VERO BEACH — For a moment, the room was silent. Then the sound of a small, hollow plastic ball went “tink” on the tabletop. A padded paddle swiped at it. A shoe squeaked against the tiled floor. The competition was on for eight table tennis competitors taking part in a tournament.
The competition, a first for the Vero Beach Table Tennis Club at the Vero Beach River House on Acacia Road, pit members and newcomers alike against each other in a series of round robin best out of five games.
“We’ll be exhausted on the way home,” quipped John Doelman when the format for the tournament was announced.
For about three hours, the players lobbed the ping pong ball over the low hanging nets on one of four table tennis tables. Even with the noise of the ball and paddle, the competitors remained quiet, intent on the game at hand.
Only the occasional “good return” or “should’a had that” escaped players’ lips.
A recent addition to the club is Cielo Galman, a native of the Philippines who said she was happy to find a Vero Beach table tennis club. She explained that she had to drive to Melbourne, Merritt Island or Cocoa Beach to play otherwise.
“It’s very helpful,” she said of having a club much closer to home.
Galman has been playing table tennis since the third grade and began competitive play in the fourth, while in the Philippines.
“I like the fast pace,” she said, adding that it’s a sport that doesn’t care about age or size. “It doesn’t matter.”
She said that she wasn’t giving the trophy much thought during the competition.
“I just play,” Galman said.
But she took home the trophy just the same.
“She’s never lost to anyone,” Karl Freitag said, amending the statement quickly to note she lost once, to him, but it hasn’t happened since.
The tournament was a first for the club, which worked for more than a year to find a home outside a club member’s garage.
“We’ve come a long way,” said member Steve Hutchison, referring to the inaugural meeting of the club in August 2010, when he offered up his garage for play.
Kurt Freitag, son of club organizer Karl Freitag, said a few times during warm-up that he wasn’t used to all the extra space for movement and chasing the ball.
The Vero Beach Table Tennis Club meets Mondays from 6 to 9 p.m. at the River House, located at 305 Acacia Road between the Vero Beach Power Squadron and the off-leash dog park next to MacWilliam Boat Ramp.
For more information about the club, visit www.vbttc.com or call Karl Freitag at (772) 978-7103.
