“It gets in your blood and when you start playing, you like it,” Najem said. “It has so many different skills that you need to acquire. It has so many different rotations that you can do on the ball. You can do a whole lot with a basketball but with a table tennis ball and a paddle you can do a million different things.” Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

Some things come naturally to people. For Alfred Najem, graduate student in business administration and Instructional Design and Technology, table tennis is one of those things.

“It gets in your blood and when you start playing, you like it,” Najem said. “It has so many different skills that you need to acquire. It has so many different rotations that you can do on the ball. You can do a whole lot with a basketball but with a table tennis ball and a paddle you can do a million different things.”

Najem is the 2008 U.S. National College champion and three time Lebanese National Men’s champion. Najem also won the Cyprus Open in 2000 and the Missouri Winter Games Open last weekend.

“He’s a world class athlete,” said Omar Román, 1976 ESU alumni and Emporia resident. “Before he came to Emporia he was the number one player in Lebanon. He is probably the best thing to happen to Emporia State University, having a world class athlete. He just keeps winning and winning.”

Currently, Najem is ranked number one in Kansas and is in the top 40 in the nation. He has also competed in the World Championships in China.

“Since he’s been in Kansas and Emporia, he’s taken over the number one spot,” Román said.

His love of the game began with his mother when he was about 7 years old.

“My mother helped me start,” he said. “She used to play and I would watch. I just like the game. Instead of going swimming or something else, I enjoyed watching them play.”

Being a champion runs in Najem’s family.

“She didn’t play professionally but she used to be the champion of the north region of (Lebanon),” Najem said. “She was very good. Because of her I was able to win some championships.”

At age 10, Najem won the National Junior Championship in Lebanon and joined the national Lebanese team when he was 12 years old. Throughout his competitions, Najem has traveled to over 30 countries.

“I started traveling and gained a lot of knowledge about the game,” Najem said.

Najem emphasized the need to be in shape to play table tennis.

“People think you don’t need to run, you don’t need to be physically in shape,” he said, “but it’s totally different. It’s so important. You can’t play in jeans if you want to play at a high level. You need to run and do abs, pushups. You need to build up muscle to play games.”

Najem will compete for the 2010 U.S. National Table Tennis college title on April 8.

“I’m going to do my best and hopefully I will win again,” Najem said.

Román, a former champion himself, trains with Najem.

“When we do drills, we look like Forest Gump and people say ‘wow, these guys are good,’” Román said. “But it helps in the real game.”

Formerly from Venezuela, Román was the 1985 Venezuelan National men’s champion.

“He’s elevated my game,” Román said. “I’m 57 years old and because of him I have elevated my game just by playing him. He likes working with me because I have competed in many national events and I can keep up with me. Originally when we first started I could hard get my racket on the ball. I could barely return his serves. Now, I don’t even think about it.”

In training for the college nationals, Najem practices five times per week for 2-3 hours per day at the Emporia State Recreation Center and the City of Emporia Recreation Center.

“As I get closer to the tournament, I start getting more into the technical part of the game,” he said. “When it’s two or three months away, I prepare more physically. When it gets closer, I get easier on the physical part, the running, because you don’t want to be tired, you want to be in shape.”

There are a lot of drills Najem uses to prepare for a tournament.

“You do a lot of drills on feet movement,” he said. “It’s very important to practice feet movement and serving, returns.”

The Memorial Union has sponsored Najem in each of the U.S. College National competitions that he has competed in.

“It costs around $1,500, so special thanks to them,” Najem said.

Although table tennis is much more popular in Lebanon than it is in the U.S., Najem said there are a surprising number of players.

“Back home it is much more popular, in Europe it is popular, in China it is the number one game,” Najem said. “There is a huge number of players and there are a lot of people who are opening business for supplies for these players. It’s not close to football or basketball.”

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