Coach’s Corner | Cape Fear Fencing Association

Updates

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

A couple of quick reminders and some new information.

Our next USA Fencing event is on Saturday the 9th. Remember that you need to be signed up by midnight tomorrow or your fees are increased. Right now it is a large epee event that needs some Bs and As to make it a higher rated event. The foil needs a bunch of bodies to get near a D or better event. The Vet epee needs 5 more old folks to be a C event.

The NCFL meet is tomorrow and hopefully will start at 10 am. You should probably be there a little after 9 am, to get gear, have your mask and maybe glove checked, and help us to determine exactly how many teams we will have. I may reach out to a couple of people to try to make certain we have plenty of referees.

Frank Milewski has been working to get a new version of our club jacket up and running. The example of what it will look like is here. It is actually made in Italy by the factory that makes Armani (for those of you who need to be trendy for your on line influencer positions). I am attaching pictures of the lovely Nicole Milewski modeling the jacket and the optional pants that will go with it. There is also a picture of the equally? lovely Herman Smith with the jacket, but without our logos so you can see how it fits men and women. You can get it sized so that it can be a regular jacket, or (perhaps a different size) large enough that it will fit over your gear to keep you warm at events. Frank hopes to have the sizing kit so that we can get the order together in the next week or so. Another advantage of this company is that once we have started ordering, they don’t need a specific number for new orders. People will be able to go to their website and order individually without the club being involved. The current pricing looks like it will be $65 for the jacket and $30.30 for the pants. Ask Frank or me if you 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 October 28

October 27, 2019October 27, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We had a number of people go up to the Peak event at Apex yesterday. In men’s foil Brendan McConville and Oliver Galbraith competed. Both went 3-3 in their pools in an A2 event. Brendan won his first DE and then lost a close one to Tom Bryan, finishing 11th. Oliver won his first DE and then lost his second, finishing 9th. They both stayed for the epee and were joined by Eoin O’Brien and Kent Walston. Brendan was 2-4 in the pool in the midst of his back seizing up and pulled out prior to the DE, finishing 17th is what could have been an A event, but ended up as B. Eoin had a solid first round going 3-2 in the pool, but drew one of his pool opponents who learned from the match in his first DE. He finished 11th. Kent Walston did a bit better going 4-2 in his pool, but also lost his first DE and finished 10th. Oliver had the best performance, going 5-1, won his first DE, but then lost to the eventual winner, Lars Hansen, and finished 5th. On the women’s side, in foil, Amelia Alexander and Eilis O’Brien both competed. Eilis went 2-3 and lost her first DE finishing 11th in what was a D event. Amelia (already tired from epee – but more on that later) was 2-2 in her pool. In her first DE, she got down by 5 points and then pulled an epic comeback to win 15-14. Her second DE was against a B rated fencer. She fell behind in the first period, held the B even in the second and finally lost in the third, after putting up a good fight. She finished 8th. Saving the best for last (not actually how it happened chronologically), we had five competitors in the women’s epee: Alice Bromberg, Erica Julien, Erin and Amelia Alexander, and Nicole Milewski. Alice had a bunch of teammates in her pool, never a good thing; and the lost her first DE to Erin, finishing 12th. Erica Julien was 1-4 in her pool and then pulled an upset in her first DE, before losing in the second, finishing 8th. Erin had a very good first round, going 3-2, beat Alice in her first DE, but then got Amelia in her next DE. I believe Amelia has been grounded for beating her mom, who finished 5th. Amelia, who was 4-1 in her pool, after beating her mom, lost her next next DE and received a bronze medal. Nicole was 5-0 in her pool, easily won her first DE, then solidly defeated a person who had given her trouble in her pool, and finally got over the major hurdle of Lauren Dunseath to win the event. Good fencing by everyone and report cards will be forthcoming.

We
will need to put the overheads back up before practice on October
29th. The next set of afterschool classes will start this week. The
next set of homeschool classes will start on this Wednesday. Just FYI, I
expect a light turnout from our younger fencers on Thursday
(Halloween.) That may also mean very few adult fencers, but I will hang out at least until I see if anyone shows up.

The Charlotte NAC (January 3-6) is open for registration until November 20th. It has Div I, Junior, and senior team events. For those of you wanting to see what the highest level of competition in the US feels like, this is as close as this kind of event will ever get. Additionally, for those of you who qualify for the JOs, this junior is open, and will give you an idea of what the JOs will be like. Div I means you must have a C to enter. Junior is for those born in the years 2000-2006. The senior team means you need 3, maybe 4 with an alternate. people. Everyone has to be old enough to fence in Senior (adult) tournaments. The team event is a DE from the get go, so you may not want to enter unless unless you are going for something else as well. Here are the dates, but times have not yet been posted, for the events in which I believe some of our fencers may be interested. Friday 1/3 Div I Men’s epee; Saturday 1/4 Div I Men’s foil, Div I Women’s epee; Sunday 1/5 Men’s epee team, Junior men’s foil, Junior Women’s epee,; Monday 1/6 Junior Men’s epee, Junior Women’s foil, Women’s epee team.

The
first event for the NCFL
for the year will be here on November 2nd. Get ready as there should
be a lot of fencing. As always, help refereeing will be appreciated.
High school foilists should start getting ready NOW. I will be
contacting you to start confirming who will be fencing. For this you
need a complete uniform, so if you don’t have knickers or a plastron
talk to me. The B division can consist of anyone who is 6th grade and
up. We can probably pull together a couple of actual teams from St.
Mary and Surf City. We will put together composite teams for other
interested fencers. I need to know who is fencing ASAP.

For the older people who might not be assisting with NCFL, there is a Vet event in Richmond. Epee needs one person for a B event, an A would make it an A. Foil needs bodies for a B event.

The next Monday/Wednesday classes will begin on November 4th at 6:30 pm.

The next Jacksonville classes will start on Friday evening, November 8th.

Our
next USA Fencing event is Saturday, November 9th. Mixed foil, mixed
epee, and Vet epee. Not a lot of people signed up yet. Epee finally has the bodies, but needs A s and Bs to be a higher rated event. Foil and
vet epee are lagging way behind. Foil needs bodies and Es to be a D event. Vet epee needs bodies to be a C event. Get signed up now so we can attract
more people and have a
larger event like the first one. Remember you must be signed up before midnight on Saturday, November 2nd, or the fees increase.

On the 16th Mid-South has a series of Vet events in all weapons and Apex has another of their unsanctioned youth and adult events.

The
JO qualifiers are going to be November 17th at Apex. This year the
JOs are in Columbus, Ohio. The venue is pretty good and the
drive/flight is not too bad. Hopefully we can have a large contingent
at the qualifiers even if not everyone makes it to JOs. It is a one day
event, so timing will be tight and I imagine that if you attempt to
qualify in multiple weapons you will be running back and forth from one
to the other. We can probably have a Saturday practice if there is
interest. You need to be signed up by 11/14. If you fence a Junior event and qualify for the junior, you are automatically qualified for the cadet if you are the correct age. You would not then have to fence the cadet later in the day. For that reason, all of the junior events happen first and the cadet events later.

The 23rd is the second NCFL meet, this time at Chapel Hill HS.

Also
on that date for non-NCFL fencers, The Harry Rulnick open is being held
in Fayetteville. It has open adult foil split between men and women
and is a sanctioned event.

On Sunday, Mid-South is holding the next in the program of youth sabre 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

KC update for CFFA

October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Today in the Division II Women’s epee Nicole Milewski went 5-1 in her pool, her loss being 4-5. She won the pool and ended up seeded 5th out of the 91 fencers. She won her first DE 15-13, the second 15-8, and the 3rd 15-14. She lost 14-15 to high ranked Canadian fencer. She finished 6th with her only two losses being by one point to the fencers who finished 3rd and 7th.

Sister Samantha, after a two and a half year lay off from National competition, went 2-4 in her pool. She lost her first bout and ended up 74th.

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 21

October 20, 2019October 20, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We held our first event for the youth yesterday. Some good fencing, some things to work on.

12 and under foil

1st Keely Carter Saint Raphael

2nd Matthew Higgin Apex Fencing Academy

3rd (tie) Jackson Jones Surf City

Jonathan Jarrett St. Mary

9 and under

Gold Aubree Cooper St. Mary

Silver John Alexander Surf City

Bronze Ellery O’Brien CFFA

12 and under epee

1st Matthew Higgin Apex Fencing Academy

2nd John Alexander Surf City

3rd (tie) Linus Huggins CFFA

Ellery O’Brien CFFA

9 and under

Gold Emers O’Brien CFFA

12 and under sabre

1st Matthew Higgin Apex Fencing Academy

2nd John Alexander Surf City

3rd Ellery O’Brien CFFA

Top 5 in sword points

Boys Girls

Higgin 21 Carter 14

Alexander 14 Cooper, A. 10

Jones 12 O’Brien, Ellery 8

Jarrett 12 Ferrel, G. 4

Williams 9 O’Brien, Emers 4

Thanks to the Ferrells and O’Briens for the set up help. Thanks to the O’Briens for reffing and coaching help. Thanks to Herman Smith, Mike Kinney, and Kenyatta Sanford for armoring help.

Just a note to everyone. Our youth events are not open events. That is why I do not put them on askfred. There is a clause in our insurance from USA Fencing that says that unsanctioned events must have no more than three clubs represented or our insurance doesn’t hold. There are standing invitations to all of the various groups under our umbrella, the Wilmington fencing Club, and Salle New Bern. Additionally, I try to run these events at a break even level. The entry fees usually cover medals, trophies, and swords. Thus I can keep the entry fees low. That is dependent on all the help I have always received from volunteers for the reffing, etc. If the events get significantly bigger, I would probably have to start hiring additional referees and the cost would go up. I prefer to keep things smaller and more accessible to everyone.

In Kansas City, Nicole Milewski is fencing in the October NAC. In the Cadet epee Saturday, she beat a B, C, nad D in her pool. She beat another B in her first DE and then lost to an A in the next round. She finished 46th of 135, a 20 place improvement on her original seeding. Today, a bit of a different story. It was the Division I and in an Olympic year everyone is out for blood. Nicole didn’t win any in her pool. However, to give you an idea of how intense it is, half of the current US National team did not make the top 8. All of them lost at least one bout in the pools.

The
next week is a short week. No afterschool Monday because I am in KC to help Nicole and her sister, Samantha, in their event. St. Mary’s Fall Festival is Friday and the
fencing space gets used for the Haunted House. Therefore, we will take
down the overheads on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, homeschool will
meet, but after that the rest of the week is cancelled. NO Wednesday
afterschool or evening fencing and no fencing on Thursday.

On
October 26th Apex is holding sanctioned foil and epee events, split by
gender. Currently, the women’s epee and the women’s foil are both D1s. If all of our epee women show up, it would probably raise to being
a C event. A couple of you will be there anyway with your children who
are fencing. The men’s epee is a B1 and only needs an A or B to become a A1.
However, the men’s
foil is a nasty A2. We have a number of
fencers there at the moment, so no Saturday practice.

We
will need to put the overheads back up before practice on October
29th. The next set of afterschool classes will start that week. The
next set of homeschool classes will start on that Wednesday. Just FYI, I expect a light turnout from our younger fencers on Thursday (Halloween.)

The
first event for the NCFL
for the year will be here on November 2nd. Get ready as there should
be a lot of fencing. As always, help refereeing will be appreciated.
High school foilists should start getting ready NOW. I will be
contacting you to start confirming who will be fencing. For this you
need a complete uniform, so if you don’t have knickers or a plastron
talk to me. The B division can consist of anyone who is 6th grade and up. We can probably pull together a couple of actual teams from St. Mary and Surf City. We will put together composite teams for other interested fencers.

The next Monday/Wednesday classes will begin on November 4th at 6:30 pm.

Our
next USA Fencing event is Saturday, November 9th. Mixed foil, mixed
epee, and Vet epee. Not a lot of people signed up yet. Entries have
been stagnant, but bwe are finally a B away from a B event. Foil and vet epee are lagging way behind. Get signed up now so we can attract more people and have a
larger event like the first one.

On the 16th Mid-South has a series of Vet events in all weapons and Apex has another of their youth events.

The 23rd is the second NCFL meet, this time at Chapel Hill HS.

Also
on that date for non-NCFL fencers, The Harry Rulnick open is being held
in Fayetteville. It has open adult foil split between men and women
and is a sanctioned event.

On Sunday, Mid-South is holding the next in the program of youth sabre 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

Junior Olympic Qualifiers

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

The information on the JO qualifiers is up on askfred.net. It will be a one day event on November 17th, at the Apex Fencing Academy in Apex. The actual JOs are in Columbus, Ohio, on President’s Day Weekend in February, so they are with a one drive as far as travel.

If you want to go you need to be preregistered by Thursday night, November 14th.

If you qualify in a Junior event and you are eligible to fence cadet, you are automatically qualified to fence the cadet at JOs. You would be allowed to fence the qualifier for free, but if you take what would be a qualification spot, you keep someone else from qualifying. All of the junior events are fenced before the cadet events, so you may know if you have qualified before the cadet starts.

They are running a very tight schedule, so if you fence more than one weapon, be prepared to possible be switching back and forth between the DE of one and the pool of the other, or the DEs of both. This will be even more complicated for those of you planning to try to qualify in two weapons for junior and cadet.

Let me know if you have any 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

Youth event tomorrow

October 18, 2019October 18, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just FYI there is a triathlon in Wilmington tomorrow. It doesn’t look like it affects Market street or the gym area, but does have an impact more downtown and over the bridges. It starts early in the morning, but may have an impact for the foil event particularly. (10 am). Please plan accordingly.

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

NCFL updates, rosters

October 17, 2019October 17, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

No need to read farther if you are not participating in the NCFL. The first meet is at our place on Saturday, November 2nd.

The NCFL wants a roster from each school. I believe their software will be able to sort it out if you all submit your own information. It is about 2 minutes worth of work. Here is the link: NCFL Roster Update

NCFL Roster Update

Update School Rosters with Fencer Information

Here is the image release form: NCFL – ImageRelease

NCFL – ImageRelease

North Carolina Fencing League – Image Release I, the undersigned, hereby consent to allow the exclusive use of…

Please fill out both prior to the first meet. The sooner the better.

Here is what I am expecting as far as teams:

A Division – Hoggard Wiil, Andrew, your third male Any women?

Ashley Emma, Emme, Kately, Claire Any men?

New Hanover Elina, Chloe, Emma +? Nathan, +?

Coastal Christion ?

B Division (Can be Coed) Must be at least 6th grade

St. Mary Megan, Nathan, Owen, Locke

Surf City Amelia, Jackson, James

CFFA (anyone going to public school 6-12th grade who doesn’t belong to a different team.) Will, +?

Epee Nicole, Joey, Miller

If I have missed you and you are interested contact me so we know where you should be placed. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

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 14

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

The Alexander family pulled triple sixes at the Magic City RYC (Regional Youth Circuit) in Birmingham, Alabama, over the weekend. On Saturday, Amelia fenced well in the Y14 foil, going 3-1 in her pool, then winning her first DE before dropping the second to the eventual second place finisher. She finished sixth, the highest of any North Carolina fencer. On Sunday, in a harder Cadet foil event, she was 4-2 in her pool, and again won her first DE before dropping the second. She was again 6th, in an event that just needed one more D to be a C1 and give ratings. Not to be outdone, brother John went 2-3 in the Y-10 epee before losing a close DE bout. He also finished 6th. Congratulations to both.

For a blast from the past, Samantha Milewski won the Division II ROC in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday.

The homeschool meeting was yesterday and I will get information out to people.

This should actually be a complete week of practice.

Regular registration for the December NAC ends on October 16th. After that you start hitting the double and triple fees.

Our first under 12 event will be on the 19th. Therefore, Foil at 10 am, Epee at 1:30 pm, Sabre
at 3:30 pm. For those who have not yet participated in one of these, we
give trophies for each weapon to the top 3
(and ties) finishers, medals to the top 3 nine and under finishers,
unless they win a trophy. We keep a year long accumulated points
standing which counts all three weapons and at the end of the season,
the top ranked boy and girl will each win a sword. We also have the
fencers vote at each event for the person who shows the best
sportsmanship and the fencer who wins that gets a sword. Cost per event
is $5. Volunteer refereeing help is greatly appreciated.

Also on that date All-American is having Y10, Y12 foil, and adult foil and epee. All are unsanctioned.

The next week is a short week. St. Mary’s Fall Festival is Friday and the fencing space gets used for the Haunted House. Therefore, we will take down the overheads on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, homeschool will meet, but after that the rest of the week is cancelled. NO Wednesday afterschool or evening fencing and no fencing on Thursday.

On
October 26th Apex is holding sanctioned foil and epee events, split by
gender. Currently, the women’s epee and the women’s foil are both
E1s. If all of our epee women show up, it would probably raise to being
a C event. A couple of you will be there anyway with your children who
are fencing. Foil might get to a D1. The men’s epee is a C1 and only needs an A or B to be come a B1.
However, the men’s
foil is a nasty A2. We have a number of
fencers there at the moment, so no Saturday practice.

We will need to put the overheads back up before practice on October 29th. The next set of afterschool classes will start that week. The next set of homeschool classes will start on that Wednesday.

The next Monday/Wednesday classes will begin on November 4th at 6:30 pm.

Our
next USA Fencing event is Saturday, November 9th. Mixed foil, mixed
epee, and Vet epee. Not a lot of people signed up yet. Entries have been stagnant around 11 for the open epee, 5 for the foil, and 6 for the Vet epee. Get signed up now so we can attract more people and have a larger event like the first one.

I
believe the JO qualifiers are going to be November 16th. This year the
JOs are in Columbus, Ohio. The venue is pretty good and the
drive/flight is not too bad. Hopefully we can have a large contingent
at the qualifiers even if not everyone makes it to JOs.

Also on that date Mid-South has a series of Vet events in all weapons and Apex has another of their youth events.

The 23rd is the second NCFL meet, this time at Chapel Hill HS.

Also on that date for non-NCFL fencers, The Harry Rulnick open is being held in Fayetteville. It has open adult foil split between men and women and is a sanctioned event.

On Sunday, Mid-South is holding the next in the program of youth sabre 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

CFFA update for October 6

October 6, 2019October 6, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

John Alexander competed at the Apex Novice Cup in Apex yesterday. He went undefeated in the Y10 foil winning the gold medal. In the Y12/Y14 epee he was the youngest competitor by about two years and had the opposite result.

This week will be a mostly regular week. The new beginner class starts for Tu/Th on the 8th. UNCW is leaving for fall break and will not be in Wednesday. I will keep our fencers informed if it sounds like a number of people will be coming in. I have Wednesday night class and will be there until at least 7:30 pm. Fencing at both Surf City and Camp Lejeune Friday. I will be out of town Saturday, but will let you know if it sounds like there will be Saturday morning practice.

The On Point fencing club, just across the border from Charlotte in NC is having their first event on Saturday the 12th. It is Y12 and & adult unsanctioned foil. Check askfred for more details. They will be in the western conference of the NCFL, so you may run into some of their fencers later this year.

The homeschool league will be meeting on October 13, so I will let people know what is up after that.

Regular registration for the December NAC ends on October 16th. After that you start hitting the double and triple fees.

Also on that date All-American is having Y10, Y12 foil, and adult foil and epee. All are unsanctioned.

On
October 26th Apex is holding sanctioned foil and epee events, split by
gender. Currently, the women’s epee and the women’s foil are both
E1s. If all of our epee women show up, it would probably raise to being a C event. A couple of you will be there anyway with your children who are fencing. Foil might get to a D1. The men’s epee will probably become a at least a C1 and only needs an A or B to be come a B1. However, the men’s
foil is a strong A1 event and may become an A2. We have a number of fencers there at the moment, so no Saturday practice.

Our
next USA Fencing event is Saturday, November 9th. Mixed foil, mixed
epee, and Vet epee. Not a lot of people signed up yet. Start getting
signed up now. I would like to think that open epee can be at least a
B, maybe an A; the open foil should be another C, and the Vet epee
should be at least a C event.

Also on that date Mid-South has a series of Vet events in all weapons and Apex has another of their youth 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

Saturday practice and WHQR

October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I didn’t realize until after I sent my Sunday note that this weekend is Riverfest in Wilmington. That means it would be very difficult to park anywhere near the club Saturday morning, so no practice.

WHQR is asking for “teams” of people to come in and help staff their pledge drive. (October 10-16) Groups get mentioned on the air for participating, so it is a low level way to remind people we are out there. You work for about 3 hours, answering phones and taking pledges. Their system is computer driven and user friendly so it isn’t hard. If anyone is interested, let me know ASAP, and let me know what times you might be available. More info is available at whqr.org.

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