Gregory Spahr | Cape Fear Fencing Association

CFFA update for October 31

October 31, 2015October 31, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

A big thanks to the eighth graders and their parents at St. Mary for taking care of the fencing area while performing the Haunted House

Really nothing in the area as far as tournaments this weekend.

Don’t forget to reset your clocks for tomorrow.

The
November adult beginner class starts Monday, November 2nd. The new set
of afterschool classes will also start this week, Monday through
Thursday. The next set of homeschool beginner classes will start on
November 4th. Help get the word out.

We will need some help Tuesday night to put the overheads back up. Also, this week has the first Thursday of the month, so let Herman or I know what you want to order. Please be thinking ahead about items you may want for the holidays.

November

7th is the first Homeschool League meet, out at Mustang Fitness in Oak Ridge. It will start at 11:30 am. If you want
to fence, all of your information to be on the team needs to be to the
Southeastern Cardinals by November 1. Make certain I know who is interested as I have to turn in a roster as well. It looks like we will have one A team for the foil this season. I haven’t heard from any epeeists.

There
is also a college meet at Greensboro on the 7th for UNCW. No adult events yet listed for the area.

The

14th is the first NCFL meet and we will be hosting. This is a very
large high school foil event and we need all the volunteer referees we
can pull. A
number of you did this previously and it will be time to give back. I
need to get an idea of who wants to participate, 6th grade and up.
Hopefully we can field two B teams, plus Hoggard and Coastal Christian.
The men’s and women’s “A” teams are split, so I am not yet certain how
that will affect the number of teams. “B” teams can still be coed.This will use the gym and basement and will start at 10 am. For younger fencers, this would be a good event to come watch.

The
21st and 22nd is JOs at Research Triangle Charter School near Durham.
Saturday is for the junior events and Sunday is for the cadet events.
If you qualify for the junior event and are young enough to be a cadet
you automatically are qualified for the cadet. The JOs are in Cleveland
over the Presidents day weekend in February. Even for those of you do not intend
to go to the JOs, these are good events in which to participate. You do need to be signed up by the 20th. Right now Samantha Milewski is our only fencer who is signed up.

Mid-South is holding their annual Black Friday event on the 27th.

I will be away with our fencers at the NAC December 4-7. I will probably need someone to open and close on Thursday the 3rd. Right now I am still planning to have afterschool practice, but that may change.

I know it is a ways away, but start getting signed up for our next adult event on December 12th.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

Tonight and tomorrow

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just a reminder that there is no fencing to night or tomorrow night because of the Haunted House prep.

pax tibi,

Greg Spahr
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

Baltimore NAC

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I looked at the Baltimore NAC and although tons of people told me they were going, all I see so far are:

Friday December 4th Herman in the combined Vets epee

Saturday December 5th Erica in the Combined Vets epee

Sunday December 7th Herman in the Vet 60 epee

Samantha and Erica in the Div II epee

Monday December 8th Brendan in the Div II epee

Erica in the Vet 70 epee

Today is the last day to sign up (by 11:59 Pacific time), so if you do, let me know. The reason I ask is that the youth event was very well received and the kids are asking for another one. I might be able to squeeze one in on the 5th and still make it to B-more for the more important events. However, if a bunch of you will be doing events on Friday or Saturday, that plan doesn’t work.

So let me know if you get signed in and for which events. Thanks.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

CFFA update for October 25

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We had a 20 fencer youth 12 and under foil event yesterday. Of the 20, 12 were 9 or under. I am very proud of the way everyone fenced. There was some very good competition and I saw a lot of improvement as the day went on. In the end, old man Will Golder of CFFA proved to be too much for everybody. Ian Donnelly of Salle New Bern came in second. Nicole Milewski of CFFA’s Jacksonville outpost and the rapidly improving Isabelle Artz tied for 3rd. For the 9 and under fencers, Don Evans of CFFA won the gold medal. Emily Childs and Zane Jaghman, both of Salle New Bern, took silver and bronze respectively. Sometimes the 9 and under medals are an afterthought, but with the dozen fencers we had, winning a medal this time was a real accomplishment. Great kudos and thanks to referees, Phil Nazzaro, Reaghan Juelke, and Samantha Milewski. Also a huge thanks to Josh White of Salle New Bern, who ran the foil event. Also great thanks to all the parents who helped the event run smoothly. We did a 20 person tournament, with most of the fencers being tournament newbies, and with some equipment issues in about three and a half hours. After that unfortunately we didn’t have enough sabre fencers to have an event. In the epee, Nicole Milewski defeated Lydia Huggins in a hard fought match for 1st and 2nd.

Here are the sword points for the top ten boys and all the girls:

Boys Girls

Golder 26 Milewski 25

Donnelly 19 Artz, I. 22

Santiago 16 Artz, C. 15

Evans, D. 16 Childs 13

Saxberg 12 Juelke 8

Jessup 11 Roos 5

Jaghman 10 Williams 4

Scott 9 Campbell 4

Wood 7 Willetts 3

Evans, J. 6

For adults, we had Erica Julien and Joe McLaughlin go to a Veteran’s event in Fredericksberg. They had varying degrees of success in their pools, but each lost

their first DE.

Monday is the deadline to get entered in the December NAC in Baltimore before triple fees take over.

This week Monday and Tuesday will be as usual. We will need to take down the overheads after practice Tuesday. The homeschool class will meet Wednesday afternoon. Remember that parts of Market Street will be closed on Wednesday. No afterschool or evening practice Wednesday or Thursday. there will be practice in Jacksonville Friday night.

I don’t know what kind of shape the basement will be in after the
Haunted House, so unless you hear differently next week, assume no
Saturday morning practice.

The closest event on Halloween is in Williamsburg, VA.

The
November adult beginner class starts Monday, November 2nd. The new set
of afterschool classes will start the same week, Monday through
Thursday. The next set of homeschool beginner classes will start on
November 4th. help get the word out.

November

7th is the first Homeschool League meet, out at Mustang Fitness in Oak Ridge. It will start at 11:30 am. If you want
to fence, all of your information to be on the team needs to be to the
Southeastern Cardinals by November 1. Public school epeeists are
allowed to fence on B teams, this is for ages 10 and up, so let me know
if you are interested. Epee will only be B teams, so you would get to
fence the best of the homeschoolers. Since you aren’t homeschooled you
do not need to
join the Cardinals. I really need to find out this week if we have enough people interested to put teams together.

There
is also a college meet at Greensboro on the 7th for UNCW people’s
possible participation. No adult events yet listed for the area.

The
14th is the first NCFL meet and we will be hosting. This is a very
large high school foil event and we need all the volunteer referees we can pull. A
number of you did this previously and it will be time to give back. I
need to get an idea of who wants to participate, 6th grade and up.
Hopefully we can field two B teams, plus Hoggard and Coastal Christian. The men’s and women’s “A” teams are split, so I am not yet certain how that will affect the number of teams. “B” teams can still be coed.

The 21st and 22nd is JOs at Research Triangle Charter School near Durham. Saturday is for the junior events and Sunday is for the cadet events. If you qualify for the junior event and are young enough to be a cadet you automatically are qualified for the cadet. The JOs are in Cleveland over the Presidents day weekend in February. Even of you do not intend to go to the JOs, these are good events in which to participate.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

Midweek update

October 22, 2015October 22, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

1. Polling the younger ones, plus knowing that New Bern is sending some fencers down, I feel pretty certain that we will have at least 10-12, and maybe as high as 20 kids fencing in the foil at 10 am Saturday. For many, this will be their first tournament and I would like to make it as pleasant and fun as possible. If anyone can donate a couple of hours Saturday morning to referee, it is appreciated. Don’t worry about your skill level, there will be a lot of totally obvious calls followed by some that no one could be certain about. LOL The epee and sabre will be much smaller and I can handle them.

2. Two deadlines are creeping up faster than I was expecting. The deadline for entering the ROC in Baltimore, before the fees triple, is Saturday (10/24). All the events are 1-A, just like Fredericksburg. Looking at askfred, the men’s events are fairly strong. Right now, the women’s events are all just barely making the numbers for higher rated events, so someone having a good day could sneak in and scarf up a high rating.

The deadline for the Baltimore NAC, again before the fees triple, is Monday, October 26. At this point you will need to enter on-line, as I doubt a paper entry would get there ( and costs $15 more anyway.) This one has the Vet events you all said you were going to enter.

3. If you didn’t see The Big Bang Theory Monday, they had the guys try fencing. It was actually one of the better representations of fencing ever done by a TV show. Pull it up and watch it if you get time.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

CFFA update for October 18

October 18, 2015October 18, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I didn’t get to see much of yesterday’s events, so I will just go with the results. In the Open Foil, Oliver Galbraith of CFFA took out Connor Costa, fencing unattached, in the finals. Josh White of Salle New Bern and Nitin Iyengar of Research Triangle Fencing tied for third. In Open Epee, Shane Mason of the Charlotte Fencing Academy defeated CFFA’s Josh Harvey for first, with Michael Kelly of Columbia Fencing and Oliver tied for third. In the D and under foil, Nitin won the final over Kevin Maia-Lima, also of RTF, and won his E. CFFA’s Robert Thomas and Luke Reuwer of Columbia Fencing tied for the thirds. Thanks to everyone who made the tournament run.

Finally a regular week of practice this week. UNCW will be in Wednesday night.

Our
next youth event will be October 24th. Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30
pm, and epee at 3:30 pm. We have a bunch of new youth fencers chomping at the bit to do their first tournament. I could probably use some help refereeing foil, so hopefully I can get a couple of volunteers for a couple of hours.

Also
that weekend are a number of adult events. The Tiger Open at Clemson
has foil and epee events currently rated as A2s (the epee has over 70 fencers), a C sabre event, and
large D and and under events. Mid-South has cadet and junior sabre events. Fredericksburg has Vet events, all of which will be pretty solid events.

Charlotte has an open epee that might
make it to a B event and a D and under that might make it to a D event. The Open needs 5 bodies and 2 D or higher fencers to be a B. They sent a number of fencers to our event yesterday, so it would be nice to repay the favor.

The week leading up to Halloween we will be shut down Wednesday and
Thursday night (no afterschool either day) as St. Mary gets ready for the
school Fall Festival. They do their Haunted House in the basement. The homeschool class will meet Wednesday afternoon.

I don’t know what kind of shape the basement will be in after the
Haunted House, so unless you hear differently next week, assume no
Saturday morning practice.

The closest event on Halloween is in Williambsburg, VA.

November
7th is the first Homeschool League meet, out in Oak Ridge. If you want
to fence, all of your information to be on the team needs to be to the
Southeastern Cardinals by November 1. Public school epeeists are
allowed to fence on B teams, this is for ages 10 and up, so let me know
if you are interested. Epee will only be B teams, so you would get to fence the best of the homeschoolers. Since you aren’t homeschooled you do not need to
join the Cardinals.

There
is also a college meet at Greensboro on the 7th for UNCW people’s
possible participation. No adult events yet listed for the area.

The 21st is JOs at a location near Durham.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

final plea

October 16, 2015October 16, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Right now our tournament tomorrow is just a couple of people in each event from becoming a much bigger tournament. The epee is at 24 and should be a B1. If we can get one more fencer, it should turn out as a B2. That means that the Ds will go two spots lower and Es will go all the way down to 12th.

In the open foil we are still at 13 with 2 Bs, 2 Cs, and 2 Ds. Two more U fencers (or any two fencers) will make it a B1 and jump it from the winner gets an E to the winner getting a B with Es for 7th and 8th. Since there are currently only 6 rated fencers, it means two fencers would earn new Es. If you are concerned about fencing the higher rated fencers, only 6 of the fifteen would have ratings. The other 8 Us can’t be that much better than you are.

In the afternoon D and under foil, we are still at 12 with 1 D and 1 E. To be able to give ratings higher than an E, we need three more fencers and two of them must be Es or Ds.

If people know there is the possibility of the tournaments being large, it will be easier to get them here the next time.

Don’t forget two things about tomorrow. First, the Beach to Battleship triathlon is happening. If you are coming to the afternoon events, and especially depending on where you are coming from, give yourself some extra time. The other is that tomorrow is St. Mary’s Parish Festival, so parking will be tight and you may have to walk a bit. On the other hand that means there will be something to entertain family members while you fence, easy access to lunch, and things for you to do once your fencing is over.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

CFFA update for October 13

October 13, 2015October 13, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

A couple of semi fencing things before the meat of the update. The St. Mary Parish Festival is this Saturday and our fencing tournament is a part of it. We will have a table and have been given the 12 noon slot to do a fencing demo. The available adult fencers will be busy with the event, so I would like to have a number of our younger fencers (experience level and weapon doesn’t matter) to help with the demo. Just a little footwork and bladework, maybe a bit of a lesson depending on whom it is. Obviously it would be nice to see St. Mary fencers, but other people are welcome as well.

WHQR still has the Sunday October 25 10 am – 1 pm time open for the pledge drive. Can we get three people to help us getting a few hours of free publicity? Please let me know ASAP.

We had a few people fencing at the NAC in Richmond. Joe McLaughlin did the Div II men’s sabre. He ran into the issue all of us older fencers confront at some time. He was at least three times as old as any of his competitors. He gave it a good shot but lost his first DE.

Connor Costa of UNCW fenced the Div I event. He went 2-3 in his pool. In his DE he fenced his opponent evenly, but unfortunately the match started with Connor at 0-3 because of equipment problems. It ended at 12-15. Connor finished 147th out of 231. This even better than it sounds because this is an Olympic Year and the event counts in the point standings for making the Olympic team. A number of the best fencers in the country who normally skip these events are competing to try and get the points to go to Rio.

Erica Julien fenced the Div II epee and ran into similar issues as Joe. She did push two of her opponents to 4-5. She won her first DE as her opponent withdrew. She then got to fence the number 1 seed and pushed her to 7-15.

Samantha Milewski also did the Div II epee. She went 3-3 in her pool. In her DE she battled back from deficits of 1-5 and 6-10 to take the match to priority, but lost on a late fleche from her opponent. She fenced even better the next day in the cadet. She was 4-2 in her pool, beating both Cs and and taking the number one ranked fencer (an A) to 4-5. In her DE she ran into a woman listed as an E who had actually won her C the day before in the Div II, and earned her B in this event. Samantha ended up at 39th of 115, a very solid showing.

Regular practice today, UNCW will be back for Wednesday night, and will we do another armory night on Thursday. This one will probably concentrate on foil so we can get things ready for Saturday.

The next set of classes on board Camp Lejeune will start this Friday night.

Our

next adult event is this Saturday. Open foil, open epee, and a D and
under foil. St. Mary’s Parish
is having a Parish Fall Festival, so we would like to have huge events
to show off what we do. Right now, epee should be a B, the open foil just needs 3 bodies to be a B, and the D and under needs 5 people to be a D event. Those of you who have talked to me about getting in to those events need to sign up ASAP to help draw in those last few people.

Our
next youth event will be October 24th. Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30
pm, and epee at 3:30 pm. We should have a bunch of new youth fencers to
make the events larger. I could probably use some help refereeing foil.

Also that weekend are a number of adult events. The Tiger Open at Clemson has foil and epee events currently rated as A2s, a C sabre event, and large D and and under events. Charlotte has an open epee that might make it to a B event and a D and under that might make it to a D event. Mid-South has cadet and junior sabre events.
Fredericksburg has Vet events. Their foil and epee are both at B level.

The week leading up to Halloween we will be probably shut down the Wednesday night

and Thursday (no afterschool either day) as St. Mary gets ready for the school Fall Festival. They do their Haunted House in the basement.

The closest event on Halloween is in Williambsburg, VA.

The November adult beginner class starts Monday, November 2nd. The new set of afterschool classes will start the same week, Monday through Thursday. The next set of homeschool beginner classes will start on November 4th.

November 7th is the first Homeschool League meet, out in Oak Ridge. If you want to fence, all of your information to be on the team needs to be to the Southeastern Cardinals by November 1. Public school epeeists are allowed to fence on B teams, this is for ages 10 and up, so let me know if you are interested. Since you aren’t homeschooled you do not need to join the Cardinals.

There is also a college meet at Greensboro on the 7th for UNCW people’s possible participation. No adult events yet listed for the area.

The 14th is the first NCFL meet and we will be hosting. This is a very large high school foil event and we need all the referees we can pull. A number of you did this previously and it will be time to give back. I need to get an idea of who wants to participate, 6th grade and up. Hopefully we can field two B teams, plus Hoggard and Coastal Christian.

The 21st is JOs at a location near Durham.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr

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

Mid week update

October 7, 2015October 7, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Things are moving a little bit as far as getting people signed up on askfred. The epee fencers are doing their job as they are just 2 people away from a B event.

The foilists are missing a couple of good opportunities. Right now the open foil has only 9 fencers. It has the exact 6 rated fencers it needs to become a B rated event. If that happens, the top 8 people get ratings. So some of the people who are only in the D and under should jump in (Logan). The D and under has 8 people and needs two more Es or better to be able to give out a D and and 3 Es if it gets to 15. That makes both foil events a good time for a first tournament, good one to attend even if you are rusty, etc. (Reaghan, Bobby, Nora, Emma. F., Galen, Dylan, and the list could go on.)

I need one more person to be on a team that would do the WHQR pledge drive for the 7 – 10 am Sunday morning slot, although a couple (so we have a spare) would be better. The date is October 25th.

I forgot to mention all the events going on on the 24th. The Tiger Open in Clemson is always a large 2 day event. They do Open and D and under events. Right now the open epee is an A2 and the D should end up as a C2. The foil should end up as an A2 with D being a D event, and the sabres should be C and D events.

Charlotte is having Open and C and under epee events. Durham is having regional Junior and Cadet sabre events.

Fredericksburg, VA is hosting a large Vet tournament. The Foil is already a B, the epee could easily end up as a B, and the sabre needs bodies to get to a D.

All of these are up on askfred.

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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

CFFA update for 10/4

October 4, 2015October 4, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

First, a big thanks to everyone who helped with the demo on board Camp Lejeune.

With the Chapel Hill events cancelled, our only fencer in action this week (to my knowledge) was Nicole Milewski at the SYC in Atlanta. In Y-12 epee, she won her first DE but lost her second to the eventual winner. In the Y-14 epee she lost her first DE 13-15. It was her first time moving up to those age classes.

The New Hanover County schools are closed. Although I don’t see anything specifically closing St. Mary, let’s call off afterschool tomorrow. The next beginner class will begin this Tuesday, October 6th, at 6:30 pm. Help get the word out. UNCW will begin coming down on Wednesday nights starting this Wednesday. A number of foilists and a few epeeists should be there.

No Camp Lejeune practice Friday due to the Holiday and the Richmond NAC.

October 9-12 is the actual NAC in Richmond. Here are the people that I know will be there: Samantha Milewski, Herman Smith, Joe McLaughlin, Erica Julien, and Connor Costa. If I missed anyone, let me know.

No afterschool next Monday due to the holiday and the fact that I will be in Richmond.

The next set of classes at Camp Lejeune will start on Friday, October 16th, at 7 pm.

I would like to propose an armoring night for Thursday, October 15. We need to get the club equipment up to snuff in case.people need it for the event on the 17th.

Our
next adult event is October 17th. Open foil, open epee, and a D and
under foil. St. Mary’s Parish
is having a Parish Fall Festival, so we would like to have huge events
to show off what we do. That means get signed up NOW so people will
come out. Askfred doesn’t seem to be up and running, but the last time I checked, our numbers were horribly low. The idea of having a D and under is so
that there is the possibility of someone winning a C without having to
beat any Cs. That requires 25 fencers with 4 Ds and 4Es. If we get our
epeeists in and can pull in Steve Kmiec, we now need only one more A
for A event. In addition, I will be hosting a booth and we want to have
a
demonstration involving our afterschool fencers.

I have had a few responses concerning WHQR’s pledge drive, but not enough to fill a time slot yet. Things are still relatively open, so if you might be available, please let me know. Usually we have grabbed a Sunday time, although I am open to whatever works for everyone else.

We used to hold a once a month in club tournament we called the McDougal. The winner got to hold the trophy until the next months event. It was a non-sanctioned event that had a couple of dollar entry fee. Is anyone interested in trying to start it back up?

pax vobiscum,

Greg Spahr
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