A brief history of OTTC. Club was started by Dave Zapatka, circa late 70's, and played in a building north of Chestnut Expressway on National. (Zapatka owned Z Tech Corporation before moving out of the area in 2003.) Club was inactive through the 1980's before being revitalized by Hugh Mason in 1993. OTTC achieved USATT accreditation and chartering through Mason's guidance and club relocated to We
sley United Methodist Church on Republic Road from 1993 to 2001. Club sponsored two sanctioned tourneys during this 8 year period, one by Ted Murphy (Ozark, MO) in 1997, which garnered 24 players and one by Bill Lewis in 2001, which garnered 27 players. First event won by Jeff Williams from Springfield the latter by Rick Seiler from St. Lewis was elected President who then began an affiliation with Springfield Parks & Recreation relocating to O'Reilly-Tefft gymnasium in 2002. Ozarks Table Tennis Club has subsequently staged 29 USATT sanctioned tournaments; 6 non-sanctioned tourneys and 5 "mini" tournaments. Thirty-two tournaments held at O'Reilly-Tefft; 5 held at Baptist Bible College; 2 held at Central Bible College; and 1 held at Parkview High School. There have been 1476 players, over $40,000 in payouts and multiple thousands of matches played and completed. Eminent players in Springfield: Eric Owens, 2003 USA National champion; Mark Hazinski, world rated #367; Chor Sime Oh (from Malaysia) world rated #536; Alfred Najem (from Lebanon) world rated #602; Paulo Rocha (from Brazil) world rated #633; Fernando Yamazato (from Brazil) world rated #682; Venkat Ramesh (from India) world rated #725; and Joey Cochran world rated #1138. Notable Springfield champions: Alfred Najem "5 times"; Parviz Mojaverian, Overland Park, KS "4 times" and Richard Martin, Kansas City, MO "3 times". Springfield is a recognized leader in table tennis in both Missouri and the mid-West.
