, old, male, female, foreign and domestic, low rated, high rated, etc. Willy wanted them all to feel welcome, and to be excited ping pong. It’s that attitude that has allowed the FSU table tennis club to still be active to this day, while many other clubs come and go based on leadership and graduations. Willy has been the glue for that program.
Now, let’s talk about the contributor. To date and my knowledge Willy has only lied to me once. He says, Joe I was wondering if you would be interested in being VP OF NCTTA. At that time college table tennis was a few years into transition from LNITT to the NCTTA. We had just finished college nationals in Freemont, California (shout out Dennis Davis). I was completely content with just helping with nationals and lending a hand from time to time. Willy says, Jack is going into residency and will not have time. But don’t worry, he doesn’t have a lot to do anyways, you will be great at it. There is a double lie there, there is a whole lot to do, and I am terrible at it. In those nearly 20 yrs. Willy has been the driving force to grow NCTTA from 81 schools to over 300 schools, and 2000+ athletes each year.
All while holding our core as a true volunteer based organization. He has served at president of NCTTA since ’04, National Table Tennis Director of ACUI for a number of years, USATT Board Member from ’04 – ’05, FL. Senior Games regional director, many time U.S. Open and U.S. National volunteer. He has even found a passion for coaching.
He serves as a volunteer coach at the Tallahassee North Table Tennis Club, seeing the need to help grow the next generation of table tennis players. Something that Willy should be really excited about is, being a major advocate for college table tennis scholarships where NCTTA has partnered with a number of organizations to give thousands of dollars each year to deserving student athletes.
Also, creating the coaching certification program because he saw a need for the programs to be more organized, have a voice for them, and a bridge to retention year over year.
In these 20+ years Willy has run and help organize college table tennis programs from coast to coast and influence the collegiate seen in Canada and Puerto Rico. I couldn’t think of a more deserving person to be included into this exclusive Hall that Willy, as I have seen him give of himself, sacrifice time, career, and relationship all in the name of table tennis. But I am sure if you asked him, he would tell him that it is table tennis that has given some much to him. Just take a look at who he is sitting with.
Please join me in welcoming my teammate, colleague, and most importantly my friend, Willy Leparulo a 2023 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame inductee.