Fencing featured in Scouting Magazine

[chefencer]

Scouting Magazine is Boy's Life for scout leaders (which is the other half of my life away from work) and there's an article in the Mar/Apr issue that has a dramatic (if somewhat silly) photo featuring:

"Pentathlon Olympic gold medalist Maciej Czyzowicz and U.S. modern pentathlon coach Elaine Cheris demonstrate a fencing stance atop boulders at the Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs. Fencing is one of several nontraditional activities recommended for teenagers who want to earn Venturing's sports and fitness medal, the Quest Award."

It seems even the BSA found it necessary to make fencing more "telegenic"... (Cheris even has one of the see-through masks).

The article focuses on an award for scouts in Venturing (ages 14-18) that promotes physical fitness but also was designed to highlight less mainstream individual sports that can be done over a lifetime - fencing being an excellent candidate. There's not much about the sports in the article, but the two fencing photographs are featured prominently although there's only the one in the on-line article. (The other is the obligatory picture of awkward looking scouts doing their first line drills...)

Anyway, if it is of interest the article is here:
http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issu...nt/a-jrny.html

[edew]

Elaine has been wearing her telegenic visor mask for a long time. She's one of the first to do so.

That said, the photo on top of rocks looks pretty silly.

[Feltan]

Edew,

I don't know about silly. Think about it. Put the referee on the other rock, have the referee say "Fence!" and the first one to plumet to their death loses. Makes all the talk about timings and lights seem rather petty.

Regards,
Feltan

[DHCJr]

Tradition. Does no one remember the Tuscon Espada or the Silverton, Colorado Fencing tournaments.

[Purple Fencer]

Edew,

I don't know about silly. Think about it. Put the referee on the other rock, have the referee say "Fence!" and the first one to plumet to their death loses. Makes all the talk about timings and lights seem rather petty.

Regards,
Feltan

I can just see it.....Fencer A lunges and falls "Huu-PAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa.....*sounds trails off, followed by distant thud and puff of dust a la Wiley Cyote...*

[Katman]

She was caught? Because I read that article and all I saw was rumor and hersay and no confessions and no verdicts in court.

[keropie]

A woman who was caught supposedly trying to bribe an opponent to buy a bout at an international competition is a great role model for boy scouts.

And a man who reached his first world cup 32 by trading some officiating favors for (I think the Italians) another team is a great role model for fencing in general... and yes, as it turns out, he is. The only 'unusual' thing about that article to me was the presence of money, because I'm well aware that trading bouts or calls in bouts is common practice (or at least was) in World Cup competition. And often the fencer in question has no knowledge, or certainly no ability to prevent, the occurance. And it doesn't necessarily make the fencer in question guilty, and that guilt doens't make them a bad person (though admittedly, I find the practice galling).

As for boy scouts, I've noticed the run the whole gamut. I've met some really good people who are boy scouts, and when I worked at a summer camp (not a fencing camp, an outdoor camp, though we did fence there too) one of my campers nearly caused a significant fire by making a blow torch out of a can of insect repellent and a lighter as he was taught at a boy scout camp.

Ah, I'm rambling. But maybe Elaine Cheris did something, but I expect that she did not. Her life since then clearly seems to have been a worthwhile contribution to a group, and I think she makes a fine role model, just as other people who may or may not have made a mistake certainly show character that is worthy of respect.

[chefencer]

Last year I read Richard Cohen's "By The Sword" (I thoroughly enjoyed it) and that's where I first learned of 'combines' between the various countries that has apparently been going on for a long time. One of the telling lines from that book is "If all parties agree to cheat it is no longer cheating (but then neither may it be a sport)." I don't rememeber anything about money, but there is another good quote:
"Bullfight critics ranked in rows
Crowd the enormous plaza full
But there's only one who knows
And he's the man who fights the bull."
I don't know much about Cheris (except that her book is a bit dry), and I imagine no one will really ever know, but she was in the article because Colorado Springs was one of the places they went to do the story.

As to scouting, I can only say that a program/district/camp is only as good as the PARENTS who are involved and just like fencing (and life) they come in all degrees. From my personal experience I have found both fencing and scouting attract more good eggs than bad, but I wish more people would take the cub scout promise to heart: Do Your Best. Imagine what a difference that would make in the world.

[edew]

I have seen Elaine over the years. I think she has more than redeemed herself for whatever possible transgressions that may have occurred. She has been a positive influence, in the grand scheme of things, to fencing.

[VorpalCat]

I can just see it.....Fencer A lunges and falls "Huu-PAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa.....*sounds trails off, followed by distant thud and puff of dust a la Wiley Cyote...*

If you're going to Colorado Springs again this summer, do we need to assign a bodyguard to you to make sure you don't 'do a Coyote'?

[Purple Fencer]

If you're going to Colorado Springs again this summer, do we need to assign a bodyguard to you to make sure you don't 'do a Coyote'?

That's be only if I drive again....'cause about half of teh freeway from Glenwood Springs to Denver had no guard rail and a nice drop off.

I probabvly won't be going out this year....the drum corps O march with is returning to the championships and the CO Springs trip is right in the middle of our late season practice schedule.

It was only the fact that we didn;t go LAST year (because we were still paying off the thruck-throwoing-a-rod-in-the-middle-of-Kansas-on-the-way-home-from-PA the PREVIOUS year) that made it possible for me to go in the first place....and watch Mergs get into trouble for something he didn't do (you remember the radio station fiasco fro the last sports safety sessikon, right>>)

[OROD]

If all parties agree to cheat it is no longer cheating (but then neither may it be a sport).

In that case it's called politics.


.

[chefencer]

In that case it's called politics.


.

Touche!

[VorpalCat]

I probabvly won't be going out this year....the drum corps O march with is returning to the championships and the CO Springs trip is right in the middle of our late season practice schedule.

Well, as long as it's for a good reason, I suppose........ Guess that means I'm 'safe' from being called an armourer this year then.

(you remember the radio station fiasco fro the last sports safety sessikon, right>>)

*snort* I'd forgotten about it until you mentioned it, yeah. Bit of a snit-fit, that.

[Purple Fencer]

Well, as long as it's for a good reason, I suppose........ Guess that means I'm 'safe' from being called an armourer this year then.



*snort* I'd forgotten about it until you mentioned it, yeah. Bit of a snit-fit, that.

Here's another one...
"Is the snoring or non-snoring section?"

The guilty will remain unnamed.....but his initials are Michael Mergens.....

OOPS!!!

And, of course, there was the cutting up we did in the exercise where we tried to give a rescue breath, then had to sweep away a blockage.

My quote (tries the breath...does the finger sweep....) "A condom???"

Nice chukle I got there...and apparantly, none of the instructors had heard the name Easy Annie for the test dummy...shoot, that was the name when I first got CPR training in the Air Force!!