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Local pre-teen places in national championship
By Heather M. Smith, Staff writer
When most kids come home from school, they usually have free time for themselves, but Andrew Chen, a 12-year-old Collin County resident, comes home from school and practices table tennis for two hours.
Andrew Chen has played table tennis since September 2005, and has rapidly moved up in the ranking. His current USATT ranking is 2130. In order to qualify for the Olympics, a male player must be at least a 2600 USATT level player.
“We’re very proud of him,” said Annie Chen, Andrew’s mother. “No one else from this area is a nationally recognized player.
Andrew is also a Butterfly sponsored player and is the youngest sponsored player in the U.S. Butterfly is the world leader in table tennis technology.
“I’m happy with all of this,” Andrew Chen said. “It’s really fun if I win though.”
Andrew Chen is locally trained in Plano by his coach George Fang, who has coached him since the summer of 2006. In the summer, the family moved from their home in Plano to a new home in Frisco in order to give Andrew more practice space. In his Plano home, Andrew would practice upstairs where he couldn’t run around. Now in his new home, he practices in the family’s three-car garage. In addition to practices with his coach, the Chen’s neighbor, Ross Hamilton practices with Andrew for three hours a week. Hamilton is the best ranking local person for Andrew to practice with.
“The level he plays is higher than his age,” Annie Chen said. “It’s easier for him to compete against adults because he’s fast and gets to play hard.”
Andrew said he can’t remember why he began playing table tennis, but Annie said it’s partly due to a surgery he had at a young age. When Andrew was 6-years-old, he had brain surgery to remove a cyst; his doctor said it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to play contact sports. Playing table tennis allows him to participate in sports without the physical threat.
Shirong Chen, Andrew’s father, is his biggest contributor according to Annie. Even though Shirong isn’t a professional level player, he practices with Andrew and helps coach him at tournaments. However, Annie said it’s vital that Andrew have someone to practice with that is at his level. Lee McCool, a top rated player in Georgia, came to Frisco for two months to help train Andrew. McCool helped Andrew prepare for the 2008 national championship.
Annie Chen said there are strong coaches on the east and west coast of the U.S. as well as Chinese coaches, who are top ranked, but the Chen’s want to stay local.
“We realize in the future, to keep his skills up and for him to continue to move up in ranking, we will have to put more effort into his sport,” Annie Chen said.
The next big tournament for Andrew is in July of 2009; he is ranked number one in the U.S. for boys under 13.
“My advice for kids who want to advance in a sport is to start as early as you can, find a good coach and have fun when you play,” Andrew Chen said.
Contact Heather Smith at HSmith@acnpapers.com.
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