Coach’s Corner | Cape Fear Fencing Association

weather

June 7, 2016June 7, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just a quick play the weather by ear note. Most of the forecasts I have seen say that things will be better by this evening, but some say that is when it will be worst. I will be in (if it gets bad enough that changes, I will let you know), but don’t endanger yourselves.

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 5

June 5, 2016June 5, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Our next beginner class will start tomorrow, June 6th, at 6:30 pm.

Ballet dress rehearsal tomorrow about 5 pm. We will do quick reminder type rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm. Friday performances at 4 pm (arrive by 3:30 pm) and 7 pm (arrive by 6:30 pm). We are in the first act and should be done fairly quickly. Please let me know what performances you will be at and what you need as far as uniform. (If you have not already).

No Camp Lejeune practice on Friday June 10th as we will be doing the ballet performance.

Practice Saturday about 10 am in Wilmington.

The

Powerade State Games registrations are up. You can check askfred for
an approximate entry list. However, the actual entry is done on
pag.ncsports.org under fencing. The event is only about 2 hours away in
Raleigh this year. Events are split as Y-12, Women’s, and Men’s. They
give awards within the adult events for cadet, junior, and vet; as well
as the
overall results. You needed to be registered by the 4th as now the fees have gone up.
Men’s sabre looks fairly big (B2), they could really use an infusion of our
fencers in Men’s foil (could end up as a B) and epee(small A1) and all of the women’s and Y-12 events. The event is June 18th.

This
summer, I would like to have sessions for the 12 and under set on
Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 6:30 pm. This will give the fencers of
that age group a chance to keep up with things over the summer. Once
my beginner class is finished next week, I can give you more hands
on instructions. Costs would be $35 per month or the $5 per session
floor fee.

People
have been asking about T-shirts and jackets. The last time we had
shirts done they ran $15 and are the design with the club logo on the
back on the fencer on the front. The jackets have the club logo on the
back and were $45. I don’t know if they would be that exact price as it
was a couple of years ago, but that should be a good approximate. If
you might be interested, let me know what you want and the correct size
so we can get an order together. So far very few people have contacted me.

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

Nitin Iyengar

June 3, 2016June 3, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just FYI, Nitin Iyengar will be coming down to do some fencing. take a lesson, etc. tomorrow. Hopefully we can have some good foilists for him 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

Saturday reminders

June 2, 2016June 2, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Just a reminder that we will have Saturday practice, starting about 10 am.

Also, Saturday is the last day to enter the State Games without the fee increase. Remember that your official entry must be done at ncsports.org. Right now the Y-12 (coed) are all about a half dozen fencers. The women’s foil and epee are E1s, and the sabre is unrated. The men’s epee needs a body to be an A1. The men’s foil needs a C and 2 Ds and a body to be a C1. The sabre is a C1 and could become a C2.

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 29

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

W had a busy and fairly rewarding day for our last event of the 2015-16 season. The foil went pretty much to form. Oliver Galbraith of CFFA won, Bobby Gibbs of Charlotte Fencing Academy was second, and our Brendan McConville and Kyler Schoonmaker tied for 3rd. Foil is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy and it needs to change for next season. Too many of our higher rated foilists are saying it won’t renew my rating so I won’t go, too many of our lower rated or unrated foilists are saying I’ll just get beat by the more experienced people. Kyler is a U and has taken 3rd in both of the last opens. We had two Cs from other clubs drop out in the last couple of days, we had three people not show Saturday, I can list 3-4 U rated people who should have been there fencing but weren’t; and we had 3-4 people who showed up that were not signed up on askfred. If everyone would have shown it would have been a solid C1 with there still being a chance for some U foilists to slip into the top 8 and earn a rating. As it was we had more sabre fencers for an E and under than foil fencers for an open.

The epeeists, on the other hand, don’t understand the idea of having A rated events. If you keep knocking out the As before they get to the top 8, no one is going to get an A. LOL Oliver also won this event and renewed his B. Josh Harvey of CFFA was 2nd. Two Charlotte Fencing Academy fencers, Shane Mason and Tommy Dietz, took the 3rds. Vassa Falls of the Jacksonville branch of CFFA jumped from a U to a D, and Robert Thomas of CFFA upped his D to a 16. Margaret Bertoni of Mid-South/Charlotte Fencing Academy reearned her E.

In the sabre, Alex Hoelscher of CFFA won gold and reearned his E, Erik Graf of CFFA won silver. Joe McLaughlin of CFFA/Mid-South took one bronze and Ian Dube of Edge of America Fencing took the other. Thanks to everyone who did show up and fence, the referees, and all the people who helped with set up and clean up. A special thanks to Zemi who observed and ran the event while fighting through a migraine.

This week is the real start of summer hours. Afterschool and the weekly homeschool classes finished last week. So we are down to open fencing Tuesday and Thursday evenings, plus Camp Lejeune on Fridays.

We
will start having Saturday practices regularly on this Saturday, June 4th. I’ll be in
by 10 am and people can fence until they are tired. There will usually
be practice unless there is an event (State Games) or maybe a holiday
(July 4th).

All-American in Fayetteville is doing a number of unsanctioned events on the 4th, including Y-12 and Y-10 level events. If you are interested in going, let me know so we can make certain you will have the equipment you will need. More info is up on askfred.net.

Our next beginner class will start on Monday, June 6th, at 6:30 pm.

No Camp Lejeune practice on Friday June 11 as we will be doing the ballet performance.

The
Powerade State Games registrations are up. You can check askfred for
an approximate entry list. However, the actual entry is done on
pag.ncsports.org under fencing. The event is only about 2 hours away in
Raleigh this year. Events are split as Y-12, Women’s, and Men’s. They
give awards within the adult events for cadet, junior, and vet; as well as the
overall results. You need to be registered by the 4th or fees go up. Men’s sabre looks fairly big, they could really use an infusion of our fencers in Men’s foil and epee and all of the women’s and Y-12 events.

This
summer, I would like to have sessions for the 12 and under set on
Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 6:30 pm. This will give the fencers of
that age group a chance to keep up with things over the summer. Once
my beginner class is finished in early June, I can give you more hands
on instructions. Costs would be $35 per month or the $5 per session
floor fee.

No one has come up with a suggestion for the week of August 1-5 as far as a summer camp. So I may make it a second beginner camp if it looks like the Olympics may generate interest, or just take a week to relax between camps. Feel free to give suggestions.

People have been asking about T-shirts and jackets. The last time we had shirts done they ran $15 and are the design with the club logo on the back on the fencer on the front. The jackets have the club logo on the back and were $45. I don’t know if they would be that exact price as it was a couple of years ago, but that should be a good approximate. If you might be interested, let me know what you want and the correct size so we can get an order together.

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

May 22, 2016May 22, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

An interesting day with the youth events yesterday, as there were a lot of first round upsets, but in the end the older more experienced fencers came out ahead. In the foil, Jaden Scott and Nyc Baynes both went undefeated in the pools to come out numbers 1 & 2 in the DE table. In the DEs Will Golder and Nicole Milewski figured them out. It ended with Will winning, Nicole second, and Jaden and Nyc tied for third. Amelia Alexander won the gold medal for those 9 and under. We had more sabre spectators (1) than sabre fencers (0). In the epee, Lydia Huggins took out Nicole in the pool, but couldn’t repeat that in the DE. Nicole ended up 1st, Lydia was 2nd, Gio Martucci and Linus Huggins (who had the best footwork of anybody in either weapon in his first event) tied for 3rd. Will took home swords for both accumulating the most points for boys over the course of the season and for being voted the best sport by the other fencers for the season. Nicole Milewski won the season long point total for girls. A big thanks to Herman for fixing enough foils to keep the event running. A thanks to all the fencers and their parents for their participation over the course of the season.

This is the last week for the daytime homeschool and afterschool programs, so we will have small end of the year parties on Wednesday and Thursday. Riley Hart will be in town visiting and will probably be down fencing Tuesday night in Wilmington and Friday at Camp Lejeune.

Our

next event is the Stab-a-thon on May 28th. Open foil, open epee, and
an E and under sabre. Get signed up. It is the Memorial Day weekend
and we can attract people looking for some time at the beach if it looks
like we will have a good event. Epee is an A1, but our foil
and sabre fencers need to get signed up. The foil only has 10 and sabre
only has 9 entries. The foil has enough higher ranked fencers that with enough bodies it could be a C1. That would
allow a couple of unrated fencers to slip into the 7th and 8th places
and still earn an E. But we have to get to 15 for it to happen. The
sabre needs more fencers, preferably rated E to get it beyond an E1.

We will start having Saturday practices regularly on June 4th. I’ll be in by 10 am and people can fence until they are tired. There will usually be practice unless there is and event (State Games) or maybe a holiday (July 4th).

Our next beginner class will start on Monday, June 6th, at 6:30 pm.

This
summer, I would like to have sessions for the 12 and under set on
Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 6:30 pm. This will give the fencers of
that age group a chance to keep up with things over the summer. Once
my beginner class is finished in early June, I can give you more hands
on instructions. Costs would be $35 per month or the $5 per session
floor fee.

With the response I have gotten from people about summer camps, the schedule looks a bit more set.

Beginner camp July 11-15

Advanced sabre camp July 18-22

Advanced foil camp July 25-29

? August 1-5

Advanced epee camp 8-12

The Olympics start on the 5th , so we will see what works best for the first week in August. If anyone has a suggestion, I am open to ideas. Otherwise it will be a light week for me.

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 15

May 15, 2016May 15, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Yesterday was the Skirmish at Jack’s Island, hosted by Salle New Bern. We had a number of fencers participating, refereeing, and just showing up to be supportive. It was actually held outside this year and, hopefully, none of you have the sunburn to prove it. The event was an A1, won by Andrew Fullmer of NCFDP, Shane Mason of Charlotte was 2nd, our Oliver Galbraith was third, tied with Stephen Kmiec of ECU. Thanks to New Bern for a good tournament and a great lunch.

This week of practice should be regular. This Friday will be the start of a new session at Camp Lejeune. Over the week, anyone wanting to help us get some electric foils up and running for the youth event and just general fencing is appreciated.

May
21st will be our last youth event of the year and the swords will be
awarded. Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, and epee at 3:30 pm. We may have some people down from Jacksonville, so as always, volunteer referees are appreciated.

Charlotte is having an adult epee event that day. It has some As and Bs and could become a well rated tournament.

Spotsylvania,
Virginia, is doing a Vet event that day. Epee is an A2, foil a C1,
and sabre as yet unclear. Erica Julien and Erik Graf are signed up so
with a few more vets we could be a presence.

The week before Memorial Day will be the last week for homeschool fencing and afterschool fencing for this academic year.

Our

next event is the Stab-a-thon on May 28th. Open foil, open epee, and
an E and under sabre. Get signed up. It is the Memorial Day weekend
and we can attract people looking for some time at the beach if it looks
like we will have a good event. Epee is an A1, but our foil
and sabre fencers need to get signed up. The foil only has 7 and sabre only has 5 entries. The foil has enough higher ranked fencers that with one more ranked fencer and enough bodies it could be a C1. That would allow a couple of unrated fencers to slip into the 7th and 8th places and still earn an E. But we have to get to 15 for it to happen. The sabre needs one more fencer to get it to an E1. Then, all you have to do is beat Alex to get an E.

Our next beginner class will start on Monday, June 6th, at 6:30 pm.

This summer, I would like to have sessions for the 12 and under set on Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 6:30 pm. This will give the fencer of that age group a chance to keep up with things over the summer. Once my beginner class is finished in early June, I can give you more hands on instructions. Costs would be $35 per month or the $5 per session floor fee.

With the response I have gotten from people about summer camps, the schedule looks a bit more set.

Beginner camp July 11-15

Advanced sabre camp July 18-22

Advanced foil camp July 25-29

? August 1-5

Advanced epee camp 8-12

The Olympics start on the 5th , so we will see what works best for the first week in August.

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

summer camps

May 12, 2016May 12, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Of course just as soon as I write the note, I get information from the other side of things. LOL

Barring anything new coming up, I should be able to do a full week of epee camp for the August 8-12.

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

summer camps

May 12, 2016May 12, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Some things have come up regarding the scheduling of the camps and I want to try to be flexible for as many people as possible.

Right now the camps are scheduled as:

Beginner camp July 11-15

Advanced Sabre camp July 18-22

Advanced foil camp July 25-29

Advanced epee camp August 1-5

The beginner camp and foil camp are going to stay where they are. However I haven’t gotten much feedback for sabre and epee. The epeeists who have responded have had something come up for that week, but cannot do the week of sabre camp either.

I believe I will have some UNCW responsibilities the week of August 8-12, but I am going to try to put together an abbreviated epee camp for that week, probably four days instead of five.

That leaves me still sitting with what to do with the sabre camp and epee camp as scheduled. So I need to hear from sabre and epee fencers who are interested in camps. The options (though I am open to other options as well) are:

1) Leave everything where it is and just add the extra week.

2) Switch the weeks of the epee and sabre camps. Epee would become July 18-22 and sabre would be August 1-5, and add the extra epee camp.

3) If I don’t have any of one or the other (epee or sabre) move the camp which has people to the more popular week and maybe offer a second week of a beginner camp, plus the later week of abbreviated epee camp.

Please let me know pretty quickly what works best for you if you are interested in a camp. 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 May 8

May 9, 2016May 9, 2016 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

If you haven’t already, please update me about the ballet for those who had already expressed an interest. They want to know the number of chaperones as well. I am still trying to get a timing from them for what they want. I’ll bring a DVD to show what I am thinking of Tuesday night. If someone at Lejeune can bring a DVD player I will bring it there as well.

Two updates for equipment from Kathy Walters, good and bad. First, the bad. If you fence foil or sabre, you will need to have straight white or transparent head cords for next season. The curled ones will be okay for our practice, but not sanctioned competitions. The good is for epeeists. You can now put your wires back through the holes when attaching them to the socket, effective immediately.

We had four fencers at Divisionals. Nicole Milewski took the silver in Y-14 women’s epee and qualifies for Nationals. Oliver Galbraith won the Men’s foil, qualifying for Div. II. Erica Julien qualified for the Vet’s women’s epee. Robert Thomas qualified for Div III epee and Vet’s epee. Congratulations to all.

Practice should be regular on Tuesday and Thursday. Homeschool practice on Wednesday. Afterschool and Camp Lejeune per regular.

Apex
is holding a bunch of unsanctioned events on May 14th. Open women’s
foil and epee, open mixed foil and epee, Y-10 mixed foil, and Y-12 mixed
foil and epee. These are unsanctioned, so all you need is the standard
non-competitive USA Fencing membership. A really good event for those
looking to move up from our youth events or early career older fencers
looking for a less intense competition.

May

14th is also the Skirmish at Jack’s Island at New Bern. This is an
epee only outdoor event. This year it will be held at the church in New
Bern regardless of the weather; outdoors if nice, running inside if
rainy. As and Bs get to fence for free, so it should be a strong
event. Right now it needs an A to be an A
event. New Bern always provides a really good free lunch after/during
the event. I am going up in some capacity if anyone needs a ride.

May
21st will be our last youth event of the year and the swords will be
awarded. Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, and epee at 3:30 pm.

Charlotte is having an adult epee event that day. It has some As and Bs and could become a well rated tournament.

Spotsylvania,
Virginia, is doing a Vet event that day. Epee will be an A, foil a C,
and sabre as yet unclear. Erica Julien and Erik Graf are signed up so
with a few more vets we could be a presence.

Our

next event is the Stab-a-thon on May 28th. Open foil, open epee, and
an E and under sabre. Get signed up. It is the Memorial day weekend
and we can attract people looking for some time at the beach if it looks
like we will have a good event. Epee sign ups are solid, but our foil
and sabre fencers need to get signed up. At this point it will pretty
much be you fencing yourselves unless we can get some more foilists and
sabrists involved.

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