In one form or another, playing tennis has taken junior Gavin Manders across the world and now it's taking him across the country.
Manders competed at the Delhi 2010 XIX Commonwealth Games in September and is also a champ at table tennis.
After competing in a regional tournament at Ball State over the weekend, he earned a spot in the College Table Tennis National Championship in Rochester, Minn.
His next challenge: raising the $900 it takes for travel, lodging and entry fees.
Manders said he earned the chance to compete last year too, but he couldn't afford the trip.
The physical education major is from Bermuda and was the island's No. 1 tennis player before coming to Ball State. He plans to ask the Bermuda Tennis Federation to help fund his trip to the Table Tennis Nationals.
"They already have things set in place for top athletes," he said. "They'll help me out."
Saturday's competition in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom was sponsored by the Association of College Unions International, which represents student activities groups from across the country.
It included 25 men and six women from seven universities including Indiana University, Purdue, Indiana Wesleyan, Southern Illinois and Ball State and Indiana Institute of Technology and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Ball State students Thomas Cohoat and Amy Goulet also qualified for the nationals.
Goulet said playing at this level is nothing like the games with her friends at Johnson Complex. Unlike other competitors, she uses the term pingpong instead of table tennis, and she misses the more relaxed game.
"It's very different because people stop playing just for fun," she said. "It starts to be intense, which I don't really care for."
She started playing in the basement of her family's home in Decatur near Fort Wayne when she was three.
"My dad was the best pingpong player I've ever seen," she said. "He plays very calmly. He could care less if he wins. He just plays for fun."
The College Table Tennis National Championship bills itself as the top event of its kind in North America, according to its website.
Goulet said she'll have to practice hard to do well at the nationals. The freshman elementary education major plans to work out with her father, who is paying for the trip.
Table tennis is an Olympic sport and requires a lot of physical talents.
Goulet said she stretches before each match, and her arms sometimes get sore from the furious volleys. She wears black to intimidate opponents.
Some of her friends who don't understand the game are less impressed.
"I don't think people understand it's a real sport," she said. "I keep telling people that I'm sore, and people stare at me like I'm crazy."
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