News | Cape Fear Fencing Association

CFFA update for July 5

July 5, 2018July 5, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

I enjoy being at these things, but I am glad it is almost over.

Robert Thomas went 3-3 in his Div III men’s epee pool. For doing that well he drew a fencer seeded 70 spots ahead of him who was probably 25 years younger. Robert actually led after the first period, but then the youngster changed some things up, and came out the winner. Robert finished 107/182.

Will Golder had his Y-14 men’s foil today as well. He went 3-3 in pools, a solid showing. For his DE he got, honestly, the only person in the event TALLER than he is. The first period was dead even, but in the second period his opponent figured out that little bit of extra reach. Will finished 173/329. Yes, you read that right, a fencing event with 329 competitors.

Nicole Milewski finished her run with her fifth event in eight days, Div II women’s epee. She was 4-2, finishing second in her pool. She had the misfortune of running into a person who had a move she just couldn’t figure out in one match for her first DE. She still finished 71/159.

For homeschoolers who can remember back 4-5 years, I ran into the Amdahls. They are now in Phoenix and Hayden was fencing the Div III epee. He went 4-2, but lost his first DE. Another one of those instances where I am now looking up at someone I remember as being about shoulder height.

Will is our last competitor, fencing in his foil Div III tomorrow. I will be heading back afterwards, so I will just wait to update you on the weekly one. Remember, beginning fencing camp starts next Monday.

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 July 4

July 5, 2018July 5, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Sorry this is so late. It’s all Nicole’s fault

First, I don’t know what happened with Erica Julien’s sabre team. She is listed on the roster, but never appeared in their one match. They were eliminated in the first round. I will have to get the story from her.

Nicole Milewski was in the Div III women’s epee. She went 5-1 in her pool which made her the top person. She then won DE’s 15-6, 15-8, 15-10, and 6-3 in four of the best bouts I have ever seen her fence. That put her in the medals. She lost her next bout 10-15, but still gets the 7th place medal. She was 7th out of 174 competitors. We didn’t get out of the venue until after 11 pm (St. Louis time).

Later today, (at this point), we will have Robert Thomas in Division III men’s epee, Nicole in the Division II women’s epee, and the first appearance of Will Golder, fencing Men’s Y-14 foil.

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 7/3

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Three fencers going today. Erica Julien competed in the Vet 70 women’s sabre. She went 4-4 in her opening round. That left her seeded 5th. She then pulled a minor upset of the 4th seed. Unfortunately she could not defeat the number one seed, but still came out with a bronze medal, her best showing in sabre at this level to date.

Nicole Milewski was in the Y-14 women’s epee. She went 3-2 in her pool, but lost another 14-15 bout to a woman seeded higher than her in her first DE. She finished 89/172.

In the Div II Men’s epee, Robert Thomas ran into a bunch of young bucks in his pool. He went 1-5, but that unfortunately was not quite enough to make the cut into the next round.

Have a happy Fourth of July tomorrow. Out here, Erica got invited to be on a Women’s Vet sabre team and Nicole has the Women’s Div III epee.

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 July 2

July 2, 2018July 2, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Today was Robert Thomas’s first of his three events, Vet 40 epee. He had a rough 1-4 pool, made worse by the fact that one of the competitors withdrew due to a knee injury. He then lost an 8-10 bout to one of the As in the event and finished 43rd.

Tomorrow is a busy day; Erica in Vet 70 sabre, Nicole in Y-14 epee, and Robert in Div II epee.

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 July 1

July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Today we had Nicole Milewski competing in women’s cadet epee. She beat the A in her pool, finished at 5-1, and was the number one person in the pool. She had a first round bye, then won her first DE in come from behind 15 – 14 fashion, and won her second DE much more easily. In her next DE she fell behind by four touches but battled back and actually had a one point lead. However, her opponent rallied and she lost 14-15. She finished 27/179 fencers, which was a very good performance.

Kim Phillips was on a Veteran sabre team which won their first match 45-22, just barely lost the next round 41-45, and then won the bronze medal 45-40.

Tomorrow, Robert Thomas starts his events with the Vet 40 men’s epee.

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. No Lejeune practice Friday.

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.

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 6/30

June 30, 2018June 30, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

We had two fencers competing today, both in Veteran’s events.

In the Vet 40 sabre, Kim Phillips went 3-1 in his pool. He won his first DE, but then lost his second DE to the eventual winner. He still earns the fifth place medal.

In the Vet 70 epee, Erica Julien also went 3-1 in her pool. She lost her first DE in 9-10 heartbreaker. She also earned a 5th place medal. However, on the good news front, Erica again qualified for the Vet 70 Women’s epee World Championship. This time they are in Livorno, Italy, in October.

Tomorrow is Nicole Milewski in Cadet women’s epee and Kim combining with some other Vet sabre fencers for the team 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 update – First day of Nationals

June 28, 2018June 28, 2018 Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication

Here in St. Louis and Nationals have started. Today we had Nicole Milewski competing in the Junior women’s epee. She had a solid first round, going 3-3, beating the two Bs in her pool. She finished 3rd out of her pool of 7. Unfortunately, lost her first DE. Got behind, but then did a 4-5 point comeback to tie it up. Just couldn’t seem to get out front however. Overall good job finishing at 140/217 in the event where she was a 14 year old fencing people from 13-19.

No one fencing tomorrow. Kim Phillips and Erica Julien fence on Saturday.

We have a tornado warning. Wish you were here. LOL

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 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.

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