Coach’s Corner | Cape Fear Fencing Association

CFFA update for June 24

June 24, 2018June 24, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I will be away to Nationals for about 10 days, so no youth
practices on June 28, July 3, or 5. They will restart on July 10. The
club will be open on the regular Tuesday and Thursday (maybe Saturday
mornings) during that stretch, unless the powers that
be decide to try to repaint the floor. That may depend a lot on the
weather report and the possibility of the floor getting flooded. It
could be a sort of day by day decision, but if painting is decided upon,
I am certain help will be welcomed.

Youth practice this Tuesday, before the hiatus. We have been having a good turn out on Tuesdays, but nobody on Thursdays. (Weird.)

Regular evening practice will continue throughout Nationals. Saturday practice is up in the air. If you would be interested in a Saturday practice, let Herman know.

Taking orders for gear, as it will be easy for me to pick things up at Nationals. The good thing is we would not have shipping and maybe sales tax. Talk to Herman or I if you want to order something. Occasionally some one will have a good sale on gear, and if that happens, I will keep everyone informed.

I do try to keep everyone fairly up to date as to how our people are doing at Nationals, so expect more emails than usual. We have five people competing in thirteen events over the first 9 days of Nationals. If that is too slow for you, you should be able to get more almost real time information from a setting on usafencing.org. It has result updates, plus a schedule of events, plus the opening seeding for events.

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

Spanish student

June 22, 2018June 22, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I’ve been contacted by woman who would like to see if her nephew could spend a month with a family in the US. He is Spanish and a sabre fencer, supposedly international level. He is 17 and he is English is not extensive. English immersion is much of the reason for stay. He has fenced a couple of international events in the US. He would like to be here for something like the month of July.

I don’t really have much information other than that. Her name is Kelly O’Donnell. Her email is odkelly2002@yahoo.com. Phone is 917 -341-3408. If you contact and anything comes of it, 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 18

June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

No one has talked to me about sabre camp, so let’s turn the week of July 30- August 3rd into a second advanced foil camp. If you haven’t already contacted and and want to come that week, or if you would like to switch from the first week because this works better, please let me know.

We had five fencers go up to the State Games over the weekend. In Men’s epee, Mike Kinney saved his best fencing for his DE but dropped a close match to Aidan Labrozzi of Apex. Herman Smith ran into a revenge minded opponent whom he had beaten in pools and also dropped his first DE. For Women’s epee, Erica Julien took the bronze overall and the gold for veterans. Nicole Milewski won the open gold, the Junior gold, and the cadet gold. This is the fourth year in a row where Nicole has won her event(s). Finally, Kim Phillips took a bronze in the open Men’s sabre and gold for the veterans. Congrats to all.

Pretty
much a regular summer week this week. Practice Tuesday and Thursday
night, with Camp Lejeune on Friday, and a Saturday morning prep for Nationals practice at 10 am. Last Tuesday had a large number of younger fencers at the 6:30 pm time.

Richmond
is having a Nationals tune up June 23-24. Epee is a strong A2 on Sunday, foil just needs bodies to be a B on Saturday, there is a Div III foil, and a small open sabre.
Details on askfred.

I will be away to Nationals
for about 10 days, so no youth practices on June 28, July 3, or 5.
They will restart on July 10. The club will be open on the regular
Tuesday and Thursday (maybe Saturday mornings) during that stretch,
unless the powers that be decide to try to repaint the floor. That may
depend a lot on the weather report and the possibility of the floor
getting flooded. It could be a sort of day by day decision, but if
painting is decided upon, I am certain help will be welcomed.

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 10

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Still, no one at the moment has
expressed an interest in sabre camp and I have some people interested in
the advanced foil that cannot make the first advanced foil week. If I don’t get some
interest in sabre this week, I will turn that week into a second advance foil
camp. Foilists could then attend whichever works better for them. So,
if you are interested and have not emailed me, please do so ASAP with
the camp(s) you wish to attend and your T-shirt size. Thanks.

Beginning Fencing Camp July 9-13

Advanced Foil Camp July 16 – 20

Advanced Epee Camp July 23 – 27

Advanced Sabre Camp (or 2nd advanced foil) July 30 – August 3

Pretty
much a regular summer week this week. Practice Tuesday and Thursday
night, with Camp Lejeune on Friday. We will be putting the overheads back up on
Tuesday and assistance is welcome.

This Tuesday, June 12th I will start having a summer practice for the younger set at
6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will go for about an hour and the
cost is $5 per time. Probably easier to do it this way as between nationals, etc., I will not be there some evenings.

The
Powerade State Games
are the weekend of June 16-17. Registration is now closed, but I have no idea what the events look like as far as numbers.

Richmond is having a Nationals tune up June 23-24. Epee is an A2 already, foil might become a B, there is a Div III foil, and a small open sabre. Details on askfred.

I will be away to Nationals for about 10 days, so no youth practices on June 28, July 3, or 5. They will restart on July 10. The club will be open on the regular Tuesday and Thursday (maybe Saturday mornings) during that stretch, unless the powers that be decide to try to repaint the floor. That may depend a lot on the weather report and the possibility of the floor getting flooded. It could be a sort of day by day decision, but if painting is decided upon, I am certain help will be welcomed.

Painting is a multi day process. One day to move stuff and clean the floor, one to tape and paint the light blue, one to tape and paint the dark blue, at least one day (probably more) to put layers of lacquer over the paint, and finally, putting everything back. Ergo, a lot of small bits of help is really useful. I will try to keep everyone informed.

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 3

June 3, 2018June 3, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I need to know who wants to go to what camp. I want to be able to go ahead and order T-shirts. Additionally, no one at the moment has expressed an interest in sabre camp and I have some people interested in the advanced foil that cannot make that week. If I don’t get some interest in sabre, I will turn that week into a second advance foil camp. Foilists could then attend whichever works better for them. So, if you are interested and have not emailed me, please do so ASAP with the camp(s) you wish to attend and your T-shirt size. Thanks.

Beginning Fencing Camp July 9-13

Advanced Foil Camp July 16 – 20

Advanced Epee Camp July 23 – 27

Advanced Sabre Camp July 30 – August 3

We finished the youth series for the year yesterday and actually had competitions in all three weapons.

12 and under foil

1st Don Evans, CFFA

2nd Rayne Schoonmaker, CFFA

3rd (tie) Amelia Alexander, CFFA Jackson Jones CFFA

9 and under foil

Gold Lou Lightner CFFA

Silver Joseph Evans, CFFA

Bronze Boyd Sprague CFFA

12 and under epee

1st Linus Huggins CFFA

2nd Eamon O’Brien CFFA

3rd Lily Rae Thompson CFFA

12 and under sabre

1st Eamon O’Brien CFFA

2nd Boyd Sprague CFFA

3rd Ellery O’Brien CFFA

Amelia Alexander won the sword for the girls and Rayne Schoonmaker won the sword for the boys. In a first, we had a tie for the Sportsmanship award and Eamon O’Brien and John Alexander will both receive swords. A huge thanks to Kyler Schoonmaker, Phil Nazzaro, and Josiah Nazzaro for the help with refereeing. Thanks to Herman Smith for armoring. Thanks to the parents and fencers for a successful season.

Pretty much a regular summer week this week. Practice Tuesday and Thursday night, with Camp Lejeune on Friday. There is an event in the basement on June 9th, so no Saturday practice. In addition, we will be taking down the overheads this Thursday and putting them back up the following Tuesday.

June 9th is Mid-South’s last sabre extravaganza of the year. They are having a women’s sabre and a Vet combine mixed sabre.

The
Powerade State Games
are the weekend of June 16-17. Currently the fields are very small. The last update I have lists them from May 16th, so it is the same numbers as last week. The fees jumped again on June 1, so it is the most expensive it will be at this point.

On
June 12th I will start having a summer practice for the younger set at
6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will go for about an hour and the
cost is $5 per time or $25 per month.

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 28th

May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We held our last adult event for the year Saturday. In the foil, Jesse Harvey was first defeating Brendan McConville. Will Golder tied with Josh White of Salle New Bern for 3rd. For the epee, Daniel Freeman of Apex Fencing Academy won the katana over Daniel Johnson of Columbia Fencer’s Club. The bronzes were shared by Samantha Wolstenholme-Britt of Apex and our Herman Smith, who re-earned his C. Sabre was won by Kim Phillips, who took out Brendan in the final. Josh White took another bronze home along with Jackson Barbee of Research Triangle Fencing. Thanks to Zemi for running the event. Referees were Bobby Gibbs, Donny Zelinski, Paul Perkins, and Josh White. Thanks to everyone else who helped.

No afterschool practice today as it is Memorial Day. All
of the school year practices will end this week. On Wednesday and
Thursday for homeschool and afterschool we will have end of the year
parties. Friday will be the final Topsail Middle school practice for
this school year. Regular Friday practice at Camp Lejuene.

June
2nd will be the last Youth event for the season. We will give the
swords away after the events. Foil at 10 am, epee at 1:30 pm, sabre at
3:30 pm. Any volunteer help for the refereeing foil is greatly appreciated.

Also
on June 2nd, Apex is hosting a referee clinic that will set you up to
take the written referee test. It is written to be difficult so
attending a clinic like this is not only necessary, but very helpful.
It is listed on askfred (look under clinics) for more
details. If you have questions, ask me. They are then having
unsanctioned foil events on the 3rd so that the prospective referees can
be observed.

June 9th is Mid-South’s last sabre extravaganza of the year. They are having a women’s sabre and a Vet combine mixed sabre.

Although there isn’t much going on on the 9th, the basement is reserved for other use, so no Saturday morning practice.

The Powerade State Games
are the weekend of June 16-17. Currently the fields are very small. Women’s epee is at 5, as is women’s foil, and there is only one women’s sabrist. Men’s epee is at 8, foil and sabre are both at 12. Fees raise again on June 1st.

On
June 12th I will start having a summer practice for the younger set at
6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will go for about an hour and the
cost is $5 per time or $25 per month.

Summer
camps will go 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Thursday and 9 am to 3 pm Friday.
More information is on the website or on a handout I have prepared.
Last year we experimented with allowing adults to take the camps and the
results were solid, so if you would like to attend a camp, talk to me.
If you are attending, please let me know so I can plan the curricula
and tell me your T-shirt size so I can order them. Camp dates are:

Beginning Fencing Camp July 9-13

Advanced Foil Camp July 16 – 20

Advanced Epee Camp July 23 – 27

Advanced Sabre Camp July 30 – August 3

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 21

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We had a solid practice Saturday morning with about a dozen fencers. As the tournaments thin out over the summer, Saturday morning practice will become the norm.

Regular week of practice this week.

Our
next event will be the Stab-a-thon this Saturday. The epee is shaping up
nicely, already a B1, and only needs another A to become an A event.
The foil needs a C and bodies to be a C. The sabre should be an E. If you haven’t, get signed up early this week. Please don’t wait until the last minute.

No afterschool practice May 28th as it is Memorial Day. All of the school year practices will end this week. On Wednesday and Thursday for homeschool and afterschool we will have end of the year parties. Friday will be the final Topsail Middle school practice for this school year.

June
2nd will be the last Youth event for the season. We will give the
swords away after the events. Foil at 10 am, epee at 1:30 pm, sabre at
3:30 pm. Any volunteer help for the foil is greatly appreciated.

June 9th is Mid-South’s last sabre extravaganza of the year. They are having a women’s sabre and a Vet combine mixed sabre.

Our
only entrants currently listed for Powerade State Games are Mike
Kinney, Erica Julien, Nicole Milewski, and Kim Phillips. The entry fees
are at their second level but will go up again on June 1st. The games
are the weekend of June 16-17.

On
June 12th I will start having a summer practice for the younger set at
6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will go for about an hour and the
cost is $5 per time or $25 per month.

Beginning Fencing Camp July 9-13

Advanced Foil Camp July 16 – 20

Advanced Epee Camp July 23 – 27

Advanced Sabre Camp July 30 – August 3

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 13

May 13, 2018May 13, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Yesterday we held the first middle school team event with some local teams and teams from Raleigh and New Bern. The team of Megan Looney and Emma Melvin fenced a person short all day for St. Mary and came in seventh. The Topsail Pirates team of Isabella LaCorte, Evan Cherry, and Ivone Alexander finished third. The Topsail Tacos: Logan Schott, Amelia Alexander, and Jackson Jones won the event. If you go to a middle school and would be interested in having a team next year, talk to Herman Smith or me. A huge thank you to Herman for setting this up and sponsoring the event. Thanks yous to Brendan McConville, Kyler Schoonmaker, and Jerry Antonellis of Epiphany for refereeing. Thank yous to the fencers and parents.

We also had fencers go to the event in Apex yesterday. Will Golder finished 14th in the men’s epee and 17th in the men’s foil. Both were A2 events. Erica Julien finished 6th and Nicole Milewski was 8th in women’s epee.

This week practice keeps moving to more of a summer schedule. We should have a Saturday practice on the 19th, starting at 10 am and going until ?

May 19th is open epee and unrated foil at Charlotte. Epee might become a B and the foil may become an E event.

May
20th is a U foil at All-American. I will be going up to observe, but
at the moment the field is maxed out. If they have anyone drop out I
will let you know.

Our
next event will be the Stab-a-thon on May 26th. The epee is shaping up
nicely, already a B1, and only needs another A to become an A event. The foil needs a C and bodies to be a C. The sabre needs warm bodies to become an E.

Afterschool practice will end the last week of May.

June
2nd will be the last Youth event for the season. We will give the
swords away after the events. Foil at 10 am, epee at 1:30 pm, sabre at
3:30 pm.

June 9th is Mid-South’s last sabre extravaganza of the year. They are having a women’s epee and a Vet combine mixed epee.

Our only entrants currently listed for Powerade State Games are Mike Kinney, Erica Julien, Nicole Milewski, and Kim Phillips. The entry fees are at their second level but will go up again on June 1st. The games are the weekend of June 16-17.

On June 12th I will start having a summer practice for the younger set at 6:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will go for about an hour and the cost is $5 per time or $25 per month.

Summer camps will go 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Thursday and 9 am to 3 pm Friday. More information is on the website or on a handout I have prepared. Last year we experimented with allowing adults to take the camps and the results were solid, so if you would like to attend a camp, talk to me. If you are attending, please let me know so I can plan the curricula and tell me your T-shirt size so I can order them. Camp dates are:

Beginning Fencing Camp July 9-13

Advanced Foil Camp July 16 – 20

Advanced Epee Camp July 23 – 27

Advanced Sabre Camp July 30 – August 3

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

Next season’s NAC locations

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

The locations for next year’s NAC’s (except the April one) have been announced. Here is the line up:

October NAC 10/12-15 Div I, Div II, cadet Milwaukee, WI

November NAC 11/9-12 Junior, Cadet, Y-14 Kansas City, MO

December NAC 12/14-17 Div I, Div II, Vet Cincinnati, OH

January NAC 1/4-7 Div I, Junior Charlotte, NC

February JOs 2/15-18 Junior, Cadet Denver, CO

March NAC 3/1-4 Y-10, Y-12, Y-14 Cleveland, OH

April NAC ? Div I, Vet, maybe other ?

Summer Nationals 6/28 – 7/7 Everything Columbus, OH

Not quite as nice as this year, but not horrible. Since most of this is sort of middle of the country, I could see the April event going to either coast. I don’t know if it not being listed means no one applied for it, they didn’t like the packages sent in by those who did, or they just haven’t decided yet.

I will have to see how things line up with my teaching schedule to see what I can get away to. December is right after the end of the semester and January is right before the start of that one. March is the beginning of Spring Break. At least Columbus should be pretty easy.

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 6

May 6, 2018May 6, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Pleasant
youth event at the club yesterday. Kiearon Marshall of WFC won the 12
and under foil. Izzy LaCorte of our Topsail branch was 2nd. Evan Cherry
and Jackson Jones, both of Topsail tied for 3rd. In the 9 and under
division, John Alexander took gold, Lou Lightner took silver, and Boyd
Sprague (all CFFA) took bronze. In epee, it was Nyc Baynes 1st, Amelia
Alexander 2nd, and Eamon O’Brien 3rd (all CFFA). Boyd is still looking
for someone to come and fence him in sabre. Many thanks to Paul Perkins
and Herman Smith for helping make the tournament run.

Here are the current top 5 in sword points:

Boys Girls

Schoonmaker 32 Alexander, Amelia 38

Jones 28 Rayle 21

Marshall 25 Dhulipala 15

Alexander, John 16 LaCorte 10
Baynes 14 Cherry 9

Regular week of practice this week.

May 12th at Apex are sanctioned foil and epee events, split by gender. They are also having unsanctioned Y-10
and Y-12 foil. Right now the Women’s epee needs bodies to be at least a
C event, otherwise it will be a really nasty E. Foil looks to be a much more reasonable E event. Both Men’s foil
and epee should be A events, foil looks to be an A2.

We
will hold a junior high team event on May 12th. Fencers would need to
be between the fourth and eighth grades. Looks like at least a couple
of teams from Topsail. Possibly 2 teams from Raleigh and maybe one from New Bern. Probably a combo team with some St. Mary fencers. The format will be like the NCFL team events It will start at 11:30 am. Volunteer referees welcome, contact me if you are available.

May 19th is open epee and unrated foil at Charlotte. A bit too early to predict the field.

May
20th is a U foil at All-American. I will be going up to observe, but
at the moment the field is maxed out. If they have anyone drop out I
will let you know.

Our
next event will be the Stab-a-thon on May 26th. The epee is shaping up
nicely, already a B1. Foil and sabre are still very small.

June 2nd will be the last Youth event for the season. We will give the swords away after the events. Foil at 10 am, epee at 1:30 pm, sabre at 3:30 pm.

I have been given some
equipment to see if anyone might be interested. It looks to be in good
shape. It consists of a Blue Gauntlet fencing bag, a RH xsmall glove,
RH small glove, RH visconti 2 prong foil, a 2 prong body cord, small
foil mask, 34 RH jacket, and a set of knicker proportionate to that (I
cannot find an actual size in them.) If you are interested, let me
know. Taking best offer.

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