Pepperdine University is known for its strong women’s volleyball and men’s tennis programs, but not many are familiar with its intramural and club sports.
Recently, members of the table tennis club have been pushing to gain popularity. Junior CJ Terral, an International Business major, has been a head coach and a founder of the club since 2009. Terral started playing table tennis at age 7.
“I have played table tennis for about 14 years now. I played the sport in a recreational environment for most of my life, but have recently started playing at more competitive and local levels,” Terral said.
Theodore Taylor, a senior catalog librarian at the Pepperdine School of Law, has been a supervisor of the club since it was founded.
“I have played table tennis, since I was a boy, and I’m about to turn 60 years old,” Taylor said about his interest in supervising the club sport.
“Christopher ‘CJ’ Terral started the Table Tennis club two years ago,” Taylor continued. “He was a freshman at that time. The group enjoyed practicing and received training and tips from CJ as well as other more proficient members.”
“As a club, they had self-competition as well as holding open competition on the Pepperdine Malibu campus,” Taylor added.
According to Taylor, the Table Tennis club joined the Pepperdine University Intramural organization when Terral studied in China during his sophomore year.
“This academic year, CJ is back at the helm.” Taylor said. “At the moment, we compete inside the club as well as hold competitions for students around the school to participate in,” Head Coach Terral explained.
“It is a goal of ours to move to other schools within the coming years.”
Terral schedules the team to practice two hours a week. So far, the team consists of about 10 members, but there are all premises that the organization will expand its membership as more people become aware that the club exists on campus.
“The most rewarding thing about being head coach is getting to be a part of other people’s development within the team,” Terral said.
“While it is a challenge to motivate everyone all the time, I focus on simply getting the group together in order to create an environment that is active, fun and respectful. In the end, it is the basics of the sport that we must perfect, and this cannot be achieved if there is no teamwork built upon throughout the season.”
“I am considering participating in the 5-year MBA program, and am on scholarship for playing the string bass in the Jazz ensemble and Symphony Orchestra,” Terral said.
In the future, he is determined to leave a solid legacy for the table tennis club as he pursues his business degree. As for now, the only goal that stands in front of Terral and active members of the club is expanding membership.
“The best way to become a part of the club is to come to one of the practices, Tuesday or Thursday,” Terral said. “We keep practices small in order to facilitate individual growth and faster paced activities for each of the members.”
Those interested in joining the team may email Terral at peppertinett@gmail.com.
