‘Tactical’ playing pays off. National champ at 80, Sonora man takes gold with a paddle
Table tennis or pingpong? Sport or hobby? Sonora resident Mike Sturtevant has an answer. “If you play in the garage, you’re playing pingpong. If you play by the rules, you’re playing table tennis.”
Sturtevant would know. The energetic 80-year-old recently won a national title at the 2024 U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships, taking gold in the 80-and-over men’s singles and 80-and-over men’s doubles division with partner Will Baird of Victorville.
The event was held at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from Dec. 16-21 and is the oldest-running table tennis event in the country. It drew over 1,400 players, a record number for the event, in 2024.
“I’m the most optimistic person in the world, so I went in feeling confident, although I knew there were five or six players that would be really tough to beat,” Sturtevant said.
He was seeded seventh out of 11 players. His final singles match was against top-seed Bill Ukapatayasakul, better known as Bill U.
Sturtevant was particularly unsure how he would fare, given an injury just before the tournament. “I went in with a sprained wrist, and I’m normally a high-risk power hitter,” he said. “I switched to being a tactical player where I just did placements after placements, and then when a good shot came up, I hit it.”
Sturtevant secured the gold and became the top-ranked 80-and-older player in the United States.
He was not deterred by the injury. In fact, it was another sprain that started him on his path to table tennis glory.
Sturtevant said he was always athletic, and took up roller skating and competitive volleyball between the ages of 20-51. But too many sprains from volleyball prompted him to look into other activities. His wife, Dorothy, was a competitive table tennis player in her youth, and together they bought a table and began playing each other.
Sturtevant said he played at home for about a year before discovering the Modesto Table Tennis Club nearly 30 years ago. “I felt that I was a pretty good player, until I went to the club, and there were four guys over 75 and they just beat the living daylights out of me,” he said. “The step from a garage to a club is huge, and my goal became to win a match at that club within one year.”
And it took a year. At 52 years old, Sturtevant lost 250 consecutive matches until finally winning.
Since that time, Sturtevant has become the president of the Modesto Table Tennis Club and has coached countless players over the last few decades. The club of about a dozen members meets at the Hughson Community Senior Center, the town where he was born and raised.
His roots in the Valley run deep. His mother, Margaret, was active in the Hughson community, writing historical articles and books about the town. The family’s 12-acre peach farm would become the Hughson Arboretum & Gardens.
Sturtevant owned Spanish-language radio stations KLOC and KTDO and founded the High School Principals Spanish Lip Sync Contest which raised over $700,000 in scholarships for Latino students during its 20-year run.
After selling his radio stations and retiring in 2003, Sturtevant did not slow down after moving to Sonora. He regularly volunteers with Interfaith Ministries, does yoga and still shows up weekly to coach and play with the Modesto Table Tennis Club. He doesn’t plan on putting the paddle down anytime soon.
“This is a game I’m going to play forever,” he said. “I’m 80 years old, but, but I’m still very fit, and my goal is to win next year.
The Modesto Table Tennis Club meets every Wednesday at the Hughson Community Senior Center at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/modestotabletennisclub.
This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 1:02 PM.
