Corps drops heartbreaker in ping pong tourney
By Daniel J. Calderón  Corps employee Rosa Ramirez takes aim at a ping pong ball sent her way during the tournament held in August at the URS ping pong area on the roof at the 7th floor. This is the third year Army Corps of Engineers employees and URS Corporation employees have participated in a ping pong tournament.
Players took to the 7th floor rooftop ping pong arena to parade powerful ping pong proficiency before a crowd of lunchtime sports fans. Corps employees squared off against employees from URS Corporation.  Crowds watch as Army Corps of Engineers employee Lu Tan (left) prepares to defend his side of the ping pong table from a strike by Jerry Romana, a URS employee. Both men used the “pen hold” style grip on their ping pong paddles. Romana won the series and is now the current men’s ping pong champion.
“I practiced some before going in to this,” said Ramirez, who was last year’s female champion. “I think I needed more practice.”
This year marked the third for the ping pong tournament competition between the Corps and URS. Employees compete over a series of weeks during lunch time games to determine who will be the final champion and have bragging rights until the following year’s series of games.
 Rosa Ramirez (in orange), a Corps employee, strives to return a ball as it bounces away from her. Kanan Patel-Coleman (in white) ultimately defeated Ramirez and took the women’s ping pong title for 2007. While the female games were more studies in determination and grace, the male competition looked and sounded more like a National Geographic special on battling beasts. The ping pong balls fairly sizzled the air as the competitors made use of strength and the “pen hold” grip on the ping pong paddle. In the end, Jerry Romana, from URS, triumphed over the Corps’ own Lu Tan in three straight games.
 Corps employee John Galadzhyan sets himself up to return a strike during the August 2007 ping pong finals.
Fans said they were riveted to the competitive spectacle.
“I loved the games, but I have to say I was really rooting for my co-workers,” said Sherry Dadci, a URS employee who was a vocal presence during the matches. “Ping pong is a really wild game. You can be winning one minute and then, all of a sudden, you’re down five.” The whole ping pong program encourages friendly competition between employees of both companies and provides a forum for interaction. Corps employees interested in participating should visit the Fitness Center in the District Office building. There are still more than nine months to rain before next month’s competition begins. | 
