We (finally) had our first event for the season. An excellent epee turnout as our fencers were 14 of the 21 participants. Jesse Harvey and Will Golder defended the home turf by ending up in the final, with Jesse coming out on top. Colson Combs and John Amoroso, both of Apex, tied for 3rd. Mr. Amoroso returned to fencing after a many year lay off and earned his D. We could have had many more of our foilists show up. The open and the D and under were just about exactly the same competitors. In the open, Alexander Sichitiu of RTF was first, Asa Beale of Apex was second, Jesse and Mary Kolbas of Apex tied for third. In the D and under foil, Asa moved up one position, and earned his E by winning. Mary also moved up one position. Victoria Schmidt of RTF and Jeremy Wang of Apex tied for third. Thanks to Kathy Walters for observing and Brendan McConville and Stephen Pashby for refereeing. Thanks to all of you who pitched in with the set up and tear down. I know this was the first event or an early event in your fencing careers for a number of you. The grapevine says that you enjoyed it. We have a number of people in the club, but could use new blood in a lot of our “support” positions. It gets old for Brendan and I showing up an hour and a half to two hours ahead to set everything up and then being the last people out after cleaning up. It doesn’t matter what your talents are, there are probably ways we can use the help. Having other people who can referee, help run the events, armor, and do other behind the scenes things goes a long way to making the events run more smoothly, and that attracts more fencers from outside our club, which makes our events even more fun. Talk to Brendan or me if you might be interested in learning some new auxiliary fencing skills.
Friday,
October 26th is St. Mary’s Fall Festival. We will shut down on
Wednesday and Thursday of this week so that our space can become the
haunted house for that event. We will pull down the overheads after
practice on Tuesday the 23rd and put them back up on Tuesday the 30th. Also, there seems to be a weird tradition for this club that I would like to see broken. It usually happens that the first practice after a club event has very low turnout. You would think that people would want to get back in and start working on their deficiencies or trying out new things they learned that Saturday.
October 26th is St. Mary’s Fall Festival. We will shut down on
Wednesday and Thursday of this week so that our space can become the
haunted house for that event. We will pull down the overheads after
practice on Tuesday the 23rd and put them back up on Tuesday the 30th. Also, there seems to be a weird tradition for this club that I would like to see broken. It usually happens that the first practice after a club event has very low turnout. You would think that people would want to get back in and start working on their deficiencies or trying out new things they learned that Saturday.
There should be practice at Topsail Middle this Friday and will definitely be practice at Camp Lejeune. If Pender County changes their minds about school, please let me know.
The other way to get more people to come to our events is to go to their events. This has the added benefit of fencing new people, not having the pressure of organizing the event, and by being the unknown person, doing well because no one has seen how you fence. Here are some events coming up soon.
October
27th has the Tiger Open at Clemson. This is a large regional event. As of today, the epee is a 50+ person A2, the foil is an even stronger (8 As) about 50 person A2. The sabre is a B2, but just needs two Bs to become an A event. (Hint, hint Kim) The D and under events are either or will end up being C2s. Check askfred.net
for more info.
27th has the Tiger Open at Clemson. This is a large regional event. As of today, the epee is a 50+ person A2, the foil is an even stronger (8 As) about 50 person A2. The sabre is a B2, but just needs two Bs to become an A event. (Hint, hint Kim) The D and under events are either or will end up being C2s. Check askfred.net
for more info.
If you prefer to travel North, Williamsburg has a tournament with a B2 epee that needs one A to be an A, a C1 foil, and an E sabre.
Closer to home, Apex
is holding a number of unsanctioned events that date. Unsanctioned means that you cannot earn a rating, but it doesn’t mean that the fencing will be any less difficult. There are a couple of
aged events and adult Women’s foil, Men’s foil, and Mixed epee. Almost all the fencers are Us so it is a good event for those without a lot of experience who are looking for an event without As and Bs, etc. Check askfred.net for details.
is holding a number of unsanctioned events that date. Unsanctioned means that you cannot earn a rating, but it doesn’t mean that the fencing will be any less difficult. There are a couple of
aged events and adult Women’s foil, Men’s foil, and Mixed epee. Almost all the fencers are Us so it is a good event for those without a lot of experience who are looking for an event without As and Bs, etc. Check askfred.net for details.
November
1st is the date by which I need to turn in a roster for the homeschool
league. Right now we have the three Hurricanes from Jacksonville and Schoonmakers and O’Briens from Wilmington.
1st is the date by which I need to turn in a roster for the homeschool
league. Right now we have the three Hurricanes from Jacksonville and Schoonmakers and O’Briens from Wilmington.
We
will be holding an NCFL meet on Saturday, November 3. With all that is
going on I am not certain what the number of teams and levels will be.
I would guess probably 6-8 A foil teams for both men and women.
Probably that for foil B teams. I know a number of our fencers have
been trying to get clubs up and running, but have had their efforts
delayed by Florence. If we have people who want to fence but don”t have
a team, and you are at least in middle school, we can put together B
teams under the CFFA banner. You will need a full uniform and we will
help with that as much as we can. We have at least two fencers interested in that. Epee fencers also compete as B teams
currently, so we can try to get a team (or more) together for that. As
always, refereeing, armoring, managing help from the club is greatly
appreciated.
will be holding an NCFL meet on Saturday, November 3. With all that is
going on I am not certain what the number of teams and levels will be.
I would guess probably 6-8 A foil teams for both men and women.
Probably that for foil B teams. I know a number of our fencers have
been trying to get clubs up and running, but have had their efforts
delayed by Florence. If we have people who want to fence but don”t have
a team, and you are at least in middle school, we can put together B
teams under the CFFA banner. You will need a full uniform and we will
help with that as much as we can. We have at least two fencers interested in that. Epee fencers also compete as B teams
currently, so we can try to get a team (or more) together for that. As
always, refereeing, armoring, managing help from the club is greatly
appreciated.
Richmond is holding a Vet series of events on that date.
November 10th is the Harry Rulnick event in Fayetteville. It has open Men’s and Women’s foil. Check askfred for more info. It looks to be a mid-level event somewhere closer to the Apex event than something like a Tiger Open.
November
10th is also supposed to be a homeschool league scrimmage. I will let
you have more information once a location is announced.
10th is also supposed to be a homeschool league scrimmage. I will let
you have more information once a location is announced.
Our next home event is November 17th. It will have an open foil, an open epee, and a D and under epee. Get signed up on askfred now, and it might start to look more like a Tiger Open than Saturday. The earlier it looks like an interesting tournament the more likely it is to draw more and stronger fencers.
The more likely it is to be a rated (and a highly rated) event, the more likely it is that the people who sign up will show up. On the other hand, don’t sign up if you know you won’t be coming. We don’t want a reputation for promising big events and then not delivering. If the D and under epee can get at least 4Ds, (Robert, Kenyatta and two more), and 4 Es (Mike and 3 more), and 25 total fencers; the winner can get a C without having to defeat any Cs.
The Division qualifiers for the Junior Olympics have been scheduled for December 8th and 9th at Research Triangle Fencing. You must attend, and do well enough (unless you have qualified at a National event), to be able to go to the JOs. The JOs are in Denver over the President’s Day weekend in February, so I certainly under stand if you may not be able to attend that. In any case, these are really good events to attend to see how you stack up against the other fencers your age in the state. All of the events are split by gender, so ladies, you do not have to compete against the guys. If you are looking for that next step up from local events, these are excellent events to fence. Additionally, the number of qualifiers the Division gets is based on the number of fencers in the event. Just by going, you may help other fencers from NC be able to attend. We will help with plastrons, knickers, etc as much as we can. The two age groups are Juniors (ages 13-19) and Cadets (ages 13-16). All of the Junior events events are on Saturday, and all of the Cadet events are on Sunday. If you qualify by placing high enough in the Junior event, and you are eligible, you are automatically qualified for the Cadet. So do well on Saturday, and be eligible for the Cadet, and you don’t have to re-qualify on Sunday.
Let me know if there are any questions over all this.
pax vobiscum,
Greg Spahr
Head Coach
Cape Fear Fencing Association
Head Coach
Cape Fear Fencing Association
“The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.” Damon Runyon
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