Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I'm Willie Leoprullo. I am the coach here at Florida State University as well as a coach here at Talsy Table Tennis Club. And I love Table Tennis. My dad is from Italy. And so where most families would grow up with little league baseball and so forth. He brought home a Table Tennis Table and he says, and I'll do his accent. He says, you know, in my country, we play football, which is of course soccer. I says, and we play Danny Stavolo. You must learn to play these. And I remember thinking of 13, 14, he's like, what is this thing? I had never played it and I just got hooked. And it opened up my universe because I was this introverted kid. And Table Tennis opened up my life, my horizons, my borders, everything. I met my wife at a Table Tennis Tournament. We have two beautiful kids. So I coach in the community. I coach at Florida State. I organize tournaments nationally. I do coaching clinics. I do commentating for life streaming for Table Tennis. So if I weren't working at the Family UFSU College of Engineering, I would be doing Table Tennis professionally. I was lucky enough when I was here at Florida State in the old ages, 1998, 1999, that I was befriended by a Chinese international who played, will say semi-professional. And he said to me, I will teach you for free. You don't have to pay me anything. I will teach you everything about the sport. Only thing I ask is that you return the favor. And I've done that continually. So I coach around town. I coach at FSU for free. All I ask is spread the word. I just want to spread the good gospel because Table Tennis is such a fun sport in the true original form ping pong. It's fun. And that's what keeps me coming back after all these years. It's still fun. I'm Willy Leopold Rulo and I hope to see you out at the table. You're listening to voices that inspire.