Bulletin for the Week of Jan. 25, 2010

1. Attention Middlebury fencers: Practice tonight (Mon. Jan 25) will take place at the Bridge School due to a school activity at Mary Hogan. The Bridge School is located on Exchange St, near the corner of Route 7. It's a former dairy barn with a blue roof.

Attention Charlotte fencers: Practice tomorrow (Tues. Jan. 26) will take place in the CCS cafeteria. The cafeteria is located at the opposite end of the building from the gyms. Park at that end of the building and enter the cafeteria directly. Due to the small size of the cafeteria and the large size of the Level 1/2 class, there will be no electric fencing that night. Junior Team fencers for whom this is a required practice have 3 choices: a. Come help with the class (I need a few of you for that anyway) and then play the Jail Game with everyone. b. Come to Middlebury on Monday or Wednesday instead (Wed would be better) in order to get in some electric fencing. c. Take this as one of your 5 allowed absences, if you are not already close to maxxing out.

Sweatshirt and jacket orders have gone out and the items should arrive in about 3 weeks. If you have not yet paid for clothing that you ordered, please bring payment (check or exact change) this week.

How is the fundraising going? So far, I have received several generous donations from individual families, but only one business ad. Remember, to include business names on the t-shirt, I need them by Feb. 8, so there are only 2 weeks left to get sponsors for the Middlebury Open.

2. Are you a rookie fencer who is thinking about trying some tournament fencing? Even if you just started fencing this fall or last spring, I encourage you to get involved with Green Mt Division Champlain Cup tournaments. They are friendly and fun. You do not have to be a cut-throat competitor or expert fencer to enjoy them. It's a great way to meet fencers from other clubs, try out electric fencing (loaner equipment is available for tournaments), and learn to analyse unfamiliar opponents. In fact, if you are a winter Level 1 student, you will be ready to try the Youth or Unrated events at the Middlebury Open in March!

Fencers born 1996 or earlier must join the USFA ($60 season dues) in order to participate in tournaments. USFA memberships all expire July 31 (at least until the USFA figures out how to do full year memberships that expire at different times), so the sooner you join, the more use you will get out of your membership. USFA membership gives you the right to enter all tournaments, a subscription to American Fencing magazine, and the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the national and Olympic fencing teams. You can join on-line at www.usfencing.org/pages/93, or you can join at any tournament.

If you are a first time or relatively inexperienced competitor, here are the events to look for:
Youth events: The GMD offers Y12 Foil events for kids born 1997 or later, and Y14 Epee events for kids born 1995 and later (there are fewer 12-and-under epeeists, so we include 13 and 14 year olds in this event). If you were born 1997 or later, you may participate in our local youth events without joining the USFA. These events are a chance for our youngest fencers to fence with eachother in a supportive learning environment.
E-and-under and Unrated events: These events are for fencers born 1996 or earlier, and give fencers who have not yet placed highly in a tournament a chance to fence eachother without having to contend with the "big guns".

Also fun:
Open events: These are open to all fencers born 1996 or earlier. Beginning competitors are very welcome to participate along with more skilled fencers, as long as you are not discouraged by losing to someone with more skill and experience than you. You will find little snobbery toward beginners in the GMD - we were all beginners once!
Veterans events: We hold these once a year, at the Middlebury Open, for fencers age 40+ (born 1969 or earlier). They are always fun, with a lot of kidding around.

Upcoming Champlain Cup tournaments:
Sun. Feb. 7, Essex Middle School. Groundhog Open. Open foil and epee, Y12 foil, Y14 epee
Sat. Feb. 20, Sharon Academy. Upper Valley Open. Open foil and epee, E-and-under foil and epee.
March 6-7, Middlebury Union Middle School. 17th annual Middlebury Open (the big one!). Foil on Saturday, epee and sabre on Sunday. Open foil, epee and sabre, Y12 foil, Y14 epee, veterans foil and epee, unrated mens and womens foil, unrated mens and womens epee (note: we are seperating the male and female unrated fencers this year because of the new rule that only one E rating can be given in an unrated event. This way, both a male and a female fencer will earn an E. I'm also hoping the unrated fencers will enjoy the opportunity for a single-gender event).

Want to try any of these? It is important to sign up in advance so that the meet managers can arrange for the correct number of refs and the right amount of equipment. Entry fees are doubled for those who neglect to sign up 5+ days in advance (they go from $10 for your first event to $20. Additional events are always $5 each). Here's how to sign up for your first fencing tournament:
Go to www.askfred.net
Click on "Be a Member" on the left sidebar
Enter your last name in the form. You will then see a list of all the AskFRED members with the same last name. If you have never used FRED before, none of these will be you. In that case, click on "Create a new fencer record".
Fill in your name, birthdate and e-mail address. Select Vermont Fencing Alliance as your club and Green Mt as your division. Enter your rating as U (unrated) in all weapons unless you know you have earned a rating in a previous tournament.
Once you are in FRED (Fencing Results and Events Database), it will be easy to sign up for all future tournaments. To sign up for one, browse "upcoming tournaments" and select Green Mt as the division. You will see a list of all upcoming events that are open for signing up. Next to each tournament name there are some little icons. Click on the one with the checkmark to register, and select the events you want to be in. Note you may not enter two events which start at the same time.

3. The Granizo-Mackenzies went to a youth meet in Rochester NH this weekend. In Y12 foil, Gwynn was seeded 9th out of 12 kids, but won 3 DEs, knocking out the top seed, and finishing 2nd. Romaney was 5th out of 12 kids in Y10 foil, and Zoe was 2nd in a small group of Y14 girls foil.