Illinois Fencing

[malediction]

I'm considering moving to Urbana-Champaign for school, one of the conditions being that there is decent fencing around. I've looked at the school's website, and their fencing club is apparently part of "The Point" fencing club in the area. I also noticed that they seem to have a lot of foil and saber, but little epee.

So I was hoping someone would be able to provide more details about fencing in the area, and hopefully give me a better idea of epee in the region.

[IanSerotkin]

The Point is pretty much the only fencing you're going to get anywhere near the Champaign-Urbana area. Chicago has the nearest good fencing, and that's 2.5 hours away.

[K O'N]

I'm considering moving to Urbana-Champaign for school, one of the conditions being that there is decent fencing around. I've looked at the school's website, and their fencing club is apparently part of "The Point" fencing club in the area. I also noticed that they seem to have a lot of foil and saber, but little epee.

So I was hoping someone would be able to provide more details about fencing in the area, and hopefully give me a better idea of epee in the region.

It's over an hour drive, but Bakoko Emara's club in Peoria will have a good bit of epee, I'm sure. He's a good guy and had a good reputation as an epee coach when he was in my area.

K O'N

[MdA]

I'm considering moving to Urbana-Champaign for school, one of the conditions being that there is decent fencing around.

If your lookin' for decent fencing, I'd pick another school.

[erooMynohtnA]

It would be helpful to define decent. Are you looking for a club/area with over five people, five Es, five Cs, five people with national points, etc?

[malediction]

It would be helpful to define decent. Are you looking for a club/area with over five people, five Es, five Cs, five people with national points, etc?

Point taken. For practical purposes, I'd say that the crucial factors include a large enough community that there's some variation from person to person (say, 20 fencers at least), and that they're active (most of the people meet 3 times or more per week). As a bonus, it would be great if there were a few C and higher or equivalent level people around. But I think an active community is more important overall.

[davesaint]

The clubs in Peoria and Champaign aren't that big, but if you have a car, there are plenty of epee tournaments in the IL division. Most of them are A rated events, and even if you don't have a car, quite a few of the champaign fencers will travel to events in the chicago area.