Well, I have had to wait for about 10 years but finally the ship is sinking. The USOC is coming in to try and save as many passengers as possible. To think that after the shame that Cox and company put together last year for the USFA panel we would be looking at the USOC coming in for improper use of funds and mismanagement at the top levels of the USFA. I told Brandon (TN) that sometimes it is worth it to put money into the old used car because it is comfortable and all ready paid for and sometimes it was necessary to let it rot and just bite the bullet and get the new car. He thought I was wrong, I guess over the next couple of months we will see who is right and who was wrong. Man, I hope that I am wrong but I doubt it.
In all the emails and phone calls that I have gotten over to past couple of weeks the best were the ones of the people that were resigning their positions within the USFA committees in order to try and get away from the back blast. Followed by a close second by the one that said that Amtrak may not be sending the scoring equipment to California for lack of payment from the previous two events. Did these things happen, will they happen, I don’t know? All I know is that I am bringing 20 people to fence in California. If there is no nationals we can go fence with Mike or Eric. Many people asked me why we didn’t just make another amateur organization back in the 90’s, instead of the pro’s my response back then was that we had no desire to run or control the national governing body of amateur fencing. That is the same today. We have one, granted a disfunctional one, but what we still need is a professional league for all the post NCAA fencers that drift out of the fencing world in the USA every year.
The first panel I encountered had accused me of “conflict of interest” when I had the nine fencing schools in the northeast section and all our instructors filling all the positions of the section to “control” fencing. I actually agreed with them and haven’t sought any USFA office since then, and I haven’t missed it. What is being reported in USA today and other organizations is at a whole different level of abuse. I thought things were bad after the EB threw out the vote on the motion at the board of directors meeting about the PFL (professional fencing league) fencers being allowed in USFA events. Now remember folks these are accusations, not fact! I know it would be so easy to lay blame at the feet of the guy leaving but if you are going to issue judgement, take the time to learn the facts first and don’t believe everything that you hear or read. You will not be helping yourself or your fellow fencers.
It should be interesting to see how the USFA and USOC reconcile all this mess. Nationals will be interesting next week. I think that everyone should really just calm down though. There will be fencing next week, next month and even in the next Olympics. Just because the USA has a “non-working” business model in its current fencing NGB, doesn’t mean that the rest of the fencing world is in a tail spin.
I for one am saddened by the fact that no one else has tried to do what I and my group did in 1997 and 1998. However, after the way that it was handled by the people who run the USFA and the continued bashing by MM and his group on me and my group I don’t fault anyone from being afraid of looking over the wall or sticking their head out of the cave. It is safe in the cave; they are not forced to look into the light, right? It might burn their eyes.
On a side note we have gotten a lot of new students lately from another club in Charlotte. I was very surprise to learn how much they are charging for lessons now and that according to them the saber is too heavy for kids under 12 to use thus they have to start with foil in order to learn how to fence properly. I better inform all the Y-10 and Y-12 kids at nationals that they are ruining their fencing career by doing saber to soon. I wonder if this means that epee’s are to heavy also. OMG! We are losing 2/3 of our future fencers because they are fencing the wrong weapon too early!!!!
Wait, the parent is probably misquoting the instructor; just like the reporter for the USA Today’s article misquoted Michael Massik.
"We feel pretty confident that the USOC will take care of the athletes, which is first and foremost," Cathy Zagunis said. "There is a problem and it's been ongoing. It's nothing new. I've been with fencing for more than 10 years. For the last six years, even previous to Athens, we struggled with this delay in receiving reimbursements and funding that's due to the athletes."
Massik said Cathy Zagunis might have exaggerated.
"The vast majority of all the funds that we owe or have owed, we are within the 30-day window of payment," Massik said.
06-27-2008 01:18 PM