Coach’s Corner | Cape Fear Fencing Association

another day, another medal

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Erica Julen has now won a gold medal at the world championships to go with her bronze from yesterday. This one is as a part of the Veteran women’s team epee.

Competing
with Erica on the team were Leslie Marx, Tanya Hurley, Bettie Graham, Elizabeth
Kocab, and Carola Scmid. The US went 2 –
0 in the opening round, defeating Switzerland 30-21 and Finland 30-26. This put them in 3rd place for the direct
elimination round. They then defeated
Great Britain 30-13. That was followed
by the defeat of number 2 ranked Germany 24-21.
In the finals the women defeated number 1 ranked France 24-23 in overtime.

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

results/other updates

October 16, 2017October 16, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I am pleased to announce that CFFA has its first World Championship medalist. Erica Julien won the bronze medal this morning (our time) in the Women’s 70+ epee event at Maribor, Slovenia.

Erica went 2-2 in the opening round, finishing
second in her five person pool. This
placed her in 10th position going into the direct elimination. In her first DE match, she defeated the
number 7 seed, Silvia Brown, of Germany in a close 10-9 match. She followed that with a second upset,
defeating number 2 seed, Janet Cooksey of Great Britain; again by a 10-9
score. Erica then lost to Coraine Sopru
of Austria. 6-10 to tie for 3rd, earning a bronze medal.

Congratulations to Erica. Erica is the subject of a short documentary by
Alex Hoelscher, “Under the Mask.”
The film will be presented as a part of the Cucalorus Film Festival at 4 pm at the CFCC Student Union on
November 9th. The film follows Erica on her
to journey to the 2016 World Veteran’s Championships in Straslund, Germany, and
her quest to find her roots in Europe. I will update you with further information as the date approaches. I will probably cancel afterschool that day so I can attend the screening.

At the NAC in Anaheim, Kim Phillips, missed making the cut by a few touches. North Carolina did not do well as a whole and Kim says it is due to the way our referees are calling the action in the box. It is something we will try to work on at the club to bring us in line with the National referees.

On the 25th of October there will be no afterschool practice due to the preparation for St. Mary’s Haunted House for their Fall Festival. However, I have scheduled a demonstration at the YWCA for 4 pm that day. If you might be available and are interested in helping with the demo, please 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 October 15

October 15, 2017October 15, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We held a pretty successful event yesterday. In the open foil, Patrick Lausi of Edge of America Fencing defeated Daniel Freeman of Apex for the gold. CFFA’s Oliver Galbraith and Edge’s Luke Kinney tied for third. UNCW’s Brandon DeBord re-earned his E with a 7th place finish. In epee, David Dimmett of Richmond re-earned his A with a first place while Jesse Harvey of CFFA earned his B with second. Oliver was again third, this time tied with Ryan Miller of Salle New Bern. Will Ross of UNCW took 8th which earned him a new E. In the last event, a D and under epee, Eli Nathan of UNCW squeaked out a 15-14 victory over Daniel Freeman. Kenyatta Sanford of CFFA and Patricia Wilkins of Savannah Fencing tied for the bronzes. Thanks to Kathy Walters for observing and armoring, to Herman Smith, Paul Perkins, and Nora Reber for refereeing, to Ryan Miller and Kenyatta Sanford for helping with setting up and picking up, and Brendan McConville for ordering the medals.

That being said, the club once again did the thing that I keep imploring you to not do. That is signing up at the very last minute. On Monday morning the numbers were 8 for epee, 5 for foil, and 3 for the D and under epee. We have to start making decisions based on those numbers which held steady for about 2-3 weeks. The numbers were still not a lot higher by Wednesday. About 11 epee and 8 in the others. Then epee jumped to 15 by Thursday morning, then became an A and jumped to 21 by Saturday. The D and under pretty much stayed the same but the foil jumped to 15 on Friday afternoon. That presents huge headaches for tournament organizers. We are making plans based on the numbers and the amount of money those entries will bring in. On Monday, that was $175-200 total. That has to pay an observer (or the tournament isn’t sanctioned and no one gets new ratings), referees, and for awards, lunch for those working, etc. Decisions like whether to buy and engrave plates, cups, etc. about $150-200 in themselves versus medals for $40-50 have to be made so we have something. Referees are not not sitting by their phones waiting for calls. By Thursday or Friday referees not hired for other events have probably made family plans and are no longer interested in the opportunity. The bump in numbers even affects small things like having to run out to get water. Please get signed up earlier for our next event which is on November 11th. It will help us not feel like we are going crazy on the day or two before an event and will help you get bigger and better tournaments, awards, etc.

An example of what can happen when people sign up early is the Tiger Open which will be held 10/21 at
Clemson. Here are there numbers: Open epee an 82 person A4 (meaning the top 8 fencers get As), their D and under epee is a 57 person C2. Open foil is a 57 person A2 with a 45 person C2, D and under. Sabre is a 48 person B1 which needs an A to be an A2. and a 41 person D and under C2. No CFFA fencers are currently entered. I am not certain we want to try to run an 80 person A4, but you can see the difference and imagine the fencing. (And they are still a week out.)

Regular practice this week. If you decide not to head to the Tiger, I will be having the last Saturday practice for a while at 10 am.

St.
Mary’s Fall Festival is October 27th, so we will be shut down a bit
that week. We will have the homeschool practice as our last event on Webesday. No afterschool or evening practice Wednesday or Thursday.

October 28th is the Ryder Cup sabre event at Mid-South. Cadet, Junior, and Senior sabre events.

Also
the 28th is the first homeschool tournament of the year, up at New
Bern. If you are interested in fencing for the homeschjool league, you need to sign up with the Southeastern Cardinals and let me know.

November
4th is the first NCFL meet of the year and we are hosting it. As
always help refereeing is appreciated. I am not certain what the number
of teams will be yet, but it looks a little down from previous years.
Starts at 10 am and finishes as soon as we can get done. If you are not
part of an official high school fencing club, or are still in middle school,
there are B division teams. There will certainly be B division teams
in foil, and hopefully epee. Start letting me know if you are
interested. You do need a full uniform, but we can lend you what you
need.

For
those of you who would rather fence than referee, Charlotte is holding
Women’s epee, and Open epee events that day. Also, there is a Vet event
in Richmond and Charleston, SC, is holding epee events. See askfred.net for further details.

Monday, November 6th will mark the start of the next evening beginner class at 6:30 pm. The next afterschool beginner class will start on that Monday and Tuesday. A homeschool beginner class will start on Wednesday, November 8th at 1:30 pm.

Sometime
that week, Cuccalorus will be screening “Under the Mask,” Alex
Hoelscher’s film about Erica Julien’s journey to last year’s World
Veteran Championships. I will let people know once time and location
firm up.

Our next event will be on Veteran’s Day, November 11th. Current numbers are 4 open epee, 1 open foil, and 4 E and under foil. Get signed up ASAP.

The
JO qualifiers are November 18-19 at Research Triangle. More info is on
askfrred. The actual JOs are in Memphis over President’s Day weekend. Only 2 CFFA fencers are currently signed up.

People
have been asking about doing an intermediate class. If you might be
interested, please email back and let me know what days and times work
best.

Kim Phillips is fencing the NAC in Anaheim and Erica Julien is at the World Veteran’s Championships in Slovenia. I will update their results once I have them.

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 8

October 8, 2017October 8, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

It should be a standard week of practice this week.

Our
next event is next Saturday. It will have a mixed foil event, a
mixed epee event, and for those not wanting to jump right in to a full
adult open epee competition, a D and under epee event. We are again at that awkward place where we do not know how many referees to hire because our numbers are low. If you intend to fence Saturday, please get signed up on askfred.net today. If you are concerned about your ability to compete, these are all currently small events and would be good ones in which to get your feet wet.

The
next huge regional event is the Tiger Open which will be held 10/21 at
Clemson. This is a tournament that always has an open and a Div III (D
and under) in each weapon. The open epee and foil are A2s, with the correct entrants, the epee could become an A3 or A4. The Div III
epee and foil are both C2s. Sabre is lagging behind. Check askfred for more details.

St. Mary’s Fall Festival is October 27th, so we will be shut down a bit that week. Usually it is Wednesday afterschool (but not homeschool) and evening practice and all day Thursday.

October 28th is the Ryder Cup sabre event at Mid-South. Cadet, Junior, and Senior sabre events.

Also the 28th is the first homeschool tournament of the year, up at New Bern. I will be sending a separate email out to the homeschoolers with info.

November 4th is the first NCFL meet of the year and we are hosting it. As always help refereeing is appreciated. I am not certain what the number of teams will be yet, but it looks a little down from previous years. Starts at 10 am and finishes as soon as we can get done. If you are not part of an official school fencing club, or are still in middle school, there are B division teams. There will certainly be B division teams in foil, and hopefully epee. Start letting me know if you are interested. You do need a full uniform, but we can lend you what you need.

For those of you who would rather fence than referee, Charlotte is holding Women’s epee, and Open epee events that day. Also, there is a Vet event in Richmond.

Sometime that week, Cuccalorus will be screening “Under the Mask,” Alex Hoelscher’s film about Erica Julien’s journey to last year’s World Veteran Championships. I will let people know once time and location firm up.

The
JO qualifiers are November 18-19 at Research Triangle. More info is on
askfrred. The actual JOs are in Memphis over President’s Day weekend.

People have been asking about doing an intermediate class. If you might be interested, please email back and let me know what days and times work best.

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 3rd

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Don’t forget to get orders in by Thursday if you want any equipment through the club.

The UNCW fencers decided enough of them were staying in town that there WILL be practice Wednesday night.

Ryan Miller is coming down from New Bern Thursday and would love to have lots of people 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

WHQR

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

WHQR will be holding their Fall pledge drive Thursday, October 12 – Wednesday October 18. They are asking for volunteer groups to help man the phones. Usually it takes 4 people – figure me + 3 others. (Though people could certainly do it at a time I cannot make it). They mention us and usually we get to do a quick interview each hour. The weekday shifts are 6-9 am, 9 am – noon, noon – 4 pm, and 4 -7 pm. That Saturday is our tournament, so we won’t have people free. The Sunday hours are 7-10 am or 10 am – 2 pm. If you might be interested, please contact me with times and dates that would work best. Some shifts are already taken, so no guarantee that a certain time would work. 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 September 24

September 24, 2017September 24, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We held our first youth event of the season yesterday. In the foil, the winner was Raine Schoonmaker, second was Amelia Alexander, with Jaden Scott and Lexi Williams tied for third. For 9 and under, Jackson Jones took gold, Lou Lightner took silver, and John Alexander won the bronze. In sabre, only Baden Salinas showed up, so we didn’t have a competition. In epee, Raine won again, with Nyc Baynes second, and Linus Huggins third. Thanks to Kyler Schoonmaker for helping with reffing and Herman Smith for the armoring help. Thanks to all the parents for bringing your children. I am still waiting for some other competitions to come into focus before I schedule the next one. Here are the sword point standings, currently:

Boys Girls

Raine Schoonmaker 11 Amelia Alexander 7

Jaden Scott 6 Lexi Williams 6

Jackson Jones 4

Lou Lightner 3

Nyc Baynes 2

John Alexander 2

Linus Huggins 1

Drew Sullivan 1

Also fencing this weekend were the Milewski women up at the Division 1-A ROC in Owing Mills, Maryland. Samantha went 3-2 in her pool, only losing to a pair of Bs. She got a bye into the second round, but unfortunately had one of the Bs from her pool for the DE and lost 13-15. Nicole went 2-3, won her first DE, and then lost to an A from New Jersey.

This week will have the standard everything for practice. Afterschool, Tu/Th evening, homeschool, UNCW practices, Topsail and Camp Lejeune on Friday.

UNC
Chapel Hill has September 30/October 1 for their Tarheel
Open. The epee is a very strong A2. The foil has become an A2.
It is comparably weak as there are only 2 As and 2 Bs and overall it is bottom heavy. Sabre is a B2 (with lots of Bs) that needs 1 A to be an A2.

Also
on September 30 is Salle New Bern’s E and under foil event. This is an
unsanctioned training event. That means it is cheaper than a
sanctioned event and is used to walk people (fencers and parents)
through one of their first or early tournaments.

Our next evening beginner class starts on Tuesday, October 3rd, at 6:30 pm, and goes for 6 weeks.

Mid-South has their first youth sabre event of the year on October 7th.

October
7-8 has a referee clinic and tournament at Research Triangle Fencing.
It is being conducted by Darius Wei and Matt Cox. For those of you who
want to improve your refereeing skills and/or become official USA
Fencing referees, this would be a great clinic to attend. Cost is $75
which gets you the clinic, entry into the observation tournament the
next day, and
the ability to take the written and practical refereeing tests. People
are needed to fence in the observation event on Sunday. One thing that
affects the rating a referee can get is the fencing they are reffing.
Hard to get a good rating if you are watching beginners. More
info is up on askfred.

Our
next event is on October 14th. It will have a mixed foil event, a
mixed epee event, and for those not wanting to jump right in to a full
adult open epee competition, a D and under epee event. Please get
signed up now so we 1) attract other fencers, and B) can plan for
referees, etc. Right now even very few of our people are signed up. These events require a fair amount of work to put on, and if we lose money, it would make more sense to not have them.

The
next huge regional event is the Tiger Open which will be held 10/21 at
Clemson. This is a tournament that always has an open and a Div III (D
and under) in each weapon. The open epee is already an A2 with 8 As,
the D and under epee should become a C2. The open foil is now an A. The Div III
foil should end up as a D1, maybe a C2. Sabre is lagging behind.

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 September 17

September 17, 2017September 17, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Samantha and Nicole Milewski attended an epee clinic given by Olympian Kat Holmes in the DC area yesterday. Once I get the low down I will pass on good drills and advice. The early word from the girls is that there were a lot of warm up and footwork drills.

We
will have a class starting about 3:30 pm at Topsail Middle School on Friday,
September 22nd. It will be following the same type 8 week schedule as the
Camp Lejeune and homeschool classes.

Other than that, it should be a regular week of practice.

September
23rd will be the first youth event of the
season. Ages 12 and under, foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at
3:30 pm. $5 per event. This is the first time in years that there
really is no preseason favorite in either the boy’s or girl’s
competitions. Not expecting lots of fencers for sabre and epee, but
foil could be large, so volunteer referees are quite welcome and
appreciated. For you new fencers, too early to compete, but you might want to come watch the foil.

UNC
Chapel Hill has September 30/October 1 for their Tarheel
Open. The epee is a very strong A2. The foil is an A1 that needs a few
bodies to become an A2, that is not nearly as strong as the epee.
Sabre is a B1 that needs 1 A to be an A1.

Mid-South has their first youth sabre event of the year on October 7th.

October
7-8 has a referee clinic and tournament at Research Triangle Fencing.
It is being conducted by Darius Wei and Matt Cox. For those of you who
want to improve your refereeing skills and/or become official USA
Fencing referees, this would be a great clinic to attend. Cost is $75
which gets you the clinic, entry into the observation tournament the next day, and
the ability to take the written and practical refereeing tests. People are needed to fence in the observation event on Sunday. One thing that affects the rating a referee can get is the fencing they are reffing. Hard to get a good rating if you are watching beginners. More
info is up on askfred.

Our
next event is on October 14th. It will have a mixed foil event, a
mixed epee event, and for those not wanting to jump right in to a full
adult open epee competition, a D and under epee event. Please get
signed up now so we 1) attract other fencers, and B) can plan for
referees, etc. The reason yesterday’s event dropped to a B was that we
only had the 4 As and Bs necessary. When two of them met in the 1st DE
round, it was automatic that since we wouldn’t have 4 As and Bs in top 8
that out event was no longer an A rated event. No one has jumped in since last week.

The next huge regional event is the Tiger Open which will be held 10/21 at Clemson. This is a tournament that always has an open and a Div III (D and under) in each weapon. The open epee is already an A2 with 8 As, the D and under epee should become a C2. The open foil has the necessary As and Bs, but needs Cs to become an A event. The Div III foil should end up as a D1, maybe a C2. Sabre is lagging behind.

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 September 10

September 10, 2017September 10, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

First, thank you all for your very kind words of concern and comfort over the last week. I think I am going to be fine, but I may try to take it a little easy for the next couple of weeks. My apologies to those of you who showed up for a class and didn’t find it. I was trying to get the word out from my hospital bed, but may have missed some people.

Yesterday, we had our first adult event of the year and defended our house in all three weapons. In foil, Will Golder looks to be putting it all together and defeated Samantha Wolstenholme-Britt of Apex in the finals. Salle New Bern had both 3rd place finishers with Ryan Miller and Marston Crawford. Our epee event got knocked down to a B1, but was won by our Oliver Galbraith who defeated David Dimmett of the Richmond Fencing Club. John Page of the Tidewater Fencing Club and CFFA’s Vassa Falls took the 3rd places, both winning their C17s. Marston Crawford picked up his D17. For saber, Kim Phillips took first over Keegan Morrisroe of South Carolina. CFFA’s Erik Graf tied for 3rd with Stanley Jacobs of South Carolina. We had a couple of our fencers jump into their first competition. Andrew Whitehead in foil and Bea Babel in sabre both won at least one match, which is very good for a first event. Thanks to Brendan, Paul, and Clayton Olson for reffing. Thanks to Zemi Lawrence for observing and managing, and Herman Smith for armoring. Hopefully we will see a bunch more of you at our next event. (See bottom of note.)

We should be up to almost our total fall schedule this week.

The
beginner class for Afterschool will start Monday, September 11 and Tuesday, September 12.

Monday evening at 6:30 will be the start of the open September beginner class.

Homeschool fencing will get started this week, 1:15 pm for the returning fencers and 1:30 pm for the new beginners. Wednesday, September 13th should be our first evening practice on that
day of the week for the season. UNCW students should be showing up.

Regular practice at Camp Lejeune on Friday night.

We will have a class starting at Topsail Middle School on Friday, September 22nd. It will be following the same 8 week schedule as the Camp Lejeune and homeschool classes.

September 23rd will be free for the first youth event of the
season. Ages 12 and under, foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at
3:30 pm. $5 per event. This is the first time in years that there
really is no preseason favorite in either the boy’s or girl’s
competitions. Not expecting lots of fencers for sabre and epee, but foil could be large, so volunteer referees are quite welcome and appreciated.

UNC
Chapel Hill has received September 30/October 1 for their Tarheel
Open. The epee is a very strong A2. The foil is an A1 that needs a few bodies to become an A2, that is not nearly as strong as the epee. Sabre is a B1 that needs 1 A to be an A1.

Also on September 30 is Salle New Bern’s E and under foil event. This is an unsanctioned training event. That means it is cheaper than a sanctioned event and is used to walk people (fencers and parents) through one of their first or early tournaments.

Mid-South has their first youth sabre event of the year on October 7th.

Our next event is on October 14th. It will have a mixed foil event, a mixed epee event, and for those not wanting to jump right in to a full adult open epee competition, a D and under epee event. Please get signed up now so we 1) attract other fencers, and B) can plan for referees, etc. The reason yesterday’s event dropped to a B was that we only had the 4 As and Bs necessary. When two of them met in the 1st DE round, it was automatic that since we wouldn’t have 4 As and Bs in top 8 that out event was no longer an A rated event.

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 note for September 1

September 1, 2017September 1, 2017 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I am doing this note a bit early to highlight the fact that we are facing the same issue we had last year. Our first event of the season is now only 8 days away, September 9th. Right now our entries for the three events are: 8 in epee, with 2 As and 3 Cs; 5 in foil with everyone rated; and 3 in sabre. Herman has already gotten a nice set of trophies ready and Brendan has put up a picture of them on Facebook. Our quandary is what we do about referees. At the moment, Brendan and I could handle it all. However, last season we stayed with that and everything blew up in the last couple of days. Then we have trouble finding referees who don’t have other plans. Or we can hire a number of referees and lose money on the event if the last minute influx doesn’t come. We need to get all of our fencers who are interested in the tournament signed up on askfred by Monday at the latest. Everyone says they want to earn higher rankings, but very few of you want to travel. If you don’t support the local events no one else will want to come here. We can make the epee an A and the foil a C just by getting all of our people signed up. So please get signed up on askfred.net ASAP so we have a better idea of how many officials we actually need. There are no other events in the area, so there is no reason we cannot have a large turnout if our people get the ball rolling.

No class tonight at Camp Lejeune. No one has said anything about having a Saturday practice, and as I will be away at a homeschool scheduling meeting, it looks like there will not be practice tomorrow.

Next week normal Tuesday and Thursday practice. Returning afterschool fencers can start back Tuesday through Thursday, September 5-7, at 3:30 pm. I will pick up the younger ones from St. Mary’s as always.

Homeschool classes start back up on Wednesday, September 6th. Returners can come in at 1:15 pm, the new beginner class will start at 1:30 pm. This will be the first day I will be traveling directly from teaching a UNCW class. I believe I have left myself sufficient time, but if I am not there exactly by 1:15 pm, don’t panic, I am coming.

The next Camp Lejeune class will begin on Friday, September 8th at 7 pm.

The
beginner class for Afterschool will start Monday, September 11. That
evening at 6:30 will be the start of the September beginner class. Wednesday, September 13th should be our first evening practice on that day of the week for the season. UNCW students should be showing up.

I
think September 23rd should be free for the first youth event of the
season. Ages 12 and under, foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at
3:30 pm. $5 per event. This is the first time in years that there
really is no preseason favorite in either the boy’s or girl’s
competitions.

UNC
Chapel Hill has received September 30/October 1 for their Tarheel
Open. Their foil and epee are already large A events. Sabre has As and Bs, but really needs numbers.

Also on September 30 is Salle New Bern’s E and under foil event.

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