About

Fox Valley Table Tennis club has been operating since 1998, when a group of players (Dean, Roger and others) convinced the management to add table tennis to its growing list of activities.  The club started with 8 Stiga tables some of them donated by the founders and some by the Paddle Palace online table tennis store.  At first the club offered annual memberships at the cost of $60 which attracted local players.

Around 2010 when the original founders became less involved with club, the Eola Community Center took over the club.  The memberships were eliminated and a daily fee of $4 for residents and $5 for non-residents was established.  The club still attracted local players but the price increase & deteriorating equipment kept steering top players to other area clubs – Xilin in Naperville and Wheaton club in Wheaton Park District.

In 2011 this situation prompted Swavek Lorenc to do something about it.  He fixed up the aging Stiga tables, convinced the E.C.C. management to fix the storage area threshold which contributed to break down of the tables suspensions and organized the first tournament to re-energize the club.  Success of this tournament held in March of 2011, convinced Swavek that local players are hungry for such events and started organizing 2 – 4 tournaments a year.

On October 26th, 2011 the Park District bought 10 brand new Killerspin MyT10 Club Pro tables in black.

In June of 2012, the first sanctioned tournament was organized with the help of a local company – Infogix, Inc. The success of this tournament has led to organization of additional sanctioned tournaments resulting in club awareness among the Chicago area players.

In June 2013, Swavek Lorenc – FVTTC Club President – bought 2 more Killerspin tables,  so we now have 12 identical tables for use in tournaments.  He also used proceeds from tournaments to buy Newgy purple barriers in batches of 10 -15 so in the fall of 2018 we have 100 such barriers allowing us to have fully barriered 12 courts for tournaments.  This is in addition to 20+ barriers of various brands owned by park district.

In January, 2022 Fox Valley Park District took delivery of 10 brand new blue Donic Waldner Classic 25 tables.  A group of volunteers helped assemble the tables over two evenings.  Another club member Thomas Sharp built new net set holders so nets are neatly stowed away on the tables and last longer.   Swavek Lorenc added net measure pocket to these holders, painted and attached them to the tables.

Starting on April 6th, 2022 the park district started offering open gym in the Prisco Community Center in downtown Aurora.  3 old Killerspin tables were moved there and are currently used.

As of this writing, on busy days the Eola Community Center open gym attracts 25 – 35 players with minimum waiting thanks to 12 tables available for playing.  The session at Prisco CC attracts up to 10 players on Wednesdays.