SAM MILLER - JUNIOR PLAYER TO ITTF OFFICIAL & TTA YOUNG OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR AWARD RECIPIENT

17 - 23 May 2021 is the Australian National Volunteer Week (NVW), the largest annual celebration of volunteers in Australia. Each year almost 6 million volunteers across Australia dedicate over 600 million hours to their communities.

Volunteers are the lifeblood and backbone of sports like table tennis, and it wouldn’t be possible to run and grow the sport without the contribution of dedicated volunteers such as coaches, officials, administrators, parents, fundraisers and supporters who selflessly give their time to the game every day all year around.

Due to his significant contributions, Sam Miller was awarded the National Table Tennis Young Official of the Year Award on three occasions in 2016, 2018 and 2020 by Table Tennis Australia (TTA).

This prestigious award acknowledges an up-and-coming referee or umpire who is under 30 years old and has demonstrated an advanced understanding of the game, and a genuine drive to improve their knowledge and skills to drive inclusive, safe, fair and enjoyable table tennis for all by an individual, for the benefit of the sport and the wider community.

As a valued member of the Table Tennis Australia Capital Territory (ACT) and Table Tennis New South Wales (NSW) communities, Sam brings his skills, energy, and innovation to continually improve and grow the sport of table tennis, and he continues tirelessly and selflessly to travel between Canberra and Sydney during countless weekends to voluntarily organize all level tournaments all year around from club, state, national and international level.

Generally Sam is involved in between 30 to 40 tournaments a year, and continues to contribute to the table tennis community in the officiating and administrative domains. For example, in 2019, Sam umpired and refereed at over 20 events, including the ITTF Oceania Para Championships, the ACT Open and Closed Championships, the Australian National Junior Championships and the INAS Global Games – to name just a few.

Sam has successfully organised and run many ACT competitions over the past 5 years and has been key to building the ACT’s capacity to stage and grow high quality tournaments. Sam has also played an integral part in organising the 2020 TTACT Open as the sport continues to emerge from COVID-19.

Sam has continued to improve his qualifications and gained his ITTF International Umpire Accreditation in 2020. Sam works very hard to promote and improve the sport nationally and collaborates with numerous organisations and clubs to promote and energise the sport nationally.

Sam began his table tennis journey as a junior player at 14 years old years old when his parents bought a table for him and his older brother. They set it up in their garage and had many fierce encounters.

When he was 16, Sam joined his local club in Albury Wodonga in the beginners division with two school friends. He was the only one out of the three that went on and played it more competitively, and participated in weekly group coaching and continued to rise through the ranks.

Sam continued to play table tennis when he started his university studies in 2013 and was actively involved in the Australian National University Table Tennis Club, serving as the president for two years from 2015 to 2016. He then shifted his focus from playing to umpiring, becoming a State Umpire in 2014 and upgrading to become a  National Umpire in 2017. He was fortunate enough to be selected as an umpire for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in  the Gold Coast and the ITTF World Junior Championship in Bendigo later that same year.

Sam is currently serving as a  Member of the Table Tennis Australia Umpires & Referees Committee, and he has been in the following roles at different stages as well: the President of the Australian National University Table Tennis Club, and continues to be a member of the Table Tennis NSW Umpires and Referees Association,  Table Tennis Victoria Umpires League, the Vice-President and Competitions & Events Director of Table Tennis ACT, the Tournament Director of the Inter-University Table Tennis Association (ITTA), and the Oceania Representative for the ITTF Young Umpires Project in 2017.

Sam uses volunteering as a vehicle to positively contribute to a community he has loved being a part of, and he said: “I don’t do it for the financial reward. I want to do something for our table tennis community whenever I can. I am particularly interested to see what the clubs around Australia are doing to grow their membership base. I am also very interested to see more junior players become qualified umpires.”

Sam said: “Becoming an official  is one of the best ways to be involved in our great game. Tournaments cannot run without officials and moreover, umpires get the best seat in the court. Developing officials especially young officials and female officials has been an on-going initiative by TTA as our table tennis community works to grow the capacity of the region with the aim of hosting more international events on a regular basis.”

Sam continued: “We are looking forward to the final announcement of the International Olympic Committee who have previously advised that Brisbane is the preferred candidate to host the 2032 Olympic Games and 2032 Paralympic Games It is not only a great opportunity for our junior players to play at this coming Olympic Games, but it also presents great opportunity for our junior officials to umpire at this coming Olympic Games. I was pleased to see that our junior players such as Alice Lee and David Lee served as volunteers at 2018 ITTF World Junior Championships and 2019 ITTF World Junior & Cadet Australian Open & Arafura Games. This demonstrates that that there are many avenues of involvement for people to remain connected to table tennis, whether it be as a coach, administrator, official or player.

Sam’s achievements continue the trend of Australia being well represented in the upper echelons of officiating. Our table tennis community is looking forward to more junior players involving official roles, and we are also looking forward to seeing more youth officials and female officials in ITTF events and Olympic Games.

Sam thanks the strong support from table tennis community especially from TTACT, TTNSW, TTVIC, ITTA, and TTA, “I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of our table tennis big family and has been one of the fondest memories of my involvement in table tennis in the last 12 years. It has grown me personally and professionally and I have relished the opportunities to share knowledge and form valuable experiences. We are living in a big country with a tight knit table tennis community. If everyone works hard with a common vision, we will achieve big things for the sport of table tennis. For all. For Life.”

As Australia celebrates the outstanding contribution of volunteers to our sports and communities, TTA CEO Scott Houston sends a big thank you to TTA Volunteers across the country on 17 May 2021, and the details can be found from the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/TableTennisAus/videos/142525594559219/

David Lee and Michael Li thank Sam for the interview, discussion, advice and support in contributing to this article.