Gregory Spahr | Cape Fear Fencing Association

Last Nationals update

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I am very proud to present to you our newest national medalist, Nicole Milewski. Nicole took 8th place in the Y-10 women’s epee. Nicole went 4-1 in her pool, which was the toughest in the competition. Three of the girls from the pool made the top eight. Nicole then won three good DEs before she lost in the quarterfinals. On the day, she defeated the number 2 and number 5 ranked girls in the country. She only lost to the two girls who finished first and third in the championship, one of those a loss in priority. She can now put the 32 inch blades away and you will all have to start dealing with her.

Also on the day, Sky Miller of Mid-South took 7th in the Y-12 women’s sabre.

Hope to see most of you Thursday.

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 July 6

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Out at Nationals, Samantha Milewski has completed her two events. In the Saturday Div III epee, Samantha went 5-1 in her pool, only losing to the woman who was seeded number 1 after the first round. In her first DE, she won against a woman who got multiple red cards for running into Samantha. In her second DE, at the end of the first period the score was 8-9. Samantha then went untouched the rest of the way and won 15-9. She lost the next DE 12-15, but still finished 11th out of over 120 fencers. I believe that is the 3rd best finish by a CFFA fencer at a National event. Thanks to Robert Thomas to coming in and helping her through the day. In Sunday’s Div II, Samantha went 3-3 in her pool. She won her first DE, but lost her next DE to the woman who ended up second. One of her pool losses was to the woman who finished 3rd. She ended up in the top half of the competition.

The reason she is doing well is that she does things right. She has been working with lessons almost every week, doesn’t come in and only fence bouts, and listens to the coach when she is on the strip. I know I have said this to many of you, but just coming in and fencing matches is not the most effective way to get better.

John Rea took 10th in the Vet 70 Men’s sabre. However, he made the Vet World Championship team in foil. The World Championships for Vets are in Limoges, France this year. First Charlie Hebdo, then they lose their World Cup Match on penalty kicks, then John Rea is coming. What did France do to deserve this? LOL

For other NC people, Gabe Lima was 9th and Charles Chow was 13th in the Div II foil. Andrew Li was 9th in Div III sabre and 13th in Div II sabre. All are from Research Triangle Fencing. Not counting John (who’s events all started with fewer than 16 people), I think RTF and CFFA are the only clubs with people making the top 16. Way to go Sam.

Lacquering the floor will be tonight at 7 pm. Come help and a pre thanks to those of you who show up.

Fencing will restart on Thursday night. Camp Lejeune will meet on Friday.

July 11 is the one day coaching clinic at All American Fencing in Fayetteville. The clinic is being run by Ron Miller, UNC’s head coach, and is only $25. This is a great bargain to learn from a coach of his caliber. I will be taking people up and have space if someone is interested. Bring dry and electric gear. If you are at all interested in learning about coaching or how to drill better in fencing, this will be the best deal you can get. More details on askfred under clinics.

Our beginner camp is July 13-17, so spread the word. If you are getting this e-mail you are beyond the level of the beginner camp. Advanced sabre camp is July 20-24, advanced foil camp is July 27-31, and advanced epee camp is August 3-7. Cost for the Camps is $195. For epee camp, you will need to renew your USA Fencing membership as it is at the start of the next season. We provide gatorade, water, and snacks. The fencers need to bring lunch as camps go 9-5, although maybe a bit shorter on Friday. Please e-mail with what camp you want to attend so I can look at numbers and the level of the fencers for planning purposes. Right now epee looks like it will be really strong, foil and sabre are more mid-level.

Also if you are an adult with keys and might be available on one of the Fridays at about 3-3:30 pm, let me know. I need to leave a bit early to get up to Camp Lejeune. I may or may not be able to have campers picked up a bit early, so I would like a back up plan. Thanks.

There is an RYC (Regional Youth Circuit) in Baltimore the weekend of August 14-16. Y-10, Y-12, and Y-14 events. If you want to compete at that event, the time to be practicing is now. More info on askfred.net.

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

Nationals, painting, other updates

July 2, 2015July 2, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Robert Thomas has fenced his two events out at the Nationals in San Jose. On Tuesday, he fenced the Vet 40 epee, a strong A event. There were 14 As in a field of about 48. Robert had a tough first pool, but then won the biggest upset in the event. He then lost to the person who took the bronze medal. Yesterday, in the Div II epee, he had a good pool round, 4-2, with both losses being 4-5. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens in these big events, he was rewarded by getting a fencer who had a bad first round, but got hot in the DEs. Robert lost a close one and his opponent rode that upset all the way to an 8th place finish out of 163 fencers.

In the other Wilmington Fencer news, John Rea took 10th in the Vet 70 epee, and won a bronze medal in the Vet 70 foil.

Just to show that there are levels of fencing, and then there are levels of fencing; Shiaoching Tse, a very good A foilist from Raleigh is out at Nationals. She finished 28th out of 140+ fencers in the Junior event, so she is fencing pretty well. She tried the Div I event, the actual US National Championship. She finished last. In her 6 pool bouts, she didn’t get a touch in 4 of them. I am certain she will learn from the experience and do better the next time she goes into that event. Plus she can use the experience as she competes in the Cadet event today. However, it shows that just when you may think you are getting good, you might find that there is a whole new world of fencers better than you. So you need to keep practicing to improve.

The Milewski girls have their events over the weekend and I will keep you updated as to how they do.

Thanks to everyone who has been helping with the painting. We have had good numbers helping, so the sessions have not been too long. Tonight we need to finish and touch up the light blue, tape, and paint the strips. We will start about 7 pm if you can make it. Should be another short night if we get some help. Please clean your shoes/socks/feet so you don’t track dirt on the fresh paint.

Monday night at 7 pm will be the lacquering of the floor. Hopefully we can get two layers of lacquer down.

Right now the thought is that we will be back up and running on Thursday of next week. We want to give the lacquer plenty of time to dry. We may need to take some time and move everything back, so there may be some finishing work that first night.

I am definitely taking some people up to the beginning coaching clinic in Fayetteville on Saturday the 11th and should have room for 1-2 more if anyone is interested. Contact me or look on askfred for details.

The beginner camp starts on the 13th and they should have a nice looking floor to start on. Have interested people contact me if they have questions.

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 June 28 – painting this week

June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

No practice this week because of floor painting. Monday night about 7 pm we will move stuff, sweep, and mop. Tuesday night will be taping off the strips and painting most/all of the light blue. Thursday will be taping and painting the dark blue. Sometime over the holiday weekend will be lacquering the floor, I’ll update you when I get a “for certain” time. I am guessing the first practice back will be Thursday the 9th. For those of you “handy man” skills there are some other things that could be done. We need a window replaced and it wouldn’t hurt to finally true the parking lot door. Probably would be good to double check the sump before hurricane season gets here.

No practice at Camp Lejeune this Friday. I will be out to Nationals and the hours are shortened due to the holiday anyway.

At Nationals, Robert Thomas is fencing Vet and Div II epee, the Milewski girls are fencing Div III and Div II epee for Samantha, and Y-10 epee for Nicole. Wish them well and I will keep you updated as to the results.

July

11 is a one day coaching clinic at All American Fencing in
Fayetteville. The clinic is being run by Ron Miller, UNC’s head coach,
and is only $25. This is a great bargain to learn from a coach of his
caliber. If some of our younger fencers want to learn more about
coaching I will drive. If you are at all interested in learning about
coaching or how to drill better in fencing, this will be the best deal
you can get. More details on askfred under clinics.

Our
beginner camp is July 13-17, so spread the word. If you are getting
this e-mail you are beyond the level of the beginner camp. Advanced
sabre camp is July 20-24, advanced foil camp is July 27-31, and advanced
epee camp is August 3-7. Cost for the Camps is $195. For epee camp,
you will need to renew your USA Fencing membership as it is at the start
of the next season. We provide gatorade, water, and snacks. The
fencers need to bring lunch as camps go 9-5, although maybe a bit
shorter on Friday. Please e-mail with what camp you want to attend so I
can look at numbers and the level of the fencers for planning
purposes. Right now epee looks like it will be really strong, foil and sabre are more mid-level.

Also if you are an adult with keys and might be available on one of the Fridays at about 3-3:30 pm, let me know. I
need to leave a bit early to get up to Camp Lejeune. I may or may not
be able to have campers picked up a bit early, so I would like a back up
plan. Thanks.

There
is an RYC (Regional Youth Circuit) in Baltimore the weekend of August
14-16. Y-10, Y-12, and Y-14 events. If you want to compete at that
event, the time to be practicing is now. More info on askfred.net.

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 Saturday/floor painting

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We will have practice tomorrow, starting about 10 am. I think most of our epeeists going to Nationals will be in, so it would be good to have plenty of people on hand to work them out/over.

The next week we will be painting the floor, so no practice. If you want to help with the painting, here is what we will be doing, and some idea of what people and how many we will need.

Monday night, about 7 pm, we will need a large number of people, hopefully strong ones. We need to move all off the items in the fencing room out – tables, chairs, cases, booths, etc. For those a bit weaker, we also need to sweep and mop the entire floor. If things dry quickly, there might be some taping to prepare for painting.

Tuesday at 7 pm we will paint the light blue, taping off the strips if it hasn’t already been done. This will require a good number of people. Hopefully they will be people smart enough not to paint themselves into a corner and mature enough that we don’t end up with paint where it doesn’t belong.

We let it dry to Thursday at 7 pm when we will paint the dark blue. This requires patient careful people, but not as many as the other days. In addition, people showing up that night will need to be careful not to mess up or get Tuesday’s painting dirty, as such things will be preserved under the lacquer.

I’m getting conflicting signals as to what day the lacquer will be put down, but will let you know when it is certain. For this we will be putting 2-3, maybe more, coats of lacquer over the paint. This protects the floor, but also gives your shoes a better grip. It takes a couple of hours to put down one coat, but it dries quickly enough that you can start back at the beginning about as soon as you finish. Once we know when maybe having a couple of shifts of people would be good.

Then after the lacquer has dried totally, everything has to be moved back in. This will require more care than the move out so we don’t destroy the work already done.

If you have questions or are available and interested in helping, let me know.

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 June 21

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

CFFA hauled away a lot of metal from the State Games yesterday. Nicole Milewski won the Y-12 mixed epee. Jesse Harvey took the silver in Men’s epee and re-earned his C. Oliver Galbraith took silver in both Junior and Cadet Men’s epee. Oliver also won the bronze in Men’s foil, re-earning his C, as well as silvers in Junior and Cadet Men’s foil. Mark Scott got the gold for the Men’s Vet foil. Riley Hart took bronze in Women’s epee and silver in Junior Women’s epee. Samantha Milewski won silver in Cadet epee. Erica Julien won the gold in Women’s Vet epee and silver in Women’s Vet sabre. Robert Thomas, while managing the event, still found time to win the silver in Men’s Vet epee. Although he didn’t get a medal, Alex Hoelscher finished well enough to earn his E in sabre. Thanks to everyone who helped make the event run as flawlessly as it did.

A regular week of practice this week, Tu/Wed/Thurs in Wilmington. Camp Lejeune will have practice this Friday. There will be a Saturday morning practice in Wilmington.

No practice on July 3rd at camp Lejeune as I will be out at Nationals, plus the it is the holiday weekend.

If people want to practice on the 4th of July, someone else will need to open the club.

If people want a Tuesday, July 7 practice, someone else will need to open and close as I will not be back yet. No problem for the rest of the week.

July

Our
beginner camp is July 13-17, so spread the word. If you are getting
this e-mail you are beyond the level of the beginner camp. Advanced
sabre camp is July 20-24, advanced foil camp is July 27-31, and advanced
epee camp is August 3-7. Cost for the Camps is $195. For epee camp,
you will need to renew your USA Fencing membership as it is at the start
of the next season. We provide gatorade, water, and snacks. The
fencers need to bring lunch as camps go 9-5, although maybe a bit
shorter on Friday. Please e-mail with what camp you want to attend so I
can look at numbers and the level of the fencers for planning
purposes.

Also if you are an adult with keys and might be available on one of the Fridays at about 3-3:30 pm, let me know. I
need to leave a bit early to get up to Camp Lejeune. I may or may not
be able to have campers picked up a bit early, so I would like a back up
plan. Thanks.

We
will be shutting down in the near future for a couple days so that the
floor can be repainted. I will give you exact dates as soon as I know. We may or may not need help, depending on the date, so I will let you know that as well.

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 June 14

June 14, 2015June 14, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Mark Scott took second place in the foil event at Columbia, SC, losing a close final to Ian Dube yesterday.

We had a good Saturday practice with a pretty fair number of people. If we held an epee event it could have been a B. Robert and the Milewskis are getting ready for Nationals, so having epeeists show up on Tuesdays and Thursdays would be extremely beneficial to them. Wednesday night practice will continue as it has been for the last couple of weeks.

No Camp Lejeune practice Friday as they will be redoing the floors.

The

State games are the 20th of June in Raleigh. They have recently split
the men’s and women’s events. Check askfred for an idea
about who is coming, but the official preregistration is on the State
Games site. If you haven’t already officially preregistered there is a
$20 late fee added on.
The women’s events will probably all end up as E events, although the
epee will be really nasty as an E event. For the guys, the epee needs
an A to be an A2, the foil is a B1, and the sabre needs 1 A and 1
B to become an A2.

July

Our
beginner camp is July 13-17, so spread the word. If you are getting
this e-mail you are beyond the level of the beginner camp. Advanced
sabre camp is July 20-24, advanced foil camp is July 27-31, and advanced
epee camp is August 3-7. Cost for the Camps is $195. For epee camp,
you will need to renew your USA Fencing membership as it is at the start
of the next season. We provide gatorade, water, and snacks. The
fencers need to bring lunch as camps go 9-5, although maybe a bit
shorter on Friday. Please e-mail with what camp you want to attend so I
can look at numbers and the level of the fencers for planning
purposes.

Also if you are an adult with keys and might be available on one of the Fridays at about 3-3:30 pm, let me know. I
need to leave a bit early to get up to Camp Lejeune. I may or may not
be able to have campers picked up a bit early, so I would like a back up
plan. Thanks.

We will be shutting down in the near future for a couple days so that the floor can be repainted. I will give you exact dates as soon as I know.

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

Saturday practice

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just a reminder that the New Bern people are coming down for practice tomorrow morning at 10 am. It would be nice to have lots of people for them to fence.

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 June 7

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

The Wednesday night practice had half a dozen fencers. So long as we have at least those numbers, I will keep doing it. More footwork and drills,
less free fencing. I am running it like a college practice. It starts at 7 pm, so if you are not there and ready to go at that time, be prepared to run laps. If you are an evening
member it will be a free add on to the other practices, for everyone
else the $5 floor fee will apply.

This Saturday, the 13th, the New Bern people will be coming down for a joint practice so I
would love to see a large turn out so they have a good opportunity to
fence. 10 am start time. That start time will not be as strict as Wednesday’s, but the Salle New Bern folks actually tend to show up on time. If you are an evening
member it will be a free add on to the other practices, for everyone
else the $5 floor fee will apply.

For those of you looking for a last tune up event for the State Games; Columbia, South Carolina is holding C and under foil and epee events on the 13th. Right now, the epee has 12 fencers, of which half are Cs. The Foil has 11 fencers and needs a D to become a C event. The Cs are Ian Dube and Mark Scott, the D is Bobby Gibbs. More info on askfred.

The
week of the 15th NCFDP (UNC’s fencing affiliate), Mid-South, and RTF
(Duke’s fencing affiliate) are all having competing camps to get ready
for Nationals. See askfred for details.

The

State games are the 20th of June in Raleigh. They have recently split
the men’s and women’s events. Check askfred for an idea
about who is coming, but the official preregistration is on the State
Games site. If you haven’t already officially preregistered there is a $20 late fee added on.
The women’s events will probably all end up as E events, although the
epee will be really nasty as an E event. For the guys, the epee needs an A to be an A2, the foil should be a B1, and the sabre needs 1 A and 1 B to become an A2.

July
11 is a one day coaching clinic at All American Fencing in
Fayetteville. The clinic is being run by Ron Miller, UNC’s head coach,
and is only $25. This is a great bargain to learn from a coach of his
caliber. If some of our younger fencers want to learn more about
coaching I will drive. If you are at all interested in learning about coaching or how to drill better in fencing, this will be the best deal you can get. More details on askfred under clinics.

Our
beginner camp is July 13-17, so spread the word. If you are getting
this e-mail you are beyond the level of the beginner camp. Advanced
sabre camp is July 20-24, advanced foil camp is July 27-31, and advanced
epee camp is August 3-7. Cost for the Camps is $195. For epee camp,
you will need to renew your USA Fencing membership as it is at the start
of the next season. We provide gatorade, water, and snacks. The
fencers need to bring lunch as camps go 9-5, although maybe a bit
shorter on Friday. Please e-mail with what camp you want to attend so I
can look at numbers and the level of the fencers for planning
purposes.

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 May 31

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We held the last youth event for this season yesterday. Some very good matches occurred in all the weapons. In foil Will Golder took 1st, Elijah Wells took 2nd, and Reaghan Juelke and Logan Pfeifle tied for 3rd. For the 9 and under crowd, Lexi Williams took gold and Don Evans took silver. In sabre, Reaghan won with Noah Nunez second. Avery Walston and Seaborne Maguire tied for the 3rd place. Finally, in epee, Nicole Milewski looked ready for her National Championship event. She was first, Kent Walston was second, Lydia Huggins and Christopher Donelson tied for 3rd. Will Golder won swords for both accumulating the most points over the season for the boys and for being voted as showing the best sportsmanship. Reaghan Juelke won the sword for the girls. It is the end of an era as I believe Reaghan was the last fencer who has been fencing since we started these events and she aged out as of yesterday. Thanks to all the parents who come and cheer for all the youngsters.

We
will switch to a summer schedule this week. The beginner
class starts Tuesday, June 2nd, at 6:30 pm. If there is
interest, the intermediate class will follow at 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday
the 3rd at 7 pm, I will start running a two hour
practice in the style of a college practice. More footwork and drills,
less free fencing. If you are an evening
member it will be a free add on to the other practices, for everyone
else the $5 floor fee will apply.

We
will start Saturday practices back up on June 6th at 10 am. On the
13th the New Bern people will be coming down for a joint practice so I would love to see a large turn out so they have a good opportunity to fence. If you are an evening
member it will be a free add on to the other practices, for everyone
else the $5 floor fee will apply.

The week of the 15th NCFDP (UNC’s fencing affiliate), Mid-South, and RTF (Duke’s fencing affiliate) are all having competing camps to get ready for Nationals. See askfred for details.

The
State games are the 20th of June in Raleigh. They have recently split
the men’s and women’s events. Check askfred for an idea
about who is coming, but the official preregistration is on the State
Games site. June 5th is the last date to sign up before the fees jump. The women’s events will probably all end up as E events, although the epee will be really nasty as an E event. For the guys, the epee is a solid B, the foil should be a B, and the sabre needs 1 A or B, and one more D and above to be a B.

July 11 is a one day coaching clinic at All American Fencing in Fayetteville. The clinic is being run by Ron Miller, UNC’s head coach, and is only $25. This is a great bargain to learn from a coach of his caliber. If some of our younger fencers want to learn more about coaching I will drive. More details on askfred under clinics.

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