Intercollegiate Fencing

[deflagratio]

I'm going to college next year and I've searched the net but haven't found anything of use. My question is does your college have to have a fencing team to compete or do you just have to be a full time college student. Thank you all very much.

[prototoast]

Yeah, there really aren't generic "open to college students" fencing competitions.

[noodle]

the closest thing there is would be the temple open, but its not exactly an open. you'd have to talk to nikki franke to see if you could participate. and thats a maybe.

what college?

[a517dogg]

could maybe fence at "the big one" held at smith.

[DJ Flow]

All depends on what you're talking about. NCAA competition? Have to join an NCAA program (of which there are not many), be pretty bad-***, and put up with the unending hassle of life as an NCAA athlete. If you mean intramural-type stuff, which is what most collegiate fencers participate in, you need to talk to your prospective university / college's FC and see how committed they are to organized competition, whatever local leagues might exist, etc. Otherwise you're the same as any USFA fencer that happens to be in college.

[Katman]

My college doesn't have a fencing team, we have a fencing club. We compete against other colleges in Texas at tournaments organized by a student run group called SWIFA (South West Intercolligate Fencing Association).

The tournaments are restricted to currently enrolled students or faculty at the school (not sure about the faculty bit). Most competitors are college students who began fencing at college; this means the average fencer only has maybe a year or two experince.

[rtran]

It would help if you were to specify what college you were going to. Most of the non-NCAA intercollegiate leagues have differing participation and rules.

[deflagratio]

I'm going to Montevallo, which is in Alabama.

[durendaal]

I fence in a college in the south and I can say that in my experience, University level fencing organizations in the south do not really compare to fencing in the north. In the south, there are more fencing clubs than actual NCAA sponsered fencing teams. This creates a huge difference in funding, getting coaches, retention, skill levels, etc.
Is this true in other parts of the nation as well?
However, club fencers make do and coaches at private clubs are pretty amicable in terms of organizing workshops or providing smaller private lessons for a school's club members.
There is a tournament for Intercollegiate Fencing Clubs organized by Bruce Capin that is really interesting...Google it for info on tournaments for University clubs.

[oiuyt]

Specifically the link is http://www.usacfc.org

In theory you could compete as an individual (or rather as a team with a LOT of empty slots). As mentioned in a previous response, what's available locally and what the rules are varies considerably region to region. Find out what's in the Alabama area apecifically. And of course there's always non-collegiate fencing whether or not you're in college. And you could always build a club program while you're there if you wanted intercollegiate competitions with other area schools.

-B :)