I don’t really know the Alguetti family.  However, I have seen them, heard them (YES HEARD THEM) and played against them.  The one thing that they have, which I really admire…    is team spirit.  The family of five can out-cheer any team in the US.  Regardless if they are playing a preliminary round or taking down Timothy Wang in the Men’s Singles, they have a fighting attitude and together they are supported by their team of five.
 
I look around at the other teams who were present at the Nationals last week (I don’t need to give the names) with huge junior programs bringing dozens of rising stars to the nationals.  With head coaches, assistant coaches, parents, friends, and relatives, some of these junior programs had more than 80-100 people present at the nationals.  However, no team there at the national outcheered the Alguettis.  They had team spirit.  Regardless of which Alguetti was playing, they had two brothers cheering loudly on the sidelines, mom cheering on the sidelines, and dad coaching by their side.  Whereas I noticed that other star players from other training centers had no one.  They had no one.  They had a coach who was half-sleeping, they had a parent texting on their smart phone.  And, they had a few teammates snickering when they whiffed the ball.  They lost a point and despairingly looked around for encouragement.  There was a huge contrast at the nationals – the Alguetti’s team of five supporting and cheering and the large training centers with teams of player all focused on themselves and not supporting.
 
If the Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy wants to become the top training center in the US within 10-15 years, we need to come together for support.  We need to support each other and have team spirit.  Team spirit is moving away from ourselves, away from our personal needs, putting down our smartphones, and caring about the other members of the team.