How the room got here
He didn’t get in.So he built something bigger.
Tripp Roche is 21. He’s the fifth generation of a family that has run a restaurant on Blanding Street since 1940. In the two years since he was turned down by the university across town, he’s built the largest table tennis club in South Carolina, brought the state championships back after thirty years, and taken a room under Main Street so the city has somewhere to play every night of the week.
Where it started
Upstairs atthe family restaurant.
Tripp is the fifth generation of Villa Tronco, Columbia’s oldest restaurant, open on Blanding Street since 1940. His grandfather kept a table tennis table upstairs and invited customers up to play. That table is where Tripp learned the game.
It’s the same instinct that runs through everything he’s built since: take something that was just for family, or just for him, and open the door on it.
“That was always my training place. So I’m grateful for it, and I want to give other people that opportunity.”
The embarrassing part
He thought he wasthe man. He wasn’t.
“I started a neighborhood league, got really good, beat everyone. Walked into my first club, got beat by everyone, little kids (and) older adults. It was very embarrassing. I just thought I was like the man because I could win in the neighborhood.”
“Everyone knows what table tennis is, what ping pong is. Everyone’s touched a racket at least one time in their lives.”
Tripp Roche — South Carolina Public Radio
The turn
USC has more than 40,000 students.He wasn’t one of them.
The University of South Carolina — a school of a record 40,000-plus students, right across town — didn’t admit him. He couldn’t play for their team. So in June 2024, while he was working at Villa Tronco and starting his freshman year at Midlands Technical College, he started his own club instead: Carolina Pong.
“I want to be kind of a figurehead to show people you can be a young person and thrive here. Like that’s doable, it’s not impossible.”
“It’s probably the busiest time of my life between working at Villa Tronco, my family’s restaurant, being in my freshman year at Midlands Technical College, and starting Carolina Pong.” — Tripp Roche, Cola Daily
What that club became
Two years on,the state noticed.
Carolina Pong is now the largest table tennis club in South Carolina. On February 8, 2025, Tripp brought the SC State Table Tennis Championships back — the first sanctioned state championship the state had held in over thirty years. On April 23, 2025, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed House Resolution H.3820, declaring it Table Tennis Day in South Carolina and naming Carolina Pong by name.
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Members in the club
2024
Founded, June
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Since SC's last sanctioned state championship
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House resolution naming the club
“Carolina Pong isn’t just about playing ping pong; it’s about building a community.”
“We are an all-inclusive club that’s open to all players of all levels.”
Carolina Pong still meets Mondays 6–9pm and Saturdays 10am–1pm at St. Andrews Park — that’s the club, separate from the room on Main Street. Main St Living Room is what Tripp built next: somewhere to play every day, not just on club nights.
Representing the US
A kid who got beat by everyonewent and played in China.
Tripp is the U1800 South Carolina State Champion. In April 2026, he represented the United States in a table tennis exchange in China — the same sport he first picked up on his grandfather’s table above the restaurant.
Then he took the basement
“Main Street’s living room.That’s what I want this to be.”
The room sits under the old Tapp’s department store — Art Moderne, built in 1940, on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. Tapp’s closed after 92 years in 1995; the building spent 2011 to 2019 as Tapp’s Arts Center, and today it’s 42 lofts and the Shoppes at Tapp’s upstairs. The club took the basement — somewhere nobody was using, right under the city’s feet.
Tripp Roche — Free Times
Same room he built for the city. $10 to walk in and play all day, or join for $20–$35 a month.
Follow the club at @carolinapong.