New Div II and III SN Age Rules - NO 13 YR OLDS

[happy]

I'm assuming this isn't a belated April Fool's joke. From the USFA (letter attached):

April 3, 2006

Greetings from the United States Fencing Association:

Thank you to everyone that took the time to read the Division/Section Summer Nationals Information and contacted me regarding the wording of the birth year criteria for Division IA, II, III and Senior/Division I Teams. This has been corrected (bolded & underlined text) in the attached document.

Christine Strong Simmons
...

The only change I noticed was changing the cutoff birth year for Div II/III to 1992 - no 12 year olds (and many current 13 yr olds) can compete at all if I read it correctly.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't 1992 the cut-off age they used last year? If so, why would they push the age BACK a year for Div II/III? Maybe I'm not remembering correctly. Very strange.

[EDIT - I can't count...I meant no 12 yr olds...sorry!!]

[KD5MDK]

National policy is that in Senior events, only fencers 13 years of age or older, or who are on the Junior NRPS may compete.

[happy]

I just checked the 2004-2005 handbook (on oldsite.usfencing.org) and the cut-off year was 1992 for last year as well. So they have pulled the age back one year.

I guess this is part of the USFA figuring out and actually enforcing the age rules, which is fine - I just wish they would have made the announcement before they released the schedule, before travel arranements have been made!