Bulletin for the Week of Jan. 11, 2010

1. A few reminders:
Winter term fees are due. If you did not remember to bring in payment last week, please bring it this week.
Please do not track water or snow into the gym. Remove your boots at the door. At CCS, please bring the boots in with you and keep them on the sidelines, not in the hallway where they are in the janitor's way.

On Jan. 25 (Mary Hogan School) and 26 (Charlotte), there are school activities in the gym. Hopefully, we will be able to use the Bridge School on Mon. 1/25 (I am awaiting confirmation). On Tues 1/26, class will be held in the CCS cafeteria.

2. The annual winter fund drive is on! Between now and March 6, we need to raise next season's budget for the VFA. That includes money to repair or replace aging equipment, subsidize our assistant coaches (they earn credits toward their own fencing expenses), and provide financial aid for classes and for tournament travel. While not a 501-c3 organization (the paperwork was just too scary for me to tackle!), the VFA operates on a non-profit model. If you use club equipment, enjoy help from an assistant coach, or share the belief that participation in fencing should be affordable for a broad range of people, please do your part to help with the fund drive Our community spirit is what sets the VFA apart from the pricey private clubs which dominate fencing on the regional and national scene (and makes it all the sweeter when our fencers prevail over those who pay a whole lot more than we do to participate in the sport). Please do not assume that it is the Junior Team's job to raise all the money (although I do expect them to do more than anyone else) or that someone else will do it if you don't. If each club member raises a small amount, we can easily meet our fundraising goal. Here is how you can help:

a. Pick up a sponsorship form (or 2 or 20....) at practice this week or even better, ask me to e-mail it to you. Take it to your favorite business or civic organization (places you work, do a lot of business with, or groups you belong to are the best bets) and ask if they would help sponsor the Middlebury Open. For as little as a $25 contribution, they may submit an ad in the Middlebury Open tournament program and be listed on this year's Champlain Cup t-shirt. The sponsorship forms explain why we are raising money and list the costs of various size ads. Sponsorships are our #1 source of funds, and are especially important as they provide us with a reliable source of money even if bad weather reduces attendance at the Middlebury Open. Sponsorships must be submitted to me by Feb. 8 in order to be included on the t-shirt, and by Feb. 22 in order to be included in the Middlebury Open program. Those deadlines will come up very fast, so please get to work on this right away.

b. Don Selby has agreed to once again be our Raffle King. He will be printing out raffle tickets soon. The drawing will take place at the Middlebury Open on March 7. Winners need not be present. There will be a grand prize (last year it was an iPod - we'll see soon what Don comes up with this year) and many fun lesser prizes. If you have a prize to donate, please bring it to Don (or give it to me and I'll pass it on to him). Just about anything that most people would enjoy, or anything fencing-specific is welcome. Take the raffle tickets and sell them to everyone you know! They are $1 each or 6 for $5. You might feel you can't get anyone to give you a $25 sponsorship, but I guarantee you can sell a lot of $1 raffle tickets!

c. When the time comes, contribute food to the Cafe VFA refreshment stand at the Middlebury Open. I am looking for a volunteer (or pair of them) to serve as Cafe coordinators. This is a great job for a noncombattant (a nonfencing parent or spouse).

Anyone who raises $50 in sponsorships and/or raffle ticket sales by March 5 fences for free at the Middlebury Open!

3. Want to show your pride in belonging to the VFA, look cool at tournaments, and advertise fencing whereever you go? The annual club sweatshirt order will be going in next week, or as soon as I have at least 12 orders. We only order sweatshirts and jackets once a year, so if you don't order now, you will have to wait until next season. Here is what is available:

Adult heavyweight pullover hooded sweatshirt, dark green with gold VFA logo on the back and your name embroidered on the front, sizes S-XXL, $38

Adult mid-weight full zip hooded sweatshirt, dark green with gold VFA logo on the back and your name embroidered on the front, sizes S-XXL, $30

Child's lightweight (50-50) pullover hooded sweatshirt, dark green with gold VFA logo on the back and your name embroidered on the front, youth sizes S-L, $21

Warm-up jacket: the previous style of warm up jacket we had (green, black and white lined windbreaker) is no longer made. I am working with the vendor to choose a new model which will be similar but hopefully better. With any luck, the new model will come in male and female sizing (the old unisex jackets never fit women that well) and perhaps be in a stretchier soft-shell fabric. It will have a similar color scheme to the old jackets (predominantly green, with black and/or white stripes, as well as gold logo on the back and gold embroidered name on the front), and will be in a similar price range (the old ones were $48). Matching pants should be available to those who want a complete warm-up suit (probably in the $30 range for pants). I will let you know exact details when a new jacket style is chosen, but it won't be a radical departure from our old team jackets in either appearance or price.

How to order: Fill in the order form at practice, or e-mail me your order. Here's what I need to know:
a. Which item you want
b. Size . Note: the adult heavyweight hoodies do shrink a little bit. The unisex M fits me. A youth L is similar to adult S, so kids in that range have a choice of sweatshirt types. For jacket sizing, include whether it is a male or female size. All sweatshirts are unisex.
c. Name to be embroidered (included in price). Most people do either their first name or their last name. A few do a nickname or first initial and last name. Unless your name is very short, there isn't room for both first and last name. You may opt for no name if you prefer.

Because the items are personalized, they are non-returnable and non-refundable, so please be sure of what you want. Payment should be made to VFA, check or exact change, and turned in to me by next week. The items will arrive about 3 weeks after we order them.

4. Champlain Cup tournament this Sunday, Jan. 17 at Hanover (NH) High School! Sign up by midnight tonight to save $10 on your entry fees.
Events:
9:30 a.m. Foil-Epee Doubles - a fun team event! Get a partner and sign up. One foil fencer and one epee fencer per team.
12 p.m. E Foil. For E and unrated fencers, ideal for first time competitors and less experienced fencers seeking to earn a rating.
2 p.m. E Epee For E and unrated fencers, ideal for first time competitors and less experienced fencers seeking to earn a rating.

To sign up and for directions to the venue:
www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=10399

Next tournament: Groundhog Open, Feb. 7, Essex Middle School. Open and youth foil and epee. See www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=10509

Champlain Cup league mid-season leaders:
Foil (www.askfred.net/Results/plist.php?list_id=1170 for complete standings): Ben Hogan 65, David Parker 54, Joanna Flynn 43, Keegan Harris 39, Viveka Fox 36, Birk Rivait 34, Jared Whalen 32

Epee (www.askfred.net/Results/plist.php?list_id=1169 for complete standings): Birk Rivait 32, Trevy Wing 30, David Parker and Keegan Harris 27, Mark Jijina, Dan Crocket and Peter Horak 24

Sabre (www.askfred.net/Results/plist.php?list_id=1171 for complete standings): Lucas Lermontov-Salmon 4, Ashton Alvarez and Connor Rounds 3

5. This year's Sword in the Snow Regional Youth Circuit at UNH was very small (seems it was poorly advertised) but fun for those who went. Congratulations to our finalists:

Y14 Boys Foil (16 competitors)
1. Ethan Yu

Y12 Girls Foil (10 competitors)
3T. Abby Yu

Y14 Girls Epee (6 competitors)
2. Zoe Granizo-Mackenzie

Y10 Girls Foil (5 competitors)
3T. Romaney Granizo-Mackenzie

Performance of the Week: Ethan did some clean, controlled, smart fencing. He got very few touches by luck or reflex - most of them were well planned and set up. He sailed through his pool and first few DEs with little serious challenge. However, his semi-final and gold medal bouts were exciting. In the semi-final, he met a very patient, cautious fencers who liked to wait for the perfect moment to make a riposte or attack in preparation. Ethan decided to also be patient, making mostly false or misleading actions to draw his opponent out, and not attacking or riposting unless he knew he could hit. After 9 very focussed minutes of mostly bluffing eachother, Ethan finished ahead 5-3. His gold medal opponent was the opposite kind of fencer, a big, aggressive and fast kid who was the only C-rated fencer in the event (too bad, had there been another, Ethan would have earned his C). Ethan's main strategy was to retreat in order to encourage his opponent to make a marching attack. After a few of these, Ethan would do an immediate attack in preparation as his opponent tried to initiate the march. Near the end of the bout, his opponent realized what was going on and started extending his arm sooner and keeping his blade motions smaller. This allowed him to make a good come-back attempt. Ethan then switched gears and started initiating feint-disengage attacks of his own. His opponent retreated to make Ethan fall short the first couple of times, closing the gap in the score to 14-13. To score his winning touch, Ethan adjusted by sneaking a little closer to begin with and then stretching out into his biggest lunge so that he would not be outreached.

Honorable Mentions: In Abby's event, the 4 most skilled girls (including Abby) were all in the same pool (that can happen if you let a computer do the seeding and all the fencers are unrated), so Abby got some good experience fencing tough opponents. Having lost to the other 3 eventual finalists, Abby started DEs seeded 8th, but it didn't take her long to bump off the #1 seed, the girl who had won the weaker pool. Abby attacked with confidence and a nice, smooth acceleration to win the best 2-of-3 5-2 and 5-0. Y12 boys foil was Nick Pomicter's first out of state event, and he struggled in his pool with having to think about so many things at once (tempo, form, position on the strip, the clock, right of way....). He began is first DE feeling overwhelmed and simply reacting to his opponent's attacks with a counterattack, losing 5-1. During the break before the second bout, I told Nick that the only way to stop himself from counterattacking would be to fence extremely aggressively and not allow his opponent the opportunity to attack. The normally cautious Nick took the risk and pushed himself to fence outside his comfort zone, attacking relentlessly (but not wildly) to win the next 2 bouts and move up the ladder, finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack of 23 boys.