Author: Gregory Spahr

CFFA update for February 23

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for February 23
Hoggard and Coastal Christian both sent teams to the NCFL team championships Saturday.  Coastal went 2-1 (I think) and ended up in 5th.  Hoggard lost all 3, but a couple were close, and ended up 8th.
On Sunday the Artz twins fenced the homeschool individual championships.  They finished 4th and 5th but were up against much older and bigger girls.
Pretty regular practice this week.  EXCEPT since no one much has been showing up on Wednesday nights, I am going to take those off until the next set of Monday and Wednesday classes start in April.
 
The 28th is the NCFL
individuals.  They will also be held at McDougal.  I believe all of
our fencers fenced enough to qualify, so let’s figure out who is going.
 
For the adults, All
American is hosting an unsanctioned men’s and women’s foil on the 28th. 
Unsanctioned means you cannot earn ratings, but the entry fee will be much
cheaper.  They are also holding a “Beginner” epee for those who
want to try their hand at competing.  See askfred for more details.
 
The next evening
beginner and intermediate classes start Tuesday, March 3rd.  6:30 pm for
the beginners, and 7:30 pm for the intermediates.
 
March 7-8 are the Div
II/III National Championship qualifiers.  For Vet fencers all you have to
do is show up and survive. These also have the qualifiers for Y-14 events.   Even if you are not planning to go to San
Jose, this will be a good state wide event.  Get signed up before the fees
go up (March 6th) and so the Division can determine how many referees they need to hire.  That weekend UNC is also hosting the NCAA regionals so referees are tight.
 
March 14-15 is
Mid-South’s Grand Opening event.  The epee is an a A
event.  The foil needs a bunch of bodies, but might reach being a B.  They also have a Vet sabre.
 
Our next youth event is
March 14th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, and epee at 3:30 pm. 
$5 per event with trophies to 1-3 and ties, medals to the top 3 who are 9 and
under who don’t get a trophy.
 
The Iron Maiden, the
only women’s only event in NC, will be held Saturday, March 21.  Foil,
epee, and D and under sabre.  This is being held as a benefit for Lynn
Krupey, one of our assistant coaches who is currently fighting cancer.  I
would like to see all of our eligible women competing, maybe even trying
weapons you haven’t fenced competitively to pump up the numbers.   Get
signed up on askfred.  Right now hardly anyone is signed up.
 
Mid-South is hosting the
area’s RYC on the 28th and 29th.  They have changed how you get to
Nationals for Y-12 and Y-10, so just showing up is not enough.  It is now
also based on how well you do, but you can’t get qualified if you don’t
go.  It is also a good first step for those of you considering the jump to
bigger events like the JOs.  They also have Y-14 events, some of which are looking pretty strong.  Only one CFFA fencer in the mix at the moment.
April 4th is Salle New Bern’s John Martin event.  E and under foil and epee plus Y-12 foil and epee.  I hand out sword points for the Y-12 events as part of our kids series.  Plus they are doing the free lunch they always do.
 
Finally, I am going to
take some time away from starting beginner classes for the younger fencers so I
can devote more time to the continuing youngsters.  So I won’t start the
next afterschool beginner class until April.  The same thinking for the
homeschool class.  This is the last week of their beginner class, but
then the next one won’t start until April.
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

practice

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
practice
It looks like we will be able to use the gym tonight for practice.  Go ahead and enter through basement so we don’t have to open the gym doors and let cold air in.
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

Fencing next couple of days

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
Fencing next couple of days
Looking at the weather, it will probably be pretty chilly in the fencing room the next couple of nights.  It was chilly last night and it is supposed to be colder than that today and tomorrow. 
Generally it isn’t too bad while the sun is up so the homeschool and afterschool classes should be fine, but it certainly drops in the evening.  Make plans accordingly.  If no one is using the gym, we might want to move upstairs, but I don’t know if the gym is booked.
Of course if we had a ton of people coming down and actually fencing hard, no one would notice.
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 JOs edition

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA Update JOs edition
I had intended to get this out last night, but didn’t get away until the storm in Richmond had started.  So the 4 hour drive was more like 6 +.  Anyway…..
This JOs was like most big National events, some good days and some not so good days for our fencers.  Emma Filer started off really strong.  In the Junior (ages 13-19) foil she was ranked 6th out of 7 in her pool – 2 As, 1 B, 2 Cs, a D (Emma) and a U.  Emma beat the U 5-0, and also beat one of the Cs to make it to the elimination round.  In her first DE she manhandled another C, who was seeded about 15 places higher than she was.  Emma was up 13-6 before finally winning 15-10.  Then she had the good fortune  (Spoiler alert) to run into the woman who won the entire event.  It was 3-15, but considering that woman beat an A 15-8 in the finals, that was a fine showing.
Oliver started the next day well in the Cadet (ages 13-16) foil.  Won the necessary 2 bouts to get to the DE round just to find out his opponent was – Charles Chow.  Yes, two fencers go to Nationals just to fence someone they see all the time in North Carolina.  Really fine ask no quarter, give no quarter bout.  Tied 13 – 13 at the end of regulation.  Oliver got the priority and scored on a riposte about half way into priority to win.  In the next DE  he was solidly ahead, but started having problems with developing some blisters on his hands and couldn’t hold on for the victory. He would have been top 64 (at least) if he had won that one. 
Samantha Milewski was up next for the Cadet Woman’s epee.  She wasn’t really “on.”  She won two matches to get to the DEs, but then dropped her first DE.
On Sunday, Oliver started out in the cadet epee and drew the Number one pool.  That means he had the overall favorite in his group.  Oliver didn’t beat him, but did win two to make it to the DE.  There he pulled out another priority victory over a B epeeist to advance to the next round.  There he ran into an A.  He put up a good fight, but couldn’t win.
Then Emma was back with the Cadet Women’s foil.  Supposedly your pool should be easier in the younger age group, but as sometimes happens, Emma’s pool was actually stronger.  Plus, as also sometimes happens, the woman Emma beat in the DE Friday was in her pool Sunday.  She made certain she got her revenge against Emma.  Emma won 1 bout, but it wasn’t enough to get to the DEs.
The last day started with Oliver fencing the Junior foil.  It was a really really tough pool and Oliver wasn’t quite on and he didn’t make it out of the pool.  We did have Elijah Pena in the pool.  For those who remember, Elijah fenced for a few years out of Salle New Bern.  He is now living up by Cleveland.  If you stay if fencing long enough you will develop friendships with people that you will only see when you both show up to these big National events.
Finally, Samantha was in the Junior Women’s epee.  In her case the older event pool actually was stronger than her Cadet pool.  She was fencing better than she did Saturday, but in this group it wasn’t quite good enough to get to the DE.  She won one bout.  She did get 2 touches against an A who beat her 5-0 at last summers Nationals, so that was a sign of her improvement.
All in all I was quite happy.  Some ups and downs, but if they can all fence at the level of their better performances they will start to move up the rankings at big events.
Practice should be back to normal for the rest of this week, weather permitting.
The NCFL”A” team championship will be held at 10 AM Saturday at McDougal Middle school, 900 Old Fayetteville Road, Chapel Hill this Saturday. 
The Homeschool Individual is this Sunday at 1:30 pm at Oak Ridge.  There may be some bad weather in the forecast as they are saying to watch the weather.
The 28th is the NCFL individuals.  They will also be held at McDougal.  I believe all of our fencers fenced enough to qualify, so let’s figure out who is going.
For the adults, All American is hosting an unsanctioned men’s and women’s foil on the 28th.  Unsanctioned means you cannot earn ratings, but the entry fee will be much cheaper.  They are also holding a “Beginner” epee for those who want to try their hand at competing.  See askfred for more details.
The next evening beginner and intermediate classes start Tuesday, March 3rd.  6:30 pm for the beginners, and 7:30 pm for the intermediates.
March 7-8 are the Div II/III National Championship qualifiers.  For Vet fencers all you have to do is show up and survive.  Even if you are not planning to go to San Jose, this will be a good state wide event.  Get signed up before the fees go up and so the Division can determine how many referees they need to hire.  These also have the qualifiers for Y-14 events.
March 14-15 is Mid-South’s Grand Opening event.  The epee just needs bodies to be a A event.  The foil needs a bunch of bodies, but might reach being a B.
Our next youth event is March 14th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, and epee at 3:30 pm.  $5 per event with trophies to 1-3 and ties, medals to the top 3 who are 9 and under who don’t get a trophy.
The Iron Maiden, the only women’s only event in NC, will be held Saturday, March 21.  Foil, epee, and D and under sabre.  This is being held as a benefit for Lynn Krupey, one of our assistant coaches who is currently fighting cancer.  I would like to see all of our eligible women competing, maybe even trying weapons you haven’t fenced competitively to pump up the numbers.   Get signed up on askfred.
Mid-South is hosting the area’s RYC on the 28th and 29th.  They have changed how you get to Nationals for Y-12 and Y-10, so just showing up is not enough.  It is now also based on how well you do, but you can’t get qualified if you don’t go.  It is also a good first step for those of you considering the jump to bigger events like the JOs.
Finally, I am going to take some time away from starting beginner classes for the younger fencers so I can devote more time to the continuing youngsters.  So I won’t start the next afterschool beginner class until April.  The same thinking for the homeschool class.  There are two more weeks in their beginner class, but then the next one won’t start until April.
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 updat for February 8

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA updat for February 8
We held our latest tournament yesterday.  Small foil turnout – hint, hint for our foil fencers.  Oliver Galbraith won, Jesse Harvey was second, Emma Filer tied for third with Josh White from Salle New Bern.  In the epee Josh Harvey took out his brother Jesse in the final.  Shane Mason of the Charlotte Fencing Academy and Steve Kmiec of ECU tied for 3rd.  Jesse and Steve both renewed their Cs, Robert Mones from East of the Cooper Fencing renewed his D, and Tom Mason of Salle New Bern renewed his E.  Robert and Tom met in the finals of the D and under epee with Robert winning.  Riley Hart and Churchill Hornstein tied for the bronze medals.  Thanks to those who observed, ran the event, reffed, and helped with clean up and set up.
Samantha and Nicole Milewski went up to the Capitol Clash SYC in DC.  Samantha had a number of close matches and lost her first DE in the Women’s cadet epee.  Nicole fenced Y-12 and Y-10 women’s epee and came in 5th in the Y-10.
Practice should be pretty standard through Thursday night.
The 13-16th are the Junior Olympics in Richmond.  We
have Oliver Galbraith, Emma Filer, and Samantha Milewski attending.  I
will be up there helping them, so no fencing at Camp Lejeune on the 13th
and no afterschool on the 16th.  There wouldn’t have been afterschool
anyway since it is President’s Day.

The

NCFL A team championship is February 21st.  It may be in Elkin although
people are looking for a site closer to the middle of the state.


The homeschool individual
tournament is February 22nd.  I am assuming it is in Oak Ridge.  For the homeschool and NCFL individuals you must have fenced at least two of the 4 events in the regular season.  I think all of our fencers who fenced at all have done that.

The NCFL individual championship is
February 28th.  Again, it may be Elkin or closer to the middle of the state.
For adults, All-American in Fayetteville is hosting an unsanctioned men’s and women’s foil on the 28th.  They are also having an unsanctioned “beginner’s” epee for those who have competed very little or who are looking at their first epee event.  See askfred for more details.

 

The Divisional Div
II/III and Y-14 qualifiers are now up on askfred.  They will be held on
the weekend of March 7-8 in Raleigh.

March 14-15 is Mid-South’s big tournament for the spring.  It usually has highly rated events in all three weapons.
Our next kid’s tournament will be held on the 14th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 and epee at 3:30.  $5 per event.  trophies to the top 3 and ties, medals to the top 3 9 and under fencers who don’t win a trophy.
The Annual Iron Maiden will be held on March 21st.  Women’s only foil, epee, and D and under sabre.  Get signed up on askfred.

Mid-South is again
hosting an RYC for the region on March 28-29.  Check askfred for the exact
date and time of your event(s).  The qualifying paths have changed, so
merely going to the RYC no longer automatically qualifies you for Y-10 and Y-12
Nationals.  You now have to be at a certain level on the National or
Regional points list.  Even if you aren’t interested in going to the
National Championships, this is a good way to start finding out about the
larger world of fencing.


I haven’t gotten many replies about Fencing camp
dates, so made the schedule based on the requests I had.  So July 13-17
will be the beginner camp.  The sabre camp will be July 20-24, foil will July 27 – 31, and epee will be August 3-7.
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 February 1

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for February 1
First, a word from the coach.  NO MORE BASKETBALL!  Too many of you are getting hurt playing that dangerous sport.
Yesterday was the last regular season meet for the NCFL.  In the A Division, Coastal Christian was 3-2.  They were led by Oliver Galbraith at 14-0, although their other members contributed a number of wins.  Hoggard was 0-5.  In the B Division the CFFA girls were 4-0.  Emma Filer was 8-0, Reaghan Juelke was 6-0, and Emma Graf was 6-1.

The next beginner class will start tomorrow, February 2nd at 6:30 pm.  It will run 6 weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays.  The UNCW fencers should start coming down on Wednesdays this week.

 

I changed the name of
our next tournament on askfred, as there was some concern that people might
believe it was only for younger fencers.  It is still on February 7th and
will have an open foil, an open epee, and a D and under epee.   
It is the last chance for those of you going to JOs to get in a
competition.  As was obvious from our last event, people read the entries
and decide to come accordingly.  Get signed up, if you intend to come, and
want to see a strong turnout.  Right now no event is higher than an E, even though there are some high rated fencers in them.
The 13-16th are the Junior Olympics in Richmond.  We have Oliver Galbraith, Emma Filer, and Samantha Milewski attending.  I will be up there helping them, so no fencing at Camp Lejeune on the 13th and no afterschool on the 16th.  There wouldn’t have been afterschool anyway since it is President’s Day.

The
NCFL A team championship is February 21st.  It may be in Elkin although people are looking for a site closer to the middle of the state.

The homeschool individual
tournament is February 22nd.  I am assuming it is in Oak Ridge.

The NCFL individual championship is
February 28th.  Again, it may be Elkin or closer to the middle of the state.

 

The Divisional Div
II/III and Y-14 qualifiers are now up on askfred.  They will be held on
the weekend of March 7-8 in Raleigh.
March 14-15 is Mid-South’s big tournament for the spring.  It usually has highly rated events in all three weapons.

Mid-South is again
hosting an RYC for the region on March 28-29.  Check askfred for the exact
date and time of your event(s).  The qualifying paths have changed, so
merely going to the RYC no longer automatically qualifies you for Y-10 and Y-12
Nationals.  You now have to be at a certain level on the National or
Regional points list.  Even if you aren’t interested in going to the
National Championships, this is a good way to start finding out about the
larger world of fencing.

I haven’t gotten many replies about Fencing camp dates, so made the schedule based on the requests I had.  So July 13-17 will be the beginner camp.  The sabre camp will be July 20-24, foil will July 27 – 31, and epee will be August 3-7.
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 January 25

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for January 25
We held a youth event yesterday.  10 foilists (twice as big as our last adult event) Will Golder of CFFA was first, Kyler Schoonmaker of our homeschool branch (fencing with a cast on his non-weapon arm) took second, Reaghan Juelke of the St. Mary’s program and Caroline Artz, another homeschooler, tied for 3rd.  In the 9 and under division, Christopher Donelson and Logan Tounsley from St. Mary’s took the gold and silver.  Emily Campbell came down from Salle New Bern to earn the Bronze.    Sabre was again the Reaghan Juelke and Amir Shaheen show with Reaghan winning.  More of our sabre fencers need to show up so these two have to work harder.  Epee was again probably the most competitive group.  Nicole Milewski (doing her Paul Perkins imitation) didn’t do so well in pools but the turned it on during DEs to win.  Abbey Campbell from Salle New Bern was second, Will Golder and Reichen Storey of the Greensboro Fencing Club tied for the 3rd.  Don Evans, a homeschool fencer, switched over to epee and won the 9 and under gold.  Lydia Huggins also fenced with a great deal of concentration and point control.  It was the valley of the left-handed Amazon women as Nicole, Abbey, and Lydia are all fairly tall southpaws.  Pictures are attached, hopefully.  The next youth event will be March 14th.

Here are the current points for the swords for the top 5 boys and girls:

Golder                         27

Brown, Orion              16

Wells                            10

Jenkinson                       8

Schoonmaker                 8


Juelke                         
24

Milewski                     
21

Artz, Caroline             
18

Artz, Isabelle              
12

Gray                              5

Practice is getting back to normal.  UNCW’s club starts back up this week, but won’t be coming in until next Wednesday.  I will be in Wednesday for anyone wanting some extra practice.


The 31st is the next
NCFL meet and it will be at East Chapel Hill.  We should
start trying to determine who we will have going.  Remember, you need to
attend two events to qualify for the individual events in February.  At
the moment, it looks like those will be held in Elkin.  We really would like to find one more foilist so that we might have two full B teams.

 

For adults on that
weekend, there will be a referee clinic at Mid-South on Saturday and tournament
in conjunction with the clinic on Sunday.  See askfred for more details.  At the moment the epee looks very winnable and the foil needs one more D and a few more bodies to be a B event.

The next beginner class will start on Monday, February 2nd at 6:30 pm.  It will run 6 weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 

I changed the name of
our next tournament on askfred, as there was some concern that people might
believe it was only for younger fencers.  It is still on February 7th and
will have an open foil, an open epee, and a D and under epee.   
It is the last chance for those of you going to JOs to get in a
competition.  As was obvious from this last event, people read the entries
and decide to come accordingly.  Get signed up, if you intend to come, and
want to see a strong turnout.

The NCFL A team championship is February 21st.  The homeschool individual tournament is February 22nd.  The NCFL individual championship is February 28th.

 

The Divisional Div
II/III and Y-14 qualifiers are now up on askfred.  They will be held on
the weekend of March 7-8 in Raleigh.

Mid-South is again
hosting an RYC for the region on March 28-29.  Check askfred for the exact
date and time of your event(s).  The qualifying paths have changed, so
merely going to the RYC no longer automatically qualifies you for Y-10 and Y-12
Nationals.  You now have to be at a certain level on the National or
Regional points list.  Even if you aren’t interested in going to the
National Championships, this is a good way to start finding out about the
larger world of fencing.



Finally, looking way
ahead, camps for 2015 will be in July/August as always.  I will probably
use July 13-17 for the beginner camp.  The other weeks are July 20-24,
July 27-31, and August 3-7.  If anyone has a preference or a conflict let
me know and I will try to make certain your weapon’s camp does not fall on that
week.

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 January 19

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for January 19
Note to self (and club) – don’t schedule any events over MLK day weekend.  It seems there were a lot of other things going on, so our events this weekend were on the small side.    At Saturday’s Wilmington foil event CFFA’s Jesse Harvey won, followed Sam Cason from Raleigh, and then Brett Silverman of the Wilmington Fencing Club and Brandon Debord from Elkin in an event that didn’t even reach E status.  The epee was a solid B, which was won by Andrew Fullmer from Raleigh who updated his B to 2015.  Second was Ricki Richards from Charlotte, tied for 3rd were Sandy Tapia from Charlotte, and Jesse Harvey; who all re-earned C15s.  By coming in 6th Samantha Milewski of CFFA earned her D15.  In the one touch epee, Josh Harvey of CFFA came in 1st, Ricki Richards was 2nd, Andrew Fullmer and Gabe Davis of CFFA tied for 3rd.  Thanks to Zemi Zelinski for observing and running things.  Thanks to Donny Zelinski, Connor Costa, Brendan McConville, and Herman Smith for refereeing.  A special thanks to Donny, Zemi, and Herman for providing lunch and drinks and to everyone who donated to the impromptu fund for Lynn.
Sunday’s event at Camp Lejeune was also a bit small.  We tried to do a women’s foil team event and a mixed epee team event.  The epee just became a practice session.  In the foil, we had 3 teams of two.  A team from Guilford came in first, the combination of Emma Graf and Qiaochu Li representing CFFA was 2nd, and the Artz twins, representing the Southeastern Cardinals (and CFFA) was third.  The Artz girls were the representatives in the official homeschool league meet that followed.  Unfortunately, fencing a person down and against much older fencers they didn’t win any matches, but they did get a bout victory against a fencer from one of the A teams.

No afterschool today, Monday, the 19th due to MLK Day.  The UNCW fencers won’t be in on Wednesday for a couple of weeks, but I will hang around for anyone who wants to come in.

The
next set of Camp Lejeune classes should start on the 23rd. This one
looks like it will be a large class with a good mix of adults and
younger beginners.

The 24th will be our first 12 and under event for 2015.  $5 entry,  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at 3:30 pm. (Not 2:30 pm – ignore my previous typo.)  I know we have fencers coming in from other clubs for the foil and epee, so it should be a good experience.  Volunteer referees always welcome.  Remember, we give trophies to 1st, 2nd, and the two 3rds for the entire event; and medals to the top three 9 and under fencers who don’t win a trophy.

The 31st is the next NCFL meet and it looks like it will be at East Chapel Hill.  We should start trying to determine who we will have going.  Remember, you need to attend two events to qualify for the individual events in February.  At the moment, it looks like those will be held in Elkin.
For adults on that weekend, there will be a referee clinic at Mid-South on Saturday and tournament in conjunction with the clinic on Sunday.  See askfred for more details.
I changed the name of our next tournament on askfred, as there was some concern that people might believe it was only for younger fencers.  It is still on February 7th and will have an open foil, an open epee, and a D and under epee.    It is the last chance for those of you going to JOs to get in a competition.  As was obvious from this last event, people read the entries and decide to come accordingly.  Get signed up, if you intend to come , and want to see a strong turn out.
The Divisional Div II/III and Y-14 qualifiers are now up on askfred.  They will be held on the weekend of March 7-8 in Raleigh.

Tony
Viollis, St. Mary’s AD, has asked me to let anyone who is interested
know that there will be a Golf Tournament to benefit the athletic
program fund on March 21st.  I believe there is more information on St. Mary’s website.
Mid-South is again hosting an RYC for the region on March 28-29.  Check askfred for the exact date and time of your event(s).  The qualifying paths have changed, so merely going to the RYC no longer automatically qualifies you for Y-10 and Y-12 Nationals.  You now have to be at a certain level on the National or Regional points list.  Even if you aren’t interested in going to the National Championships, this is a good way to start finding out about the larger world of fencing.

Finally,
looking way ahead, camps for 2015 will be in July/August as always.  I
will probably use July 13-17 for the beginner camp.  The other weeks are
July 20-24, July 27-31, and August 3-7.  If anyone has a preference or a
conflict let me know and I will try to make certain your weapon’s camp
does not fall on that week.

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 January 11

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for January 11
The NCFL held its first event of 2015 yesterday at Kestrel Heights High School.  Hoggard sent a team of Ryan, Michael, and Natalie.  They went 1-3, gathering strength as they went through the day.  Many thanks to Nick for coaching the Hoggard team.  CFFA sent a team of Emma G., Harry, and Will; who went 3-2.  They are all junior high schoolers fencing primarily high school fencers, so it was a good showing.
We are getting back to normal as far as practice.  The UNCW folks probably won’t be in on Wednesday until the 28th, but I will hang around this week in case someone wants to some in for some extra work.  Class at camp Lejeune will have to be finished by 2000 this Friday because Wallace Creek closes early due to the MLK Day holiday.
The

17th is our first adult event of the New Year.  With this one we are
bringing back the one touch epee event in addition to the open foil and
epee.  All of our spring events are now up on askfred, so start getting
signed up.  There isn’t much to compete with on many of our weekends, so
if we can get our folks signed up we can probably attract out of town
fencers.  If it looks like there will not be anyone competing, people
will stay home.  Right now the epee for the 17th looks to be solid B event, but the foilists need to get themselves signed in so we have more bodies and ranks.

The

18th is a homeschool event.  I have permission to hold it aboard Camp
Lejeune..  In addition to the homeschool teams, I am going to try to
have
a meet with women’s foil teams and mixed epee teams in the morning. 
The epee and women’s foil would start about 11 am and the homeschool
will be at 1 pm. These would all be for high school age and
below fencers and you would need a full uniform.  We will loan you
knickers (if we have them in your size) and underarm protectors.  No
cost to fence and we can always make composite teams.  I will need to
know who would be driving so you can get a pass to get on base.  I think we will have some epee teams and individual women foilists from Lejeune.  I would hope we can put together some high school age and below women’s foilists and mixed epeeists so they have a variety of people with whom to compete. It looks like this will be the only meet with any crossover between the high school and home school leagues this year.  I will be asking people specifically so I can plan ahead.


No afterschool on Monday the 19th due to MLK Day.

The
next set of Camp Lejeune classes should start on the 23rd. This one
looks like it will be a large class with a good mix of adults and
younger beginners.

The 24th will be our first 12 and under event for 2015.  $5 entry, Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at 2:30 pm.

The 31st is the second NCFL meet of January, location yet to be decided.

Tony
Viollis, St. Mary’s AD, has asked me to let anyone who is interested
know that there will be a Golf Tournament to benefit the athletic
program fund on March 21st.  I believe there is more information on St. Mary’s website.

Finally,
looking way ahead, camps for 2015 will be in July/August as always.  I
will probably use July 13-17 for the beginner camp.  The other weeks are
July 20-24, July 27-31, and August 3-7.  If anyone has a preference or a
conflict let me know and I will try to make certain your weapon’s camp
does not fall on that week.

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