Connections - An Alumni and Friends Magazine by Holy Cross College, Notre Dame, IN
What Small College Sports Team Beat the Wolverines, Illini and the Buckeyes this Year?
...The Saints Table Tennis Team, That's Who!
The vaunted Saints Table Tennis Club, led by Gordy Cochran and his world-class younger brother Joey Cochran, sons of the Dean of Students Dan Cochran, accomplished a feat few small college teams can ever claim. They knocked off three Big Ten teams in one year – Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio State which ended the previous season ranked 10, 11, and 17 in the nation by The National College Table Tennis Association. Other top Saints players include Tyler Alge, Patrick Huyge, Gabe Ribeiro, and Romulo Nobrega.
The biggest tournament of the year for Holy Cross College Table Tennis Club was the Arnold Fitness Classic in Columbus, OH on March 8, 2009. At this tournament, the Saints advanced past SUNY Buffalo and Case Western before defeating three-time defending champion Ohio State in the semifinal 3-0. In the final, Holy Cross took down the University of Michigan, 3-1 to win a new Killerspin table which is now a fixture for student "ping pong" wars in the Pfeil Center.
The Cochran boys started playing table tennis for fun against their Dad and older brother, Andy, at a very young age. When they started to get serious, they joined the South Bend Table Tennis Center's Junior Team coached by table tennis legend Dan Seemiller. Seemiller is a five-time US Men's Singles National Champion, who coached the US Olympic Team in the Sydney and Athens games, is a color commentator featured regularly on ESPN table tennis telecasts, and was named the 2006 USATT National Coach of the Year.
In a recent interview, Joey Cochran recalled stories from his life in table tennis. "At the age of nine, I won the ten-and-under National Junior Olympic Title. That victory helped me earn a sponsorship from The Table Tennis Pioneers. Since then, I have competed throughout the United States and around the world," Joey recalled. "In 2004, I played in Brazil and was again in Brazil in 2006 for the Junior World Championships. In 2008, I played in the World Championships in San Francisco and, despite some nice wins, I ended up losing one of my biggest matches to a Chinese National Team player 2-3. For Chinese players, winning is everything, because if you lose to a foreigner, you are off the team," Joey explained.
After the 2008 World Championships, Joey was invited to train in Sweden where he practiced and played against some of the best players in the world. Then when his coach in Sweden was named as the Australian Olympic coach, he invited Joey to go with him to Australia to be a "sparring partner" for the Australian team. "I landed in Melbourne but got to travel all around Australia playing matches at many different clubs and training camps," he recalled. "In Sweden, I got beat a lot, but in Australia, I won most of my matches."