STTC History

Sangamon Table Tennis Club Locations:

McFarland Zone Center (February 20, 1972 to 1974) 
I believe this was the official first home of the Sangamon Table Tennis Club. 

YMCA
I’m not sure if the club actually existed at the “Y”, or if just a few of the club members also played there. I also couldn’t confirm any dates, except that it overlapped the span of McFarland Zone Center location.

Washington Park (1974 to 1995)
We played on Monday and Wednesday nights. Usually there were three tables full of players and a small group waiting their turn. We had a fourth table, but not a great place to put it. This information is from around 1985 forward, from when I (Rick Goertz) joined the club. The club as a whole had conflict with newly raised dues from $18 per year to $5 per night. This was a big part of why we moved locations.

Sangamon State University / UIS (1995 to late 2004)
We started out with a decent space to play that would accommodate four tables. We also had access to a huge gym for annual tournaments. I think we kept the Monday and Wednesday nights. We had lost touch with the originators of the club and didn’t even know, at this point that the club had previously had a name. The school had us make an official school organization that had to be named. We chose Sangamon Table Tennis Club. Eventually, the school did some remodeling and moved us around to smaller spaces. At the end of this run, there was only space for one table. Not nearly enough to run a club.

United Methodist Church (November 2004 to April 2022)
Rauf Piskin helped us find this location. Just casual conversation at the doughnut shop ended up discussing table tennis. He found that someone at the church was starting a church group club. Long story short, we ended up moving and joining the small church group for our new home. This space allowed for us to grow back into four tables. We eventually were given an opportunity to move into a larger space in the church that accommodated six tables for practice nights that now were changed to three nights (Tues, Wed & Thurs). For tournaments we would have space for nine tables. Sometime along the way, I ran into the daughter of one of the founding members. She kept a scrapbook from her dad that disclosed to us that we had been the Sangamon Table Tennis Club from the beginning.

Rochester Christian Church (2013+/- to 2016+/-)
We added this location as a second site led by Tom Hayes of Rochester. 

Grace Bible Chapel (2016+/- to Present)
Due to reorganization / utilization of the church’s space, we moved our Rochester location to Grace Bible Chapel. 

Sherman Church of the Nazarene (April 2022 to Present)
This church had previously been home to a Table Tennis youth group headed be Pastor Glen Hunter. I happened to contact Peter Embalabala, a previous member of STTC, about the possibility of moving the club to Sherman.  He set me up with the current pastor and the rest is history.