Mark Hazinski

Mark "Haz" Hazinski (born April 20, 1985 in South Bend, Indiana) is an American professional table tennis athlete. He started playing table tennis at the age of 9 and by the age of 15 had become the youngest player in the history of United States Table Tennis to make the United States Men's National Table Tennis Team. Hazinski simultaneously represented the United States Men's Team and United States Junior Team for 4 consecutive years (2000-2003).

Mark Hazinski
Mark Hazinski practicing before a match.
BornApril 20, 1985 (1985-04-20) (age 35)
South Bend, Indiana, U.S.
NationalityUnited States
EducationSports Medicine (Bachelor of Science)
Alma materTexas Wesleyan University
OccupationProfessional Table Tennis Athlete & Head Coach of North Texas Table Tennis Center
Years active1994-Current
Notable work
2004 USA Olympic Athlete
StyleShakehand Attacker (Right Hand)
Home townPlano, TX
Height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Spouse(s)Shu (Sara) Hazinski
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Representing  United States
Pan American Games
2007 Rio de Janeiro Team

As a youth Hazinski was professionally trained by United States Olympic Head Coach Danny Seemiller and United States Junior Coach Mark Nordby. Hazinski spent multiple years (2004–2006) playing professional sports leagues in Germany and Sweden. In 2007 Mark decided to put his professional career on hold to attend Texas Wesleyan University on a full scholarship for academics and Table Tennis.

Mark Hazinski (right) hits a backhand shot during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Career

Hazinski's professional career can be dated back to 2000, at the age of 15 when he first made the United States Men's National Team. Here are many of Hazinski's top accolades during that time period:

In Hazinski's early career he enjoyed training and playing professionally in Europe. From 2004-05 he played for Oberalster VFW Club in Hamburg, Germany and in 2005-06 he played for Ängby Sportklubb in Stockholm, Sweden. After his season ended in Sweden, Hazinski decided to further pursue an education and attended Texas Wesleyan University, located in Ft. Worth, Texas. While attending Texas Wesleyan University (TWU), he held the # 1 Collegiate Table Tennis position for over 200 consecutive weeks, making him one of the most dominant collegiate players of all time.[1]

Personal life
Mark Hazinski (left) with others at a China/USA Ping Pong Diplomacy Reunion.

Hazinski married Shu "Sara" Fu in December 2008. Sara is from Chengdu, China but moved to the United States in 2005 to play and coach table tennis in California. Mark graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in May 2012 with a B.S. degree in Sports Medicine.

As of 2018, Hazinski is a head coach at North Texas Table Tennis Center and a professional table tennis athlete that competes in major United States table tennis sanctioned tournaments. He and wife Sara also own several Blackball Dessert franchises around the Plano, Texas area.

Hazinski is an avid golfer and Dallas Mavericks basketball fan. He is friends with Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle and has done table tennis exhibitions during the halftime entertainment periods for the Dallas Mavericks regular season games.

gollark: I do not trust them to magically make batteries last way longer. I'm pretty sure it's use-dependent in some way.
gollark: Suuuuure they do.
gollark: They went into administration or something a few years back, but it's irrelevant.
gollark: Doesn't last very long.
gollark: My existing phone has a fried battery after two years.

References
  1. "Mark Hazinski". tabletennis.teamusa.org. USA Table Tennis. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.