Stimulating Competition

[Jason]

One of the first things you should do is contact the nearest clubs. Not only might they have someone available but they may be looking to hire a new coach but not yet have enough work to bring someone on full-time. Adding an outside school program could be enough to justify bringing in new staff. I know quite a few coaches who've been hired under such a scenario.

[MdA]

One of the first things you should do is contact the nearest clubs......I know quite a few coaches who've been hired under such a scenario.

Another great idea...day job at MSU, club coaching job, and volunteer collegiate coach with the potential for turning it into a PE teaching position...this could work for you.

Add a couple fencing classes at a local high school and this coach will be too busy!!!

[MdA]

Your collegiate club has another advantage. Since you are not bound by NCAA recruiting rules, your new coach could build a pipeline from the local private club and high schools programs and your collegiate club. You can even run joint practices and share facilities and equipment. The coach could develop young fencers for your program over a period of many years. This offers youth fencers in your area a chance for a great education and a successful college fencing experience....with a consistant coaching environment.

[LordShout]

Given the buttkicking I got this weekend from Mark maybe I should just move to Texas.

We've got a link with a few highschools in the area that have fencing, sadly the local programs are just getting started but we hope that in the next 5-10 years it'll help us out a lot, even if our freshman start coming in with 2-3 years experiance at a U thru D level it would be a great help.

[MdA]

Given the buttkicking I got this weekend from Mark maybe I should just move to Texas.

We've got a link with a few highschools in the area that have fencing, sadly the local programs are just getting started but we hope that in the next 5-10 years it'll help us out a lot, even if our freshman start coming in with 2-3 years experiance at a U thru D level it would be a great help.

If you want to move to Texas now after your College fencing career, it might be a good move…especially if you are looking for employment. If you are a foil fencer, you might consider Dallas or Houston instead of San Antonio.

San Antonio has a great pipeline for epee kids but I am sad to say that our foil pipeline has dried up in recent years. Mark and his brother Steve are products of the San Antonio Sports Foundation’s Community Olympic Development program. This was a USOC sponsored program that started after the Atlanta Olympics. The grant money ran out a few years ago and the USOC cut funding. Developing foil fencers in South Texas takes a lot of travel and a lot of coaching. Epee fencing has a little more local support and a larger base of experienced fencers and coaches in this area. Sabre fencing and development is almost non-existent in this area….never really got that going IMO. Foil development is going thru a little dry spell around here right now. My youngest son Nick and I are now working at Alamo Fencing Academy which is almost exclusively an epee club.

Dallas has FIT, which produced Mark’s ND teammates Enzo Costellani, Darsie Malyn, and Jr. World team member Zane Shaito. Voldimir Yefimov is the foil coach at FIT. Houston has Salle Mauro which produced OSU fencers Ben Parkins and Colin Sutter. All these foil fencers came up together in the Southwest regions RYC program over the last 8 years. Dallas and Houston seem to have a new crop of up and coming young foil fencers….as well as some older experienced foil fencers. This is the type of local club pipeline I was suggesting for MSU.

We have a few local college club programs that got good fencers out of this system. In San Antonio we have UTSA, San Antonio College, and Trinity University with club programs. Up the road we have club teams at Texas State, UT-Austin, and Texas A&M. They all fence in the Southwest intercollegiate Fencing Association (SWIFA) and Texas goes to the USACFC. But, the top kids went on to fence on varsity teams like ND, OSU, Temple, North Carolina, Duke, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton. That is why I suggested attracting a good college coach to MSU with some type of community development program. It takes sponsors in local government and at the local colleges, but it can be done.

Mark and Steve have been fencing for a long time. It sounds like the MFC Championships in South Bend this weekend were an exciting and enjoyable college fencing experience. I wish you the best of luck with your program at MSU and feel free to ask me additional questions about coaching….in this forum.