Burnaby North Secondary School's girls table tennis team are back-to-back B.C. champions – and their longtime coach thinks it's time for the school to get new tables.
The team defended its title at the provincial championships hosted by Moscrop Secondary earlier this month.
The girls – Grade 12 Italian exchange student Sabrina Pastori, Grade 10 students Amy Qian, Melissa Shen and Louise Fan (team captain), and Grade 9 student Joanna Wan – claimed top spot over 33 other schools in a field of 210 athletes.
North's win is no one-time fluke.
Over the last 27 years, the school has won the boys or girls championships 16 times and has had players who've competed at the national and international level.
"Burnaby North has competed very seriously," longtime teacher-coach Larry Seehagen told trustees at a Burnaby school board meeting last Tuesday , where the team's provincial win was celebrated.
In some years, more than 100 students turn out for the school's table tennis team, according to Seehagen.
"At one time, if you made the Burnaby North team, you basically won provincials; it's that competitive," he said.
Seehagen, who has coached the team since 2004 and who called table tennis the "coolest sport in the Olympics," said this year's team was "a very talented squad," essentially made up of Grade 9 and 10 students.
"They have high hopes to continue," he said.
Then he made a plug for new tables.
"What's ironic is that, while we've had a table tennis tradition for a long time, we probably have the worst tables in Canada," he told trustees. "We haven't had a new table in 20 years. So, with a new school, we have new hopes."
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