Qualifier participation eligibility

[little_old_me]

I have a question that was originally brought to my attention a few years ago. In the 2006 South Carolina Divisionals, two fencers who were members of a North Carolina club participated in Men's Epee. I asked how these two were allowed to compete, not being members of a club in the division, and I was told that if they were legal SC residents, they could fence in the Divisional Qualifier. Is this actually the case? I've looked through the rules and handbook and don't see this listed anywhere. If this is the case, would the same eligibility rules be followed for JO qualifiers? That is, if there is a fencer who is a member of a club in South Carolina, but who lives in Georgia, could that individual register for the GA qualifiers?

[oiuyt]

A fencer may register for the division in which they live, the division in which a club to which they belong is located, OR the division in which they attend school. The decision of which division to belong to must be made for the entire season (barring approval from the BoD for exceptional circumstances).

-B

[KD5MDK]

What did it say when you checked their USFA membership?

[Derobement]

See Brad's response above. This is a pretty common situation here in the NJ Division. For example, in our recent JO Qualifiers we had a number of NJ Division members competing who are members of clubs in the Metropolitan Division or in the South Jersey Division. (why they wouldn't opt to be members of one of those divisions where JO and SN (other than Div I) qualification comes much easier is probably a better question)

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Derobement

(why they wouldn't opt to be members of one of those divisions where JO and SN (other than Div I) qualification comes much easier is probably a better question)

They get a more worthwhile tournament in the NJD quals than the SoJ or Metro Quals.

I'd pick a better event over easier qualification.

-B

[little_old_me]

Gotcha, I see it now. So even if you're a member of another division's club, you can register as a member of the division where you live. And vice versa. Then you can only qualify through your registered division. Makes sense. Thanks!

[bunbury]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

They get a more worthwhile tournament in the NJD quals than the SoJ or Metro Quals.

I'd pick a better event over easier qualification.

-B

Which is exactly why you'd want an easier path to the better event (the JOs).

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by bunbury

Which is exactly why you'd want an easier path to the better event (the JOs).

I prefer stronger events whether they're qualifiers or not. It's up to me to earn my way into the national event if I want to compete at that level.

If I enjoy the challenge of competition why would I want to cheapen my own experience by trying to find ways to skate through?

-B

[Derobement]

Just to be clear so that no one gets offended, I wasn't knocking the quality of fencers in SoJersey or Metro, just the quantity. (I'd suspect that both those divisions have among the highest calibre fencers on a per capita basis.) I don't think there were more than 8 participants in any of the SoJersey qualifiers, so anyone who showed up qualified. Metro was better in terms of turn out, but not much - I think they still had many more qualify than not.

It looks like both the North and South Carolina JO Qualifiers had roughly similar turnouts to the Metro division - so in the OP's situation, the choice of division wouldn't have be motivated by ease of qualification since most people who showed up qualified in either division. Probably just a location of club/school vs. location of residence issue.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Derobement

Just to be clear so that no one gets offended, I wasn't knocking the quality of fencers in SoJersey or Metro, just the quantity. (I'd suspect that both those divisions have among the highest calibre fencers on a per capita basis.).

I think that was fairly clear from the earlier discussion.

Looking at SoJ results only 4 events (CMF, JMF, JMS, JWF) had more than 3 entries (and therefore potential for non-qualifiers). I don't know whether or not any of those entered were auto-qualed.

In JMF all of the qualifiers had B classifications. Not that easy to break into.

JMS included a B and 2 C's (one of whom did not qualify).

The non-qualifying JWF fencer has a C.

So it depends on what one considers easy qualification. And whether one is looking at the events where everyone qualifies or those where there is small, top-weighted competitions with few slots available.

Personally I'd still favor going after larger, stronger events, but that's just because they're more fun.

-B

*background note: I'm a member of SoJersey Division although I don't anticipate trying to qualify to any national event through division-level qualification paths (indeed, there's only one such event in which I'm eligible to attempt qualification), although that may change, depending on what plans I make for San Jose.*