First, a Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday is appropriate, to everyone out there. My gift to you is a really long note, so please read it all.
Wrightsville Beach Magazine will be doing an article on fencing for their February edition. They will be stopping by the clinic on Thursday (12/28) to take some photographs. If you don’t want your child to be in the photos, please contact me or tell me Thursday morning. Or if you are an adult attending and don’t want to be a part, also tell me.
Otherwise a light week with the holidays. No Tuesday night practice, so you will need to wait a little longer to try out all the gear that arrived on Monday.
RTF
(Research Triangle Fencing) is holding a foil/sabre camp December
27-30. These are basically the Duke coaches, so it will be a solid,
more advanced camp. See askfred for details.
(Research Triangle Fencing) is holding a foil/sabre camp December
27-30. These are basically the Duke coaches, so it will be a solid,
more advanced camp. See askfred for details.
The 28th seemed to be better for most of the people who replied concerning a one day camp from 9-5. Cost would be $20 for the whole day. The idea is to
work with people to improve their fencing, possibly getting them ready
for competitions. All weapons would be welcome. The further idea would
be to let parents drop youngsters off and have some personal time over
the vacation. Or for older fencers to leave the kids/grandkids at home
and have some fencing time. You (the children) would need to bring a lunch.
work with people to improve their fencing, possibly getting them ready
for competitions. All weapons would be welcome. The further idea would
be to let parents drop youngsters off and have some personal time over
the vacation. Or for older fencers to leave the kids/grandkids at home
and have some fencing time. You (the children) would need to bring a lunch.
I will then hang around for evening practice.
No one has really said anything, so let me know if people would like to practice next Saturday morning.
Be warned, after New Year’s everything starts back up quickly and keeps roaring on until about April.
Also, let me know if people would like to practice the evening of January 2nd. (Tuesday)
Homeschool practice will start back up Wednesday, January 3rd. The consensus is for a 1 pm start time for the more advanced fencers with a 1:30 start for beginners for the rest of this academic year.
I haven’t heard from the UNCW fencers, so I don’t know when Wednesday evening practices will start back up.
Practice will happen Thursday night, January 4.
Topsail and Camp Lejeune practices will resume on January 5.
The
Old Man Winter tournament is the first Saturday of the year, January
6th. It will have Open foil, Open epee, and veteran (40+) epee. Still need fencers to get signed up. At this point really small and not top heavy, so a good event for those who want something a little less threatening as a first or early in your career event.
Old Man Winter tournament is the first Saturday of the year, January
6th. It will have Open foil, Open epee, and veteran (40+) epee. Still need fencers to get signed up. At this point really small and not top heavy, so a good event for those who want something a little less threatening as a first or early in your career event.
January 8th the next afterschool beginner class starts and afterschool fencing will resume. January 9th is the next evening beginner class (a Tuesday/Thursday one). January 10th will start the next homeschool beginner class.
January
13 is the date for the next NCFL meet, but that may change. I will
keep people informed. I am also not certain where and when the make up
event will be. If there is no NCFL meet that day, I will try to put a kid’s tournament together.
13 is the date for the next NCFL meet, but that may change. I will
keep people informed. I am also not certain where and when the make up
event will be. If there is no NCFL meet that day, I will try to put a kid’s tournament together.
January 20 is the next homeschool event and we will be hosting it. Start time is 1:30 pm.
Sunday, January 21st is being mentioned as a possible make up date for an NCFL meet and would be held at Apex.
January 27th is supposed to be the NCFL State team championship. You are supposed to have attended two events to be eligible, so there needs to be at least one more or a decision as to how we allow people to enter.
Sunday, January 28th, is an unrated, split by gender event up at All-American in Fayetteville. Lots of spaces for women, only two for men. See askfred for details.
All
of our events for next spring are on askfred, including the Lynn Krupey
Memorial Iron Maiden (March 24). This is still the only 3 weapon event
exclusively for women in the state, so it would be good to get our
people signed up
soon to draw other women. There is no reason the epee can’t be an A and the foil and sabre at least have some kind of rating, but all you of the female persuasion need to get signed up early to attract other fencers.
of our events for next spring are on askfred, including the Lynn Krupey
Memorial Iron Maiden (March 24). This is still the only 3 weapon event
exclusively for women in the state, so it would be good to get our
people signed up
soon to draw other women. There is no reason the epee can’t be an A and the foil and sabre at least have some kind of rating, but all you of the female persuasion need to get signed up early to attract other fencers.
There are a few issues where I can use parents, fencers, or other interested parties to help.
First, we need to do some laundry over the break. Most of our jackets cannot be put in the dryer and so need a while to line dry. This is one of the few times during the year where we can give them that time without shorting ourselves for practice. Let me know if you can take a load or so. We would divvy them out after the clinic on the 28th and need them back by the homeschool practice on the 3rd.
I am currently planning to be away to the Junior Olympics in Memphis over the President’s Day weekend if all our fencers get signed up. The club has cancelled the event we had scheduled for that day. (February 17) Donny Zelinski, the coach at New Bern, has offered to run a youth event at our club. He would need the help of some parents to make it possible. Let me know if you can help, even if it is just keeping everyone organized, hooking up fencers during the events in which your children might be paricipating, etc. I would probably try to truncate the schedule a bit because he would be driving two hours just to do this for us, and we never seem to have sabre fencers.
Lastly, February 24th is the NCFL State Individual Championship in Greensboro. I will be there refereeing. It is also the date of Parent Magazine’s local Camp Expo from 10 am – 3 pm at the Mayfaire Town Center. Obviously, I can’t be at both. Are there any parents with a child(ren) who have attended the camps who would be willing to represent the club at Expo in exchange for a free entrance to this year’s camp? I also may need help with a website listing or an ad in the actual magazine for the same consideration.
Of course that means I need to start planning for camp dates now. The US Summer Nationals end July 7th in St. Louis with Y10 and Y12 events. Since we don’t currently have anyone competing nationally in those age groups, I could probably start camps as early as July 9th. UNCW starts back up Wednesday, August 22nd, but I may have training the week before. So basically, I am looking at the weeks of:
July 9-13
July 16-20
July 23-27
July 30-August 3
August 6-10
August 13-17 (Outside possibility)
Usually I try to do a beginner camp first, so they can then do advanced camps if they like it. Then there is a week of an advanced camp for each weapon. Sometimes when I have an extra week I have done a half day beginner camp, but I am also open to other possibilities, or just taking that week off. So, if you have a preference for a week for a camp, let me know what works or does not work, and the child(ren) and weapon(s) involved. Right now I am hoping to keep the camps at $195 for the week.
I think that is it.
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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