Asian Student Association hosts ping pong tournament

The Asian Student Association hosted a ping pong tournament Saturday morning on the Utah State University campus.

The club hosts events throughout the year to bring people together and share Asian culture.

“We don’t have a huge Asian population or influence here in Logan, so we try to introduce that to people that don’t really know,” said Eston Norton, a member of the club who will be the president next semester.

“We want to basically open the minds of the people of Logan, get them to experience something new,” he said.

The tournament was held in Health, Physical Education and Recreation building, Room 201 and was open to anyone who wanted to come. Many of the participants were members of the Utah State University Table Tennis Club.

The members of the table tennis club, which was started just last semester, were excited to have a tournament to compete in.

“I just love playing,” said Andrew Keith, the founder of the club. “I get beat all the time, but I like to say that nobody loves ping pong more than me.”

Romain Cabassu, a student who has come to Utah State from France, said he enjoys being a member of the club because he’s been able to build friendships with people that have a similar interest.

“We can practice. We can improve. We can have fun,” Cabassu said.

Keith said he encourages students to join the club because it’s a way to meet other people and play ping pong.

The leadership of the ASA hopes that events like this ping pong tournament will encourage students to join the ASA as well.

“We’re just trying to promote our club, preserve our culture, you know, things like that,” said Amber Lam, a member of ASA.

Vice President David Chamorro said that the club is open to everyone.

“A lot of people don’t know that you don’t have to be Asian to join the club,” Chamorro said. “People that have an interest in Asia — Asian anything — we try to go for that.”

The association uses the broad interests in Asia to plan events.

“We try to get every event that kind of scopes out everyone’s interests,” Chamorro said. “We’re doing sports this time, but maybe we’ll do something with food next time or something with music next time.”

While the club is small now, leadership of the ASA is trying to help it grow.

“We try to build a network of people that we know,” Chamorro said. “Sometimes we’ll attend the Japanese student association or like the Chinese classes when they have their events sometimes.”

The ASA is funded by Utah State, but the events it hosts will be somewhat limited by budget cuts beginning next school year, Norton said.

“Our goal for the club next year is to be self-sustaining, so we won’t need funding from the university,” Norton said.

The members of ASA said they enjoy the club because they can make friends and go to events but also learn about other parts of the world.

“You make friends from around the world,” Chamorro said. “So if you want to learn about other cultures or if you just want to have a good time with other people, join our club.”

The Asian Student Association has regular meetings every Wednesday at 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center. The table tennis club meets in the HPER, Room 201 on Mondays and Wednesdays at 3 p.m. and Fridays at noon.

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @tomcat340