I want to be upfront that I did not see this one coming. USA Table Tennis, the national governing body for the sport, keeps a leaderboard of every club in the country. It scores them on how much prize money they put up, how many sanctioned events they host, and what star level those events carry. The club sitting in first place is not in Los Angeles. It is not in Chicago or Houston. It is on Tompkins Avenue in Pleasantville, New York, in a building that used to be a warehouse.
Four Years at Number One
The Westchester Table Tennis Center has finished first on that leaderboard four consecutive years, which is how it picked up USA Table Tennis' Club of the Year honor four times running. The most recent one, for 2025, was announced this past January. That is not a lifetime achievement award or a nice gesture toward a small club doing its best. It is a ranking, scored on numbers, and Westchester keeps winning it.
This past Sunday, August 16, the club hosted the USATT New York State Championships. Sixteen separate events ran that day, with brackets for boys and girls at 11 and under, 13 and under, 15 and under, 17 and under, and 19 and under, then adult divisions at 40 and over, 50, 60, and 70 and over, plus a Men's Open and a Women's Open. Anyone who lives in New York State could enter. That is a genuinely full day of table tennis for a Sunday in Westchester.
The Owner Edits the Crossword
Here is the part that made me stop scrolling. The club's owner is Will Shortz. That Will Shortz, the crossword editor of the New York Times, the guy whose name you have read at the bottom of a puzzle a thousand times. He opened the Westchester Table Tennis Center in 2011 with Robert Roberts. He is not a silent investor who lends his name to the letterhead. He still writes and signs the club's newsletter himself. If you are on the list, you get a plainspoken email from Will Shortz explaining the new check-in software and reminding you to renew your membership. I find that completely delightful.
A Room That Looks Like the Whole County
The club counts more than 150 members from over 30 countries. They range from pre-teens all the way to players in their 80s. On an average day, 40 to 50 of them come through the doors. The coaching staff is not messing around either. One coach spent 15 years as head coach of the Barbados national team. Another is a 2020 Olympian. Others came from provincial coaching in China and from the top of the game in Ghana.
That mix is the thing I keep thinking about. Westchester has plenty of places where you can pay to be around people exactly like you. This is a converted warehouse where a nine year old and an 80 year old and a former Olympian all show up on a Tuesday. Same reason every time. Ping pong is fun and the tables are good.
Thank you to Warren Rosenberg, whose photograph of the main hall is on the club's own site and is the best look at that room I have found anywhere.
Follow us on Instagram at @The914Collective for more Westchester stories like this one, and read Not Upstate Magazine at thenineonefour.com.
Want more stories like this?
Sign up free for the Not Upstate Digital Magazine — a new issue every two weeks on the people, places, and culture of Westchester and the Hudson Valley.