Ping Pong at Gatton

By:  Ben Luckett

The new Florence Schneider Hall has a lot of great areas that Bates Runner Hall never could offer this year’s seniors. We now have an amazing fourth floor common area that houses one of the most important pieces of furniture in the Academy: the ping pong table. Last year in Bates, all we had for a ping pong area was a small room on first floor that barely could fit the table.

Pong was important to me last year as I would use it as a cool off after studying. It was a good break, but it was hard to ever find another student to play a match against. Our new space allows both players to step as far away from the table as they wish and still have excess room. Also there is a large group of ping pong players this year. Many students are very talented at ping pong and will play heated matches for fourth floor audiences.

This year I have used ping pong as a cool off just like last year, but now I can always find someone to play against. If there is not an avid ping pong enthusiast on fourth floor at any given time, they are just a text away. A sure time to find a lot of ping pong players on fourth is about 9:30 every school night. At about this time, a group of students surrounding the table will have formed along with a long list of people who have called “next game”.