By Cale Snedden

Most people know Drew Adams for his throwing skills as quarterback of the Mount Vernon Mustangs football team; however, when he is not on the field throwing touchdown passes he can be found in his garage putting some wicked spin on the ping pong ball.

Adams has been playing ping pong since fourth grade. It all started when he got a table from his neighbors. He put his newly acquired table in his basement where he and his dad would play quite frequently. Since then, he has played off and on,sometimes taking a break from his game, but really picking it up over the past two years.

Adams, a junior, is a very competitive person even in the smallest of things. However every great player has an enemy. Adams’ nemesis is Nick Leopold. Adams only beat his classmate one time in his career and thinks that they are the top match up when it comes to playing time. Adams also battles junior Casey Noska. Adams explained how their matches are always back and forth every time they play. He will win some and Noska will win the others. No matter what happens, at the end Adams always wants it to be fun for everyone and not get too serious.

In every game, you have to have a strategy. Adams said that he likes to pick apart his opponent’s weakness in warm ups and use it against them in the game. But when his opponents figure it out, he just goes with the flow of the game. Adams made clear that he is an aggressive player but has room to improve. “The feeling after a nice smash or drop shot gives me that adrenaline to keep swinging,” Adams said. As an aggressive player, his strength is his offense and ball placement on the table.

But just like superman has Kryptonite, Adams too, has a weakness. His backhand is his weakest aspect of the game. “That would be the one thing that I tell beginners to practice most…backhand,” Drew said.

Having a home advantage is always nice but it is hard to do that when you don’t have a table like Drew since he had to get ride of his old one. He explains that his favorite place to play would be at Chris Grice’s house but also on his homemade table which consist of a fold up table and a spare piece of drywall. This is how he gets most of his practice time in before game days.

In the end Drew said all ping pong is “Two paddles, one table, one ball and a whole lot of spin. Ping….Pong. Take it one hit at a time and don’t think about the game too much and just be one with the paddle and the game will come to you.” Drew plans on furthering his career for as long as possible. Maybe even taking his talents and skills to the college lounge and showing others how it’s done, in the end always keeping it as a friendly yet competitive competition.