Bulletin for the Week of Oct. 12, 2009

1. There is fencing in Middlebury tonight as usual despite Columbus Day.
Charlotte fencers: There is a school event in the multipurpose room on Thursday, so we will have to practice in the cafeteria that night.
Welcome to the new students who will be starting (or returning to) my class at the Renaissance School in Shelburne on Thursday afternoons.

2. Champlain Cup Tournament this Saturday, Oct. 17: sign up today for the WSC Open at Essex Middle School and get $10 off your entry fees. If you delay signing up, the entry fee for your first event of the day goes from $10 to $20. Each additional event is $5. Please do not sign up for 2 events that start within 1 hour of eachother.

Event Schedule:
9 a.m. Open epee
10 a.m. Y12 Foil
12:30 p.m. Open foil, Y14 epee

To register, get directions to the venue, and see who else is coming, go to
www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=9676

Attention youth fencers: The Y12 Foil and Y14 Epee events are specially for kids. The Y12 Foil is open to kids born 1997 or later, and the Y14 epee is open to kids born 1995 or later. Green Mt Division youth events are lots of fun and a supportive place for our youngest fencers to try tournament fencing for the first time. If you are currently in one of my Level 2 classes or a returning Renaissance School student, I encourage you to participate in this event. You will get to meet and fence with kids from other clubs, and to use electric equipment. However, in order for me to bring appropriate equipment for you, you must be signed up in advance (by Thursday night at the latest) - and if you're going to sign up in advance, you might as well do it today and save $10! If you are having trouble figuring out how to use AskFRED for the first time, let me know and I'll help you. If you used AskFRED to sign up for a tournament last season, you should still be in the database and signing up will be easy. Children under the age of 13 are not required to have USFA membership for local tournaments. We do expect teen and adult fencers to become USFA members (which you can do at your first tournament by filling out a form and paying the $60 annual dues - or you can do it yourself online at www.fencing.teamusa.org.).

3. Want to be a boon to your club and division rather than a burden? Want to be a better fencer and a better leader within the fencing community? Learn to ref! Sign up now for this year's Development Day clinic, called Referama! We will devote an entire afternoon to coaching new refs in the fine art of phrase reconstruction (learning to observe what is happening on the strip and describe it in the correct language). It doesn't matter which weapon most interests you - even epee refs need to know how to reconstruct phrases, although they don't traditionally do it out loud for every point, only the controversial ones (foil and sabre refs traditionally do it out loud for every point). Referama will take place noon-5 p.m., Sunday Nov. 8 at the UVM indoor tennis courts. Entry fee is $5 if signed up on AskFRED by Nov. 3, $10 after that. If you already have a ref's rating, it is free. We need all experienced refs to come help coach the trainees. All participants in the clinic should bring their fencing gear (including electric), as we will take turns fencing eachother in bouts that our trainee refs can practice on. To sign up, go to:
www.askfred.net/Clinics/whoIsComing.php?clinic_id=9934
Referama will be a great, hands-on preparation for the FOC Ref Course with Jon Moss, which will be offered in December (date tba, location probably the Burlington area).

4. Middlebury fencer and artist Adam Glazer has a showing of his works at Sama's Cafe for the next few weeks. He says one piece shows some fencing. You can ask at the counter for a description list of the pieces if you want to learn more about them.

5. Congratulations to Wyatt Moreton on taking 5th out of 93 fencers rated C or lower (actually, there were a few who had earned Bs after the close of registration) in Div 2 Mens Epee at the North American Cup in Des Moines this weekend. His mom sent this report:
"Wyatt won all but one pool bout and that one he lost 5-1 to a maniac guy who slashes and runs into his opponent. Put Wyatt in a really bad mood and I wasn't sure he was going to get out of it. Fortunately, he got a bye which gave him time to get his head straight. In his first DE, he won the award for patience as his opponent was even more cautious than Wyatt, score was 8-8 at the end of the bout and Wyatt did not have priority. He made a beautiful touch though at 24 seconds remaining. He told me later that he had it all planned. His next DE was against the maniac who had crushed him in the pool. . You would not have recognized Wyatt when he went into the bout. He was aggressive and offensive and scored 10 points in the first period. The guy came back a little in the second but Wyatt tore him up and came off the strip and said, "That was fun." He said that he made too many mistakes in his last DE, he actually lost a small lead but it was a close bout all the way through".