Suzi Battison is stepping down as head coach of the Atlanta Blazers, the team announced.

Battison made this decision with the intention of spending more time at home with her three young daughters. She is not expected to coach an MLTT team in Season 4, but she has expressed interest in returning to the league in the future.

“At MLTT, we fully support putting family first,” the league said in a statement.

In her first season as an MLTT head coach, Battison led the expansion Atlanta Blazers to a 5-13 record with 155 points. The Blazers began their season with a 1-5 record and 46 points after Week 6 and scored 109 points in the final 12 matches of their inaugural season.

Battison orchestrated the Blazers’ first-ever trade when she acquired Rachel Sung (SPINDEX: 2521) from Portland in exchange for Minhyung Jee (2488) and a second-round pick in the Season 4 MLTT Draft. It was the fourth trade in league history, and the first to include multiple women.

Battison is also one of three coaches to ever select a player with the first overall pick in an MLTT Draft, which became Yuya Oshima (2779) ahead of Season 3. She also selected Kayama Yu (2804), Andrea Todorovic (2497), Braxton Chang (2604) and Jee in her first and only MLTT Draft as the Blazers’ coach.

The Blazers were eliminated from playoff contention on Friday, which makes Sunday’s match against the Portland Paddlers Battison’s last as her team’s head coach. The Blazers will have the second-highest odds (23.8%) of receiving the No. 1 overall pick in the Season 4 MLTT Draft, a position that will be decided on April 7.

Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) will return from April 18-19 for its Championship Weekend, which will be streamed on Table Tennis TV. 

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