sword points

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
sword points
I forgot what the kids are probably most interested in.  Current sword points:
Boys
 
Brown, Orion              16
Golder                         14
Wells                           10
Jenkinson                       8
Swart                             7
Walston, Kent               7
Brown, Jacob                 6
Bruno                            5
Shaheen                         5
Rottman                        5
Million                           4
Donelson                       3
Walston, Avery                          3
Amdahl                          2
Jaghman                         1
Sickles                           1
 
 
Girls 
 
Juelke                          15
Artz, Caroline             
11
Milewski                     
10
Artz, Isabelle                 8
Gray                              5
Williams                        4
Huggins                         2
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 November 10th

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for November 10th
We had a good kids tournament Saturday.  A lot of our “new” foilists turned out and very few of the really veteran 12 and unders were there, so it was a wide open affair in that weapon.  The results:
Foil    1st Elijah Wells   2nd Orion Brown   3rd (tie)  Jacob Jenkinson    &   Caroline Artz

9 and under     Gold – Walker Rottman    Silver – Lexi Williams   Bronze – Christopher Donelson

Sabre was pretty much the usual suspects:

1st  Reaghan Juelke   2nd  Amir Shaheen   3rd (tie) Avery Walston  &   Liam Bruno

Epee was small, but had a very high level of fencing.

1st Nicole Milewski  2nd  Kent Walston   3rd (tie)  Liam Bruno  &   Lydia Huggins
Thanks to Heather and all the parents.
On Sunday, we had our homeschool fencing team compete in Oak Ridge.  The fencers were Nickolas and Meredythe Galliher, and Caroline and Isabelle Artz.  They went 1-3 in the B division, beating a team from FHE.
Should be a standard week of practice.  (We will have afterschool, etc. on Veteran’s Day as St. Mary does not take the day off).  Not many UNCW fencers are showing up on Wednesday, so that is shaping up as a good night for people who want to come in for lessons and doing work without a lot of pressure to fence bouts.

Sign ups for JO qualifiers are now on askfred.net. 

The qualifying events are on Saturday and Sunday, November 15th and
16th.  All the Junior events (ages 13-19) are on Saturday and the Cadet
(ages 13-16) qualifiers are on Sunday.  The JOs are always held over
the President’s Day weekend in February.  The events are in Richmond,
VA, this year.  The preregistration deadline has passed, so it will be pretty expensive to jump in now.


That
weekend, Fredericksburg has large Vet events on Saturday and Richmond
has women only events on Sunday.  Erica Julien is planning on hitting
both of them, so maybe you can head up with her or at least provide back
up.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything for the fencers, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.  People who will be competing need to start letting me know who will be there so we can start putting together teams.
Mid South is again hosting their Black Friday event on the 28th.  See askfred for details.

November 29th is the 2nd homeschool fencing event, again at Oak Ridge.  Fencers can still join until January.  Another fencer over 13 would allow us to have an A team.  Let me know if you are interested.  I think you can talk to our people who competed and you will find out they enjoyed it.

December 6th is the 2nd NCFL meet, but again the location has not yet been determined.

Our
next home adult event is December 13.  Open foil, open epee, and Vet
epee.  Start getting signed up now.  We are currently the two Bs, and another D, plus some bodies away from having a B event in the Vet’s.
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 November 2nd

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for November 2nd
First, a big thanks to Brendan McConville and Tom Oakley for getting the overheads back up and helping with clean up after the Haunted House.

The St. Mary athletic staff found a CFFA jacket in the gym.  I didn’t see any names so let me know if you have lost yours.

We had people fencing all around the country this weekend.  Farthest from home was Robert Thomas who did three events at the Crescent City Open ROC in New Orleans.  In a small but mean Vet event, he came out of his pool only to lose to the eventual winner in his first DE.  He also competed in a Div II and a very nasty A2 rated open.

Closer to home, Paul Perkins and I went up to the epee event in Raleigh yesterday.  They just missed having enough to have a B event and needed referees, so I dropped out to ref.  Paul was one touch away from being undefeated in his pool.  He won his first DE, but lost the second one to the eventual winner Sam Karnavas from Mid-South, the other B in the event.

Today,  Reaghan Juelke went up to Mid-South for the Y-12 sabre.  She had a solid pool, won her first DE, and then (sounding like a broken record) lost her second DE to the eventual winner.

The
next set of evening classes will start tomorrow, Monday, November 3rd at 6:30 pm. The next set of beginner afterschool classes also start this week.
Tuesday is Mike Courchesne’s last day in town for this rotation, so get out to fence him before he splits.
Wednesday, I will be in if anyone wants to slip in for some extra practice.

This Friday, November 7th will start the next set of classes at Camp Lejeune.

The
next youth event will be held on November 8th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at
1:30 pm, epee at 3:30 pm.  $5 per event.   Hopefully we will have a bunch of the
fencers who just finished beginner classes showing up, so the events,
particularly the foil, should be larger.  According to askfred, the Jack Rackham has been cancelled.  Therefore I know the adults are not doing anything fencing wise.  If you are free and can volunteer a couple of hours to help ref or teach the younger ones, it is appreciated.

The
first homeschool league event of the year will be held on Sunday,
November 9th at Mustang Fitness in Greensboro.  It looks like we will have a homeschool team.  If people change their minds about participating, I believe you can sign up until January 1.

Sign ups for JO qualifiers are now on askfred.net. 

The qualifying events are on Saturday and Sunday, November 15th and
16th.  All the Junior events (ages 13-19) are on Saturday and the Cadet
(ages 13-16) qualifiers are on Sunday.  The JOs are always held over
the President’s Day weekend in February.  The events are in Richmond,
VA, this year.  It probably will not be much closer for a long time. 
That means A) it is easy to get to, and B) the qualifiers will probably
be large events that might be highly rated.  I believe the last day to
sign up before the fees increase is November 9th.  Right now it looks
like most of our women are in, but very few of our guys.


That weekend, Fredericksburg has large Vet events on Saturday and Richmond has women only events on Sunday.  Erica Julien is planning on hitting both of them, so maybe you can head up with her or at least provide back up.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything for the fencers, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.
November 29th is the 2nd homeschool fencing event, but the site has yet to be determined.
December 6th is the 2nd NCFL meet, but again the location has not yet been determined.

Our
next home adult event is December 13.  Open foil, open epee, and Vet
epee.  Start getting signed up now.  For the Vet event, if our fencers
all get signed up and we can get Scott Butler and a couple of outside Ds
to enter, that event can be a B tournament by itself.
 
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 26th

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for October 26th
Harry Shaheen and I went up to the Joseph Cadole Memorial tournament in New Bern yesterday.  Of course, the only two CFFA fencers end up against each other in the first round of DEs.  I was able to slip by Harry and ended up winning the event.  Unfortunately, only 9 fencers so I re-earned my E.  Josh White of Salle New Bern was 2nd (he is getting into a habit of that), Dustin Burnett of ECU and Brett Silverman of Wilmington Fencing Club took the thirds.  Brett had a very nice victory over the number one seed in the DE where he came back from 5 points down to pull it out.

A lot of things going on this week.  First we need to put the overheads back up Tuesday night, so hopefully a few of you with knowledge of such things can come in a little early.  The next Homeschool beginner class starts on Wednesday, the 29th.  Also on Wednesday, there won’t be evening practice this week.  No one has showed up the last two weeks, so I will be going out to UNCW to help with their club.  There will be Wednesday practice next week as the November beginner classes will be starting. 

I will send a note out a little later in the week regarding Friday practice at Camp Lejeune.  If there are at least 3 people who want to fence I will head up, but probably wouldn’t come for just one or two.

No Saturday morning tournaments in the area so I will be in for a Saturday practice on November 1st at about 10 am.  This will let a number of you work off some of the Halloween candy you ate.

November
1st is a tournament at Raleigh.  It is being held in conjunction with a
clinic being dome by Michael Marx.  The clinic lasts all weekend with
the tournament late Saturday afternoon.  Therefore there is no reason for you epeeists to complain about having to get up early.  Foil and epee, both could be B events with one high rated fencer and a few more bodies.

The
next set of evening classes will start on Monday, November 3rd.  I am
also planning to start our next set of afterschool beginner classes that first
week of November.

November 7th will start the next set of classes at Camp Lejeune.

The next youth event will be held on November 8th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at 3:30 pm.  Hopefully we will have a bunch of the fencers who just finished beginner classes showing up, so the events, particularly the foil, should be larger.

For adults, ECU is hosting their Jack Rackham event that Saturday.  Foil and epee, it is on askfred.

The
first homeschool league event of the year will be held on Sunday,
November 9th at Mustang Fitness in Greensboro.  At the moment we only
have 5 people who have said they want to be a part of a team.  We have
to have a roster by November 1st, so we need to get anyone interested
signed up ASAP.  My guess is our team would be a B team as it doesn’t
look like we have enough for people over 13 for an A team.

Sign ups for JO qualifiers are now on askfred.net. 
The qualifying events are on Saturday and Sunday, November 15th and
16th.  All the Junior events (ages 13-19) are on Saturday and the Cadet
(ages 13-16) qualifiers are on Sunday.  The JOs are always held over
the President’s Day weekend in February.  The events are in Richmond,
VA, this year.  It probably will not be much closer for a long time. 
That means A) it is easy to get to, and B) the qualifiers will probably
be large events that might be highly rated.  I believe the last day to sign up before the fees increase is November 9th.  Right now it looks like most of our women are in, but very few of our guys.

That weekend, Fredericksburg has large Vet events on Saturday and Richmond has women only events on Sunday.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.

Our next home adult event is December 13.  Open foil, open epee, and Vet epee.  Start getting signed up now.  For the Vet event, if our fencers all get signed up and we can get Scott Butler and a couple of outside Ds to enter, that event can be a B tournament by itself.
 
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 10/19

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for 10/19
Practice will be a bit truncated this week.  St. Mary wants to set up for the haunted house part of
their Fall Festival on Thursday, October 23rd.  No practice that
afternoon or evening.  Right now all the Wednesday classes are still on.  We will
need to pull the overheads down on Tuesday the 21st and put them back up
the next Tuesday.

October
25th is The Joseph Cadole in New
Bern.  It is an E and under foil event, perfect for those of you looking
for a lower stress first tournament or a real shot at your foil
ranking.  I am going so let me know if you are interested in a ride.

There is also an epee event in Charlotte that day which is shaping up to be a B rated event.  See askfred for details.

Our
next set of Homeschool classes will start on Wednesday, October 29th. 
That should let us finish that set of classes just before the holidays.

We
will have practice at Camp Lejeune on Halloween night.  I would ask
everyone who will definitely be there to let me know that week, so I
only have to pack the equipment we will need.

November 1st is a tournament at Raleigh.  It is being held in conjunction with a clinic being dome by Michael Marx.  The clinic lasts all weekend with the tournament late Saturday afternoon.  Therefore there is no reason for you epeeists to complain about having to get up early.

The
next set of evening classes will start on Monday, November 3rd.  I am
also planning to start our next set of afterschool classes that first
week of November.
November 7th will start the next set of classes at Camp Lejeune.

The next youth event will be held on November 8th.  Foil at 10 am, sabre at 1:30 pm, epee at 3:30 pm.
For adults, ECU is hosting their Jack Rackham event that Saturday.
The first homeschool league event of the year will be held on Sunday, November 9th at a location yet to be determined.  At the moment we only have 4 people who have said they want to be a part of a team.  We have to have a roster by November 1st, so we need to get anyone interested signed up ASAP.  My guess is our team would be a B team as it doesn’t look like we have enough for people over 13 for an A team.

Sign ups for JO qualifiers are now on askfred.net. 
The qualifying events are on Saturday and Sunday, November 15th and
16th.  All the Junior events (ages 13-19) are on Saturday and the Cadet
(ages 13-16) qualifiers are on Sunday.  The JOs are always held over
the President’s Day weekend in February.  The events are in Richmond,
VA, this year.  It probably will not be much closer for a long time. 
That means A) it is easy to get to, and B) the qualifiers will probably
be large events that might be highly rated.  I believe the last day to sign up before the fees increase is November 9th.
That weekend, Fredericksburg has large Vet events on Saturday and Richmond has women only events on Sunday.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.
Our next home adult event is December 13.  Open foil, open epee, and Vet epee.  Start getting signed up now.
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 12

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for October 12
We held a small, but hot and sweaty tournament yesterday.  The epee had a number of “That didn’t just happen, did it?” moments.  However, in the end CFFA fencers took all the prizes.  Josh Harvey won over Herman Smith in the finals.  Paul Perkins took one 3rd and Oliver Galbraith took the other 3rd, re-earning his D.  Brett Silverman  of the Wilmington Fencing Club re-earned his E by finishing 8th.  In the foil Oliver won, Josh White of Salle New Bern was 2nd, Jack Bess of Apex and Stephen Kmiec of ECU tied for 3rd.  In the E and under Jack won with Josh again finishing 2nd.  Brett and Logan Geisler of ECU tied for 3rd.  Thanks to everyone who helped with all the different aspects of making the tournament run.
I think St. Mary still has school tomorrow, so there will be afterschool.  The rest of the week will be on the regular schedule. 

October
18th is the Tiger Open in Clemson.  This has started being a very large
event recently.  All of the open events are A2s.  They also have D and under events.  The
foil and epee are C2 events.

A little
closer is an event in Raleigh that has a number of unsanctioned Y-12
and Y14 events, plus sanctioned open foil and epee and Div II sabre
events on the 18th and 19th.  Apex is also doing a number of unsanctioned Y-12 foil and epee events, plus junior mixed foil and epee, plus a junior women’s foil.

It looks like St. Mary will want to set up for the haunted house part of
their Fall Festival on Thursday, October 23rd.  No practice that afternoon or evening, and Wednesday is still up in the air.  We will need to pull the overheads down on Tuesday the 21st and put them back up the next Tuesday.

October
25th is The Joseph Cadole in New
Bern.  It is an E and under foil event, perfect for those of you looking
for a lower stress first tournament or a real shot at your foil
ranking.  I am going so let me know if you are interested in a ride.

There is also an epee event in Charlotte that day which is shaping up to be a B rated event.  See askfred for details.

Our next set of Homeschool classes will start on Wednesday, October 29th.  That should let us finish that set of classes just before the holidays.

We will have practice at Camp Lejeune on Halloween night.  I would ask everyone who will definitely be there to let me know that week, so I only have to pack the equipment we will need.

November 1st is a tournament at Raleigh.

The next set of evening classes will start on Monday, November 3rd.  I am also planning to start our next set of afterschool classes that first week of November.

I
want to try and have another youth event before the end of the year. 
Right now, it looks like it would be between November 8th and December
20th.  I prefer the 8th, because I think the 20th is getting too close
to the holidays.  Parents and young fencers, let me know what you think.  So far it looks like the 8th is the preferred date among parents as well.  I will let everyone know next week.

Sign ups for JO qualifiers are now on askfred.net.  The qualifying events are on Saturday and Sunday, November 15th and 16th.  All the Junior events (ages 13-19) are on Saturday and the Cadet (ages 13-16) qualifiers are on Sunday.  I know that is a bit of issue which might require younger fencers to have an overnight to try to qualify in both, but there is a good reason for it.  Cadet age fencers who qualify for the Junior events become automatic qualifiers for the corresponding Cadet events.  That means there can be more qualifiers for the Cadet events because the automatic qualifier does not count against those who get to qualify, but does up the entry numbers.  Or if they choose not to fence, at least they don’t take a qualifying spot.  The USA Fencing rules are very specific that the Junior qualifying event has to be held first for that to happen.  Last year when the events were all held in one day, some were not allowed the automatic qualifiers because the Cadet event was fenced first.  The JOs are always held over the President’s Day weekend in February.  The events are in Richmond, VA, this year.  It probably will not be much closer for a long time.  That means A) it is easy to get to, and B) the qualifiers will probably be large events that might be highly rated.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.

Homeschool fencers cannot fence in the NCFL this year.  I missed that the actual first event is Sunday, November 9th.  I’ll be sending out a note later today with all the dates, registration information, etc.

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 5th

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for October 5th
Emma Graf went down to Atlanta for the women’s foil events over the
weekend.  The Y-14 was a C event and looked incredibly tough.  In the Y-12, Emma pulled a small upset in her first DE (at least according to seeding), and finished in the top 16.

The next
beginner class will start on Tuesday, October 7th, at 6:30 pm.  Intermediate class at 7:30 pm if interest.
Not a lot of UNCW fencers are coming in on Wednesday at this point, so if someone
wants to come in I should have some time to work.

The
October 10th, practice at Camp Lejeune will be on the short schedule due
to it being a holiday weekend.  That means we have to be out by 2000.

Our
second adult event is October 11th.  Open epee, Open foil, and a D and
under foil.  At this point none of the events has enough bodies to be rated over an E, so get signed up ASAP if you are coming.

October
18th is the Tiger Open in Clemson.  This has started being a very large
event recently.  The open epee is already an A and the foil and epee are an A away from being As.  They also have D and under events.  The foil and epee just need bodies to be able to give a way a C.

A little
closer is an event in Raleigh that has a number of unsanctioned Y-12
and Y14 events, plus sanctioned open foil and epee and Div II sabre
events on the 18th and 19th.  Apex is also doing a number of unsanctioned youth foil and epee events.

I haven’t been approached, but I am
guessing that St. Mary will want to set up for the haunted house part of
their Fall Festival on Thursday, October 23rd, so I would guess there
will be no practice that evening, maybe as early as afterschool on the
22nd.

October
25th is The Joseph Cadole in New
Bern.  It is an E and under foil event, perfect for those of you looking
for a lower stress first tournament or a real shot at your foil
ranking.  I am going so let me know if you are interested in a ride.

I want to try and have another youth event before the end of the year.  Right now, it looks like it would be between November 8th and December 20th.  I prefer the 8th, because I think the 20th is getting too close to the holidays.  Parents and young fencers, let me know what you think.

The
North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and
takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost
anything, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers
do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us
know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things
yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone. 
Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school. 
In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many
teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the
way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by
ages.

Homeschool fencers cannot fence in the NCFL this year. 
Your first meet is November 29th, but the location has not been
decided.  It is also a foil team type meet under the same rules.

If

anyone is available, Heather and I can use some help with the
homeschool class on Wednesdays at 1 pm, or the afterschool classes on
Tuesday and Thursday at 3 pm.  I will pick up your upgrade to a
professional membership if need be.  It is hard to teach the beginner
class and give any instruction to the more advanced fencers at the same
time.

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 28

Gregory Spahr Coaches Communication
CFFA update for September 28
We had our first youth event for the season yesterday.  Not a huge field, especially for sabre, but a lot of exciting fencing.  The foil was won by Will Golder, coming in 2nd was Reaghan Juelke. 
Gerrit Swart and Orion Brown tied for third.  For those 9 and under Jacob Brown won the gold and Zane Jaghman of Salle New Bern won silver.  Sabre was Reaghan, followed by Amir Shaheen with Avery Walston
3rd.  In the epee, Nicole Milewski beat all the boys, Will took second; Keegan Million and Kent Walston tied for third.  Here are the sword points so far:

                Boys                                                               Girls
Will Golder                     
14                                   Reaghan Juelke        11
Gerrit Swart                       7                                  Nicole Milewski           6
Orion Brown                     
7                                   Abbi Gray                  5
Jacob Brown                     4                                   Caroline Artz              3
Keegan Million                 
4                                   Isabelle Artz               2
Kent Walston                   4
Amir Shaheen                   2
Hayden Amdahl                2
Liam Bruno                       1
Avery Walston                   1
Zane
Jaghman                   1

Thanks to Donny Zelinski, Heather Hofstetter, and Samantha Milewski with the refereeing help.  Thanks to all the parents for bringing your children.

Should be a fairly regular week of practice.  No Tuesday/Thursday class, as it finished last week, so people can start early.  I believe the UNCW fencers should be down on Wednesday, but I cannot promise.

I think everyone has seen how slippery the strips have become, even with a lot of sweeping, so I would like to propose the following:  Let stop a bit early Thursday night and sweep and mop the entire floor.  Then on Saturday, if people would come in for a bit about 10 we could put a couple of coats of lacquer on just the strips.  They can dry and by Monday the strips should have good grip again.  If a number of people come in on
Saturday, it won’t take long and then you can go to Riverfest.
  
The next beginner class will start on Tuesday, October 7th, at 6:30 pm.  Intermediate class at 7:30 pm if interest.

The October 10th, practice at Camp Lejeune may be on the short schedule due to it being a holiday weekend, I am trying to find out.

Our second adult event is October 11th.  Open epee, Open foil, and a D and under foil.  Start signing up now.  Having our fencers in is a big part of the draw, so unless we have a good enough field to be “bait,” don’t expect other people to come down here.

October
18th is the Tiger Open in Clemson.  This has started being a very large
event recently.  The open epee is already an A and the foil is a
B.  They also have D and under events in foil and epee.

A little closer is an event in Raleigh that has a number of unsanctioned Y-12 and Y14 events, plus sanctioned open foil and epee and Div II sabre events on the 18th and 19th.

I haven’t been approached, but I am guessing that St. Mary will want to set up for the haunted house part of their Fall Festival on Thursday, October 23rd, so I would guess there will be no practice that evening, maybe as early as afterschool on the 22nd.

October 25th is The Joseph Cadole in New
Bern.  It is an E and under foil event, perfect for those of you looking
for a lower stress first tournament or a real shot at your foil ranking.  I am going so let me know if you are interested in a ride.

The North Carolina Fencing League’s first event is
November 22nd and we will be hosting it.  It is a foil team event and takes teams of three fencers and they can have a sub.  It doesn’t cost anything, but it is appreciated if we have volunteer referees.  Fencers do need a full outfit including knickers and underarm protector.  Let us know if you might be interested in fencing and don’t have such things yet so we can see if the club has your size or can borrow from someone.  Our teams fence in the B Division since we don’t represent a school.  In that division fencers can be any age so we will put together as many teams as we can.  Of course, you will possibly be fencing people all the way up to high school age, but we can try to split some of it out by ages.

Homeschool fencers cannot fence in the NCFL this year.  Your first meet is November 29th, but the location has not been decided.  It is also a foil team type meet under the same rules.

If
anyone is available, Heather and I can use some help with the homeschool class on Wednesdays at 1 pm, or the afterschool classes on Tuesday and Thursday at 3 pm.  I will pick up your upgrade to a professional membership if need be.  It is hard to teach the beginner class and give any instruction to the more advanced fencers at the same time.

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