Ping pong. Whiff whaff. Table tennis. Going by many names and being the second most played sport in the world, Geneva welcomes all to this international pastime in room H220 on Friday afternoons with Mr. Sweeney, a Chemistry Teacher at GHS.

Being an unofficial club, some participants play just for entertainment while others go for extra competition and betterment of skills. Competitors of all levels can be found there whether a student challenges a beginner or the head of the club, Mr. Sweeney.

“You can play against someone as good as you or maybe even better and try to get better yourself,” Ryan Cedergren, Senior at Geneva Highschool said.

Right now, about 2-6 players come to the club meetings, so there is always plenty of room for new additions. Sweeney explained that he believed the small group was more advantageous to get to know your competitors and have a tight knit group.

“You definitely get to know people especially if they consistently come in, you can find people of the same caliber of you and have really competitive games or you can just have fun,” he said. “Having a small group I think is nice to get to know each other”.

One intriguing thing about the members of the club is that everyone started their passion for ping pong in unique ways. Although the sport is quite common for entertainment in the U.S., it is mildly uncommon for someone to play ping pong regularly in such a club.

Cedergren has a personal connection to the sport.

“I learned to play ping pong at my grandpa’s because he had a table… he pulled out a paddle and said we can play,” he said.

Later this introduction would become a fun party game and source of entertainment.

Sweeney also found a similar passion when his parents bought a table and kept it in his garage talking about some of his favorite memories.

“My friends would come over and we would play, especially in the winter when it was cold out, we’d get a little space heater in the garage,” Sweeney said.

Ping Pong is not all just hitting the ball back and forth either. Many players adopt strategies like any other sport having their own unique playstyle.

“There are definitely strategies, there are some hardcore rules that you can stick by or if you’re playing more casually you don’t have to abide by them. I think for the most part here we go casual unless you get some of the more competitive people,” Sweeney said.

Ping pong means many different things to the variety of people that come to the club. Announcements about when the club will meet are on GTV news and the club normally meets every other Friday. Follow the sound of the paddles to room H220 to join.