The Benilde-St. Margaret’s Table Tennis team will host the first ever student-faculty ping pong competition. The tournament will be on Thursday, March 3 in the commons from 3-4 pm. BSM Table Tennis coach, Casey Hanson, is looking forward to this new competition and hopes to see a lot of students and teachers interested in the event. The varsity ping pongers will face off against the teacher team, which includes Mr. Pohlen, Mr. Hertz, Mr. Hickey, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Petroski, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Hanson, Mr. Balven, Coach Swan, and Mr. Porisch. “We will go for an hour and have ten single matches and five doubles matches,” Hanson said.

The idea for the competition was inspired by senior and captain, Macartan Commers, who got his idea from the student versus teachers Knowledge Bowl tournament. Last year, Commers and Hanson discussed having a student-teacher ping pong match, but it never ended up working out because the season ended sooner than they expected. “Since it is Macartan’s senior year, I thought that I had to get [the planning] done for these guys,” Hanson said.

Senior and creator of the student-teacher ping pong competition, Macartan Commers, is ready for the competition, and he hopes it will become a tradition at the end of the season. He has seen many teachers want to compete with the students and show off their skills. “I don’t know, sometimes there are teachers that walk by great hall in wellness and start playing. I thought some of them might be decent in ping pong and that we could do a matchup,” Commers said.

Macartan Commers thinks some of the standout teachers will include Porisch, Hanson, and Hickey because being a good ping pong player requires hand-eye coordination, athleticism, patience, and strong mental game. “I have only seen a couple of teachers play. Mr. Porisch is pretty solid. I have only seen him and Mr. Stevens play. It will be interesting to see which teachers are good if any,” Commers said.

Hanson believes that Mr. Balven, the security officer, will surprise everyone with his skills. “The standout guy will be the security guard, Mr. Bolvin, I don’t know anyone would expect it so he might be. But you never know Mrs. Murray could come out of the woodwork and get some killer smashes in,” Hanson said.

Many students and teachers are looking forward to the competition and they hope it will become a tradition. Coach Hanson thinks that it will be a great time. “[I’m most excited for] the razzing that will be going on back and forth between the teachers and students. they will heckle each other,” Hanson said.