CFFA update for December 16

A good weekend for the club in multiple places.  Starting with the big national thing, the NAC (North American Cup) in Cincinnati.  Kim Phillips fenced 3 events starting with the Vet 40-49 sabre on Friday.  He went undefeated in his pool and was the number 2 seed in DEs.  He defeated Sean Bates in his first DE, but lost his second DE to take a bronze medal.  Just FYI, 5 of the top 7 finishers in that group are from North Carolina.  His Saturday Vet Combined sabre was truly weird.  43 fencers.  He finishes his pool 4-1.  That gets him the 15th seed in DEs.???  Won the first, but lost to the number 2 seed and finished 14th.  Today Kim was in the Division 1 sabre.  He made the cut, but lost his first DE.  Erica Julien also competed in Cincinnati.  Yesterday was the 70+ women’s epee.  Erica had a good first round going 5-1 and went into the DEs as the 2nd seed.  She lost her first DE, but still came out with 6th place medal.  Today was Vet 70+ sabre and again it was weird.  She went 3-4 in her pool which earned her the next to last spot in the DE.???  She won her first DE, but lost the second, but came away with the 8th place medal.

We had fencers go to Apex for their foil and epee unsanctioned events.  The Smiths, Joey and Robert, fenced the senior epee.  Joey was seeded 6th of 12 for the DE and finished in that position.  Robert only lost to Colson Combs all day, once in pools and in the DE to earn a 3rd place medal.  Amelia Alexander fenced the women’s Y-12 foil, and only lost one in her pool.  She made it into the final, but lost a close 13-15 match to bring home a silver medal.

Finally, the homeschool league held their first official meet of the semester.  The Jacksonville Hurricanes ( Matthan Droke, Noah Snyder, and Matthew Burns) discovered what the A teams looked like, but kept a couple close.  Eamon and Ellery O’Brien fenced in the B division, which was done as an individual pool.  Eamon won a couple and Ellery was the only person to beat the person who won the pool.  The Southeastern Cardinals (Kyler Schoonmaker, Eoin and Eilis O’Brien) won all their matches (4), including a 45-44 nailbiter over Twin City.

Congrats to everyone.

This week will wind things down before the lighter holiday schedule.  Tuesday night practice as usual.  Wednesday will be the last homeschool practice for the year.  The Ashley women should be in Wednesday night, so people are welcome to come in to practice.  The last day for afterschool will be December 20 and the last day for Camp Lejeune will be December 21.

For Thursday night’s practice, Kenyatta would like to have a bit of a holiday party.  If you would like to bring a little something, snacks, munchies, or drinks, please do.  In any event, please come in and fence.

Since
Christmas and New Year’s both fall on Tuesday this year, no Tuesday
practices over break.  I know a number of you are planning on going to
Charlotte, so there will be practice Saturday 12/22, Thursday 12/27,
Saturday 12/29, and Thursday 1/3. 

St. Mary’s is starting back on Wednesday, January 2nd. 
I will leave it up to fencers and parents to see if you want to start
afterschool back up for the advanced youngsters on that day.  Ditto for
the homeschool fencers.  So far the answers I have gotten have been mixed.

January
5 is also another homeschool meet in Winston Salem.  I may not be there for any/all of
it due to the conflict with the NAC.  If Nicole and Erica finish early I
will try to make it there for at least some of the day.  Let’s stay in communication so that I know you have what you need to compete, and can arrange rides.

The
new evening class will start on Tuesday, January 8th, at 6:30 pm.  The
new class at Topsail Middle school will start on Friday, January 11th. 
Camp Lejeune will also get started back up on that Friday.

January 12 is the next NCFL meet.  I am not certain as to where yet.  It will be the final regular season team meet.

Also on that weekend is a foil and epee RYC in Apex.  The events are Y-10, Y-12, and Y-14.  Registration at the regular price ends on December 21.  This would be a good event for those wanting to get their feet wet in a bit harder competition.  Information and registration for this event is on the national website (usafencing.org).

January 19th is a homeschool meet at our club.  Looking at a 10 am start time.

Our first event of 2019 will be the Old Man Winter on January 26th.  Open foil, open epee, and Vet epee.  I should have it up on askfred by tomorrow night.  IMPORTANT!!  We are going to start requiring that people are registered a week before the event to get the regular pricing.  We have been unable to gauge the size of events in a manner that lets us hire the correct number of referees.  If we expect a large crowd that doesn’t materialize the club loses money.  If we wait and things pop a day or two before the event, it can be hard to find any local referees.  Then some of our fencers have to drop out to help referee.  Anyone registering after the deadline will be charged $10 extra per event, so that will hopefully be the incentive for people to get signed up earlier.  Read the More Information section on askfred to get the full information.

The Capitol Clash is being held the first weekend in February.  (February 1-3).  This is a large sectional/national event.  The events being contested are in all weapons for Cadets (13-16), Y-14, Y-12, Y-10, and the rare Y-8.  They are also holding combined Veteran events.  The deadline for entering at the regular price is December 27.  This is the next step up from the RYC and the level just below National events.  The information is on the national website.

pax vobiscum,