Congratulations Jasna Reed on winning the Collegiate National Championships! Tell us about college and your future plans. Feel free to elaborate!
Thank you. This year’s Collegiate Nationals was the strongest ever. The women’s singles level was almost equivalent to the USA Nationals. I didn’t really think that I would win so easily. I guess I was “luckier” than others. You know me, I am always afraid before the tournament, and I always deny that I have a chance against anyone, but when it is over I act more confidant.

Texas Wesleyan University keeps bringing good athletes/students to its program. We are still the only university with table tennis scholarships. Of course not everyone is entitled to it, but everyone is welcome to be a part of our great program. It is an ideal place for anyone interested in higher education while taking part in organized table tennis training in an environment with all levels of teammates. I think this is the only way for young players to continue playing, unless they are willing to sacrifice their education for something uncertain. 

I was part of both worlds (international and national scene), so I think that I am pretty fair when I make these statements. Nowadays many (I would say 90%) of table tennis players in the top 200 in the world have only a high school degree, and sometimes not even that. This is not yet a sport where you can secure your future by being in the top 200. Everyone outside the top 30 men and 10 women in the world are just surviving from what they make. We all know how difficult it is to become those 40. Also, even if you are very talented, but are in a country that does not invest much in table tennis (camps, coaches, athletes, tournaments, etc.) it would cost a fortune to reach a high enough level where your name would be mean something in the table tennis world. Until that changes in our country, and until our sport gets the deserved credit throughout the world, with many TT athletes with good contracts, we should focus on combinations of education and sport. If we start building serious table tennis programs, like the one here at Texas Wesleyan, we would eventually be closer to world level. All the other sports in the U.S. would be nothing if they did not have college leagues and organized training. It is a miracle that we have players at all, without any serious clubs, and only one university program with scholarships in the whole country. 

I wish all other schools had such an amazing President (Dr. Harold Jeffcoat) and Athletic Department as we have here. They created us in 2001, and they have taken great care of us ever since. We might be a small school, but we definitely have made our mark in the sports that are played here. Beside table tennis, where we won six out of seven national titles this year, we have National Champions in basketball, and all other sports here won at least their conference championships. I am happy to be part of Texas Wesleyan, and very proud of every student/athlete on this campus.

It is interesting that winners of the highest senior standing award for student achievement were none other than two National Champions, Eric Owens (table tennis) and Ben Hunt (basketball).
See www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/colleges/14562577.htm.

Starting next semester at Texas Wesleyan, Keith Evans and I will be Head Coaches. At the same time I will continue to work on my Master’s in Education. If everything goes well I will graduate in Spring, 2007. After that I would like to go further in school. I want to stay here as long as possible, since I really like it. 
 
How were the Worlds? Anything interesting to tell us?
I was not so impressed with Worlds this year. I guess without Tawny there, it did not feel like the World Championship. Tawny, this is the last time that you let us go without you!!!
 
At the Worlds or the College Nationals, what was the most interesting or memorable match? Tell us about it.
At the Worlds we played in a group against Slovakia, and the team tie was at 2-2. I played the fifth and final match against Lenka Kmotorkova. She was leading 2-0 in sets and 8-4 in points, and I came back to 2-2. The fifth set started really well for me, and I was up 10-0! As most table tennis people know, I have my own way of thinking, which sometimes doesn’t make sense to others. So, as we were playing it crossed my mind that I might win 11-0, so I thought I should miss one ball, because in my world there is no way I want to win 11-0. I just don’t want to do that ever. So, knowing how important the match was, and that the game could still easily turn around, I still came to the table and purposely missed my serve, so it was 10-1. As I predicted, she started winning point after point, 2,3,4,5,6,7 and I was thinking “ok, she is not the world champion, she will not make everything on the table by the end of the set if I play my game and not wait for her to miss.” Luckily, I got the next point. Yeah, everyone on the U.S. team almost had a heart attack (not only because our average age is high).

Another interesting match would be the Women’s Doubles Final at the Collegiate National Championships. It is always great to have nice surprises, and in this match my doubles partner was Sabrina Worrell. She was the leader and main reason why we won the match. We defeated  a much stronger team. I can say that this title was even sweeter than the one in singles. Big thanks to Sabrina.
 
How do you prepare for major tournaments? Do you prepare differently now than when you played full-time in Europe?
Larry, I think it is well known how I prepare for major tournaments or any others. As said in my recent Paddle Palace interview: For me it is ideal to stay mentally fresh, to keep the desire to fight. It’s good to play, but not too much. For me, if I play too much, I become more robotic and lose feeling. Most of the time I fight like an animal. I think that helps me win in the end, because I fight harder than others. The last three years, I did not play full time. I practiced only on Fridays before tournaments, and played matches on weekends. I play more here.
 
You are known for a rather unique service motion. Tell us how you developed that. 
Everyone serves in a similar way, so I was thinking about how to have an unusual and ugly motion, and worked really hard on it. It is ugly, you have to admit, but it is a very safe serve. Difficult to flip, attack or loop. 90% of the time it is perfectly short, so opponents can’t do much. But, if you really want the truth about the evolution of my serve, here it is: As a kid I had a serve that was similar to this one, but I needed to bend my knees and have my head at table level. Years passed and it became harder and harder to get up after the serve, so I started serving more from a standing position. The final product is the serve which has become my trademark.
 
What are your table tennis goals? 
Right now my goals in table tennis aren’t necessarily as a player. As I said earlier, I will be a head coach at Texas Wesleyan next semester, so my priority would be to take care of our players. There is so much room for our program to improve, as well as table tennis in the U.S.  I would like to make a difference in both. It would be great to develop the first U.S. Olympic medalist.

As a player, I will play as long as I enjoy competing. I don’t see any reason to stop yet, since it doesn’t take too much of my time, and I don’t see myself without table tennis.

Also, I can still help our University for many years as a player, not just as coach. In the Paddle Palace interview I said how you can play table tennis from age five till you die!!! I did not start at five, but I can go for the other one.
 
What are your non-table tennis goals?
I am working on myself. I want to be a better person. The priority is on improving my personality in a way that will improve my ability to work with others. I am on the right track. I think that I am changing. Also, I want to go as far as I can in school. I will finish my Master’s before Summer 2007, but I will not stop there. I really like school, and my job here.
 
What do you like to do outside table tennis? Hobbies, sports, etc. 
In earlier interviews when you asked me this question, I would just erase it, or leave it blank. Now, I have an answer. I love to spend time with my team – Texas Wesleyan. We have dinners, picnics or we go to movies together. I am just so lucky to have them around. They are all great in their unique way: Sabrina, Johnese, Kareema, Peter, Andre, Tim, Aldis, Mike, Dinko, Carlos, Courtney, Sadiq, Ludovic, Abdul, David, Keith, Eric.
 
What were the most important factors that turned you into a world-class player and Olympic Medalist?
It is probably a whole puzzle of things that helped me produce the results that I have.

First would be the determination of my parents and sister. They kept pushing me into table tennis. I admire them for never putting any pressure on me regarding results. It was ok to lose, but it was not ok to not practice seriously. It was easy to see that I couldn’t play for many hours (lack of focus), so my coach decided that I should play 1.5 hours of quality training per session. Most of the days I had two sessions of 1.5 hours.

Second would be coaches Davorin Kvesic and Zlatko Novakovic. They got me to the level of an Olympian. I don’t really know why and how I did certain results, because it was never about playing and preparing for one tournament only. I just played in my club, which was so organized. I had many sparring-partners. Every weekend I had a competition, either for my club, national team, league for club, European league, European Champions Cup, Worlds, Europeans, Open Tournaments, National Tournaments.

My parents never had to spend money on coaching, trips, or equipment. Everything was covered by the club inside the country, and the national team for international tournaments or matches. In order for athletes to improve there have to be many opportunities for competition and good training, which I had. Also, there are many players that had exactly the same conditions as me, but they never reached the same level. So, there has to be some other missing pieces to our puzzle. I can just speculate.

I also think that I was lucky to be more talented than most others. That helped in part because I didn’t need to practice as much as others to reach a high level.  An athlete has to have a strong personality and have leadership skills in order to be a champion. I have those traits.

For me equipment also plays an important role. It is very crucial to have good rubber on my blade. If I do not have the right equipment, I feel like I am playing a different sport.

Maybe as an outsider, you can tell me more what it is that made me a champion!
 
What’s your advice for up-and-coming players? 
Practice hard (I did years ago), find good coaching, good sparring-partners, have good equipment – blade and rubbers (very crucial element for me), respect your parents, coach and opponents. Come to Texas Wesleyan, where you can earn an education, and we will provide great sparring partners and coaching!

Jasna Reed's Major Titles
• 1981-92: 20+-time Yugoslavian Champion in Singles, Doubles & Team events
• 1988 Olympic Bronze Medal – Women’s Doubles (Seoul)
• 1988 European gold – Mixed Doubles with Ilija Lupulesku (Paris)
• 1988, ‘90, ‘92 European Bronze – Team Event (Paris, Gothenburg, Stuttgart)
• 1991 two Gold’s –Women’s Singles & Doubles at Mediterranean Games (Athens)
• 1991 two Gold’s – Women’s Singles & Doubles at Balkan Games
• 1992 European gold – Women’s Doubles with Gordana Perkucin (Stuttgart)
• 2001 North American Champion – Women’s Doubles
• 2001 & 2002 USA National Champion – Women’s Doubles
• 2002 Collegiate Women’s Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles Champion
• 2003 Gold Medal – Pan-American Games – Women’s Doubles
• 2003 USA National Women’s Singles & Doubles, Mixed Doubles Champion
• 2004 USA National Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles Runner-up
• 2005 USA National Women’s Singles Champion
• 2005 North American Women’s Singles Runner-up, Women’s Doubles Champion
• 2006 Collegiate Women’s Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles Champion
• Member, 2000 & 2004 USA Olympic Team (#1 at 2004 USA and North American Trials)
• Member, USA National Team, 2000 to present
• Certified by USATT as a National Coach

Age [I bet you won’t answer!!!]: You are so right!!!!
Height/weight: 5-7/120
Coaches: Fikret Fazlic, Davorin Kvesic, Zlatko Novakovic (longest and most influential), Bela Sel, John Bosika, Doru Gheorghe
Sponsors: Nittaku & Paddle Palace
Blade: Nittaku, Jasna
FH rubber: Nittaku Hammond
BH rubber: Nittaku Hammond
Glue: Nittaku
Current/Highest Rating: 2477/2566
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Oakland University in Rochester, MI., currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Education at Texas Wesleyan University.