Edward Korfanty finalist for USOC National Coach of the Year.

[esskreemr]

http://www.usoc.org

Finalists for the USOC National Coach of the Year award are Bob Bowman (Baltimore, Md./USA Swimming), Mike Candrea (Oklahoma City, Okla./USA Softball), Edward Korfanty (Portland, Ore./U.S. Fencing), Terry Steiner (Colorado Springs/USA Wrestling) and Lloyd Woodhouse (Colorado Springs/USA Shooting).

Under Korfanty’s leadership, the USA is enjoying its best fencing results in history with the U.S. women’s sabre squad ranked No. 1 in the world team event and more than five U.S. women in the top world individual rankings.


http://www.usoc.org/CFDOCS/borg/news...75&newsID=3316

[sloper]

It would be wonderful if a fencing coach won this award, but I have to wonder why Arkady wasn't chosen instead of Ed if the idea was to celebrate that
[quote]the USA is enjoying its best fencing results in history with the U.S. women’s sabre squad ranked No. 1 in the world team event and more than five U.S. women in the top world individual rankings.[quote]

In 2003, Sada won junior worlds and the junior world cup. Emily finished 3rd in juniors and Amelia 10th. Plus, Sada became (and has remained) number one in the senior rankings after winning 2 world cups and medaling in four others. That's six medals out of 8 events in the senior season. She was the first US woman to be ranked number one in the world. The women's teams both junior and senior always included Sada and Emily and usually Amelia as well. While Ed is definitely responsible for Mariel's success (2nd in junior world cup ranking, 2 top 8 finishes in senior world cups) and Chris Becker's relatively strong season in 2003 (2 top 16 finishes in senior world cups), it doesn't seem right to credit him with the USA's success in women's sabre.


Susan

[whtouche]

It probably has something to do with the fact that Ed Korfanty is the current U.S. womens sabre national coach.

Also, I think korfanty's students started having international success before the jacobsons, et al. I could be wrong - I could be very wrong. But I think that's right.

Wasn't Mariel 3X world champion in one year, a few years back?

[sloper]

Actually, Amelia won the bronze medal at Cadet Worlds in 1999. This was the first year the event was held. Sada was 12th and Mariel 16th. Mariel won the Cadet bronze in 2000 and the team took silver. The team consisted of Mariel, Amelia, Sada and Catherine Pack, who's from New Jersey. 2001 was the year that Mariel won the cadet and junior world championships as well as team. (Did she win the world cup championship, too? I'd guess so, but I'm not sure.) Sada came in second in juniors and the 3 other members of the first place team were Amelia, Emily and Sada.
2001 was definitely the year for Ed. I hope he won someone's coach of the year for Mariel's tremendous results.
Since then Sada and Emily have both won junior world championships and their senior results have qualified them for Athens.
I think it has to be the national coach thing.

Susan

[afc fencer]

I thought Mariel won the world cup(the thing u get for being first in point standing) in 2003? All the other coaches nominated seem to be national coaches for their sport so that must be it.

[jspierre]

Pardon my ignorance, but, other than knowing that Korfanty is associated with Oregon fencing (right?) and kick-butt in Vet Saber, I know nothing about him. Seems he's European? Anyone hv a bio on him?

[Sabresque]

I believe he's Polish

[sloper]

Originally Posted by afc fencer

I thought Mariel won the world cup(the thing u get for being first in point standing) in 2003? All the other coaches nominated seem to be national coaches for their sport so that must be it.

If you look up the listings for 2002-2003 on the FIE site, Sada finished first in both junior and senior standings. Mariel was second in juniors and Emily was third. I don't know if these are the same calculations for the world cup award, but I would think so. (Maybe they don't count points for junior worlds. In that case, Mariel may have finished ahead.) In seniors, Mariel finished 11th and Emily 12th in 2002-2003. Sada is listed as first on the senior list, and I know she got the senior world cup.

I didn't mean to start a thread about who's done better between Emily, Mariel and Sada. You could even propose that they've all achieved the same amazing level of international results, although I don't think that's quite fair to Sada given her domination of the senior point standings. The fact remains that of these three incredible competitors two of them are Arkady's students, one is Ed's. When you look at the US women's sabre team that's been so successful in the past few years at both the junior and senior level, three of the members are Arkady's students, one is Ed's. Leaving off Arkady's name when discussing the success of US women's sabre is simply inaccurate - national coach or no.

Susan

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Some points to consider:

1. This nomination is simply among US National Team Coaches...it's a USOC award, not a USFA one. Ed is the Women's Sabre Team National Coach. Arkady is not. (Even if he insisted on bellowing out instructions to ALL the fencers at the Junior World Championships during the team competition).

2. Depth of field is a consideration in making the Ed vs Arkady argument. Nellya has had phenomenal success with the Jacobson sisters. There's no denying it. But remove them from the equation, and what is left of Arkady's stable of fencers coming up through the ranks?
Of the top four juniors, 3 are Ed's women from OFA. 1 is a Nellya lady. Of the top 8 Cadet fencers, OFA has 3 of the top four. Nellya doesn't weigh in until #8.

3. If demeanor and behavior on the competition floor are factored in, Ed is a shoo-in for any comparison with Arkady. Ed is calm and supportive of his fencers. Arkady is loud and bombastic when things are not going well, yet struts insufferably when his fencers win. As far as I know, Ed has never degraded one of his fencers by referring to them (in public) as a "piece of $h!t" in a loud, booming voice. The same cannot be said for Arkady.

In any event, fencing can't be harmed by having one of its coaches named as a USOC Coach of the year.

[sloper]

phenomenal success with the Jacobson sisters

It bugs me when people refer to Emily and Sada as the Jacobson sisters because it seems to lead to people thinking of them as less than two independently great fencers. As if Emily's achievements are somehow more of a given because of Sada's or vice versa. Each has worked incredibly hard to get where they have. They deserve better than to be lumped together under the same phenomenon. And Arkady does not deserve less credit for having two fencers going to Athens just because these two fencers happen to be sisters.

Susan

[esgrimista1]

Bravo! I hope Ed wins it. It will be really good for all US Fencing if he does. He is a gentleman and has a kind word for everyone, even strangers at competitions (like me). Also like the Slo Mo said - his pipeline looks nice and full, w/lots of upcoming youngsters.

I watched Arkady standing on the strip beside Emily all the while screaming across the Columbia gym at Yuri to get his a#s over to the other strip to watch Sada. Ed was on the side of Sada's strip cheering her on, and incase she needed any help, Yuri seemed embarrassed (and he is the coach for the NY Fencer's Club - not Sada) and whispered something to Ed as he approached the strip. All the coaches from the 5 or so strips inbetween (Hungary, Azerbijan, Russia, China) etc. looked disgusted that he was screaming at the top of his lungs while their fencers were trying to compete. One judge stopped his bout until Arkady was done interrupting his match, other fencers were looking from across the room in disbelief, to the point the once noisy din seemed to stop and all you could hear was Arkady yelling at Yuri. Once Emily's match finished he ran across the room pushing some of the other countries coaches out of the way to get to Sada's strip, she only had about 3 or 4 more points to go - screaming "Sada MOVE YOUR A#S". There were many spectators behind me from the general public and a couple of press people asking "who IS that jerk?". While I do sincerely congratulate Arkady for Sada, Emily and Amelia's wonderful successes, and I know that he has very graciously welcomed visiting fencers to his salle, is this the image you want for the U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year?????? For this and all the reasons posted by SLO MO, Yup - I vote for Ed, and for fencing.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by sloper

It bugs me when people refer to Emily and Sada as the Jacobson sisters because it seems to lead to people thinking of them as less than two independently great fencers. As if Emily's achievements are somehow more of a given because of Sada's or vice versa. Each has worked incredibly hard to get where they have. They deserve better than to be lumped together under the same phenomenon. And Arkady does not deserve less credit for having two fencers going to Athens just because these two fencers happen to be sisters.

Susan

Well, they are two sister's and I don't think it is a coincidence. I think some of it is genetic, some of it is competitive nature between the two of them, and some of it is situational... but either way, they will be clumped together as long as they are sisters. It may make us think less of them, and it may not, but simply by clumping them together, it does not necessarily mean we think less of them; it simply acknowledges that our top two women's sabre fencers happen to have a whole lot in common with each other.