This past season, the Youth Tournament
Committee was charged to devise and implement
a Regional Youth Circuit event program. The
idea was to take some slack off USFA national
for running Youth NACs, to give youth fencers
more opportunities to fence higher-calibre
events without having to travel all over the
US.
There is a tentatively schedule Youth NAC
during the Duel In The Desert weekend, Jan
4-7, and it's supposedly to be held in
Saratoga Springs, NY...in fricking January;
I was there for the inaugural PFL. I can tell
you that it's not a fun trip. First, you
have to fly into Albany. Then take a 30+
mile shuttle in the snow to Saratoga Springs.
There's nothing to do in SS in January. Why
USFA decided to get that venue is beyond me.
Anyway, back to the Regional Youth Circuit.
Despite not much of a consensus (I didn't
hear of it until yesterday when I dropped by
Sherry Posthumus' office in Stanford), it is
scheduled for Oct 13-14, and at four locations
across the US: the SF Bay Area, somewhere
Texas (pinpointed the location, eh?), Chicago,
and NY/NJ area. Fencers from outside those
areas will travel to one of the four.
Presumably, if you live in Washington DC,
you'd go to the NY/NJ region, if you live in
Oregon, you'll go to the Bay Area one, and
so on. However, you're not obligated to go to
the nearest one. If you live in Utah, you
could go to either Chicago, the Bay Area, or
somewhere Texas (I guess there's a big
difference between, say, Dallas and Houston:
one you might drive to, the other you probably
can't, in a reasonable amount of time).
The events are: Y10 Mixed Foil, Mixed Sabre,
Mixed Epee; Y12 Boys' and Girls' Foil, Sabre,
Epee.
Entry fees and such have not been decided yet,
although the consensus is that it should be
the same for all regions (and why should that
be? Rental costs in the Bay Area is 2-3 times
other areas). The local organizer collects
all the money: doesn't go to the USFA at all;
and is responsible for hiring all referees and
getting machines, strips (if needed), and
doing all the bout committee work.
That's all I know about it. All this means
is that if you're involved in setting up your
division's schedule, get ready to add this
weekend to the schedule. Feel free to hold
a senior or veteran event that weekend, unless
you're in the division which is holding the
circuit. Then you'll be needing all the help
you can get.
It's a nice idea but I won't hold my breath on it taking off big. Are these going to be points events? people wil want to know that before laying out for a cross country haul. and I must say there nothing even remotely close to the southeast in those venues.
oh well....
I expect I will ignore these in my event planning unless one shows up in my division/state or a neighboring one.
__________________
If you give a man a fire, he is warm for the night.
If you set a man on fire, he is warm for the rest of his life.
It's a good idea for youth events to go regional--my daughter's first big event was a national event (back when J.O.'s had kids' stuff in it) and we had to travel all the way to Arkansas so she could have the experience. It makes more sense for the young kids and their parents not to have to travel so far for the experience.
__________________ I'm not anonymous. We just haven't been properly introduced.
So what's the problem? How many 10 and 12 year-olds are even eligible to fence in the cadet/junior? Those who are will go, and the many others who aren't will attend these instead.
As more participants come into the sport, and as more events are scheduled, there will certainly be more overlapped schedules (with as much distinctions as possible) which means things like this will happen. In some cases, people will need to pick and choose their events.
I mess up on the dates its the weekend after,
But it could have been a problem when it came to refs and some of us that do fence has kids that fences also.
__________________
People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Referees should not be a problem because the regional circuits are supposed to be fully self-funding, so the organizers will be recruiting local referees (those who can drive to the venue). For youth events, one need not have rated referees, although these people should be capable referees (there are plenty more of the latter than the former).
USFA will do the hiring of referees for the NAC. They will come from virtually all the other places where the regional circuit events are not held. Since the RYC will be held in the Bay Area, Texas (somewhere, probably Houston or Dallas), Chicago, and NY/NJ, USFA will pull referees from the Boston area, from Utah, from Kansas City, from Atlanta, Oregon, and other areas.
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