how come this board is so quiet??

[Arturo]

quit lurking and post something!!!!

[Amatsukami]

Hi! I'll post, seeing as I'm new here. (I ended up here because one of my friends introduced me to the boards.) Anyway, since I'm new, I'll tell you a bit about my "conquests" in fencing so far. I started foil in November, on my school's team. Since then, I've placed 12th in a JV tournament and 8th in a Novice one. (I live in CT, so I was competing against others from CT.) Tomorrow (Sunday) I'm going to a USFA tournament in Mass. Anyway, I'm sure you've heard enough about me by now! If I have any questions about equipment or fencing in general I'm sure you'll be hearing from me!

-Amatsukami

[Purple Fencer]

Might be the Div II/III NAC in Kansas this weekend.

------------------
Sam Signorelli -- I'll be mellow when I'm
DEAD!

[Sean Sabre]

It is (was) St. Patrick's Day. If there is anything that fencers do besides fence, it is party. Personally, I spent last night drinking Guinness, Bass, and Killian's with my teammates. Now I'm off to that tournament that Amatsukami was talking about.

-Sean

[Amatsukami]

Well, now I'm back from that tournament in Mass. I placed 14th out of 31 in women's foil. It's not bad considering I've been only been fencing for 4 months, but after running my D.E. over in my head mutiple times I've spotted a million little mistakes which resulted in my loss of 11-15. The pool I was in went pretty well, my scores being 5-1, 5-1, 5-0, 1-5, and 2-5. The girl I lost 2-5 to had been fencing for 3 years, and I don't know how long the girl I lost 1-5 to had been fencing. Overall I'm proud of myself, and I can't wait to fence again.

[swordsen]

Excellent Job Amatsukami!

[Bugaboo]

NAC absenteeism.
I enjoyed myself greatly.

------------------

[edew]

We had our Jr PCCs this weekend. Looked like we had more competitors than the competing NAC in Kansas... Was refereeing both days (Saturday and Sunday) from dawn to dusk. Started at 8:00AM and finished gold medal bouts at around 9:00PM.

The Northern California/Central California/Mountain Valley divisions took in the most medals, as expected because the event was held in the "home territory". Doris Willette from Swordplay FA won the U-12, U-14, U-16, and U-19 women's foil. Not a bad weekend, I guess.

So that's where I was.

[belligerent_sorceress]

I went to the same tournament as Amatsukami and ended up placing 11th. I had a GREAT time; my pool results were 4-1 (I lost to a girl who had been fencing for 5 years- however, I was the only one in the pool to score a touch on her! )

My last DE was 5-15 against an experienced fencer from Smith College...it was also my most exciting bout of the day. I would definitely call this a learning experience, considering that, like Amatsukami, I've only been fencing for a few months.

------------------
Melissa

"You can beat me, you can bind me, but you can't touch me!

[saberkid]

well no ofense but the Jr.PCC's were poorley run, events starting up to 2 hours past close of registration, strip layout, having mario martenize, Bell and sasha refareing sabre was pretty sad, i wish i could have directed, (the refing part was bad for us(sac fencing) because they dont like us because we always beat them;-) ) the armorers were horable, ( infenitys; they didnt want to pass them because if you were to swet and it was to drip on your lame and then onto your pants, and somebody hit your pants it would go off, plz ) of manchets that pass in WORLD CUPS wouldnt pass there?
i got into arguments with the venders and armorers about this (calm argument) or one of the venders told me FIE didnt make blades foil, sabre or epee, that was a load of bull, obveusly. the fencing was good though, my club took all but 1 sabre event in wich max williams beat leanon ried but besides that in every event we took like all but 2 places! ok so im done complaning, thankyou, ;-)

Chris

------------------
Fence with the best die like the rest!

[Mergs]

Um, the vendor was right. FIE does not make blades, they only publish the specifications and certify that the blades presented to the FIE meet those specifications.

Do we need to pitch in and get you a copy of "Hooked on Phonics"?

[d8m2k]

The vendor was right. But Kid has a point.

That tournament was horribly run. They were short refs both days. And the 2 good refs (they weren't sabre refs) that volunteered at the last minute had trouble calling actions. Why? The strips were too close, the lighting sucked, and there was no free space. What confuses me is that the FOC was experienced and are usually effiecient. What the hell happened?

Kid, as far as not liking the refs because of where they are from, get used to it. Fencing is a political sport, if you can't deal at a sectional event you should quit.

[Mergs]

Can't comment on how the tournament was run (seems to be a lost art for some reason), but agree with you. You have to learn to fence two people at a time!

[edew]

Since I was one of the few refs, there, my understanding from the FOC of the event, was that three refs called in "sick" on the day before and three just didn't bother to show up.

As for politicized refereeing, I think those who were there were honorable referees who had no beef one way or another. Even your head coach Ted Smith told me that he felt the refereeing by Sasha and others were fair. So don't go one complaining, and start working on your technique (and spelling and grammar skills as well).

It was not too terribly run. I was surprised and shocked by the small size of the venue. I think the PCS officers really have to enforce the size requirements. As it were, it was not the greatest place to referee or fence. But, we got everything done by 9PM both days (nights), which is better than the previous year, I was told, where fencing hadn't finished until 11:00PM or later.

I remember refereeing at the Jr PCCs in Cupertino in '96 or '97. I finished my bout at 11:30PM, and that was the semi-finals to get into the gold medal bout, which someone else refereed. Now, that's late.

As for delays, I think aside from the first events of the days, all other events basically started about an hour after check-in close, which is more than adequate, given that it does take time for the BC to seed the fencers while at the same time manage the existing bouts.

I fence at Stanford with Sasha, Mario, and Daniel Bell. I can tell you honestly that none of them cares a whit one way or another about Sacramento. They do respect the level of fencing (eg., James Williams, Andrus, and Courtney), but they have no beef with Sacramento Fencers. Any beef is strictly between your ears.

Those of us who were refereeing foil, then sabre, then epee, then foil, then sabre, don't have time to try and bias our calls. It's tough enough as it is to have two coaches, four parents, and twenty other 10-year old kids yelling at the two fencers and you, and then try to make biased calls.

[veeco]

And that's why I direct only epee, Eric :-).

[edew]

Try refereeing epee if one of the fencer has Michael Marx as a coach. He'll pull out some sob story rules infraction claim for every action that occurs. By the end of the bout, you won't know which way is up.

[d8m2k]

Funny, Marx always whined too. Good fencer, just whiney. But the French whine too, just watch the Olympic tapes...

[veeco]

Nah. We don't whine. The biggest whiners are the Italians and Cubans.

However, we do wine :-).

Eric, I think I had my share with that guy from Marin County trying to tell me his kid wasn't jostling the other guy, while he did not even see the action (he was directing another bout).



[This message has been edited by veeco (edited 03-21-2001).]

[d8m2k]

No the Italians complain loudly. The Cubans get excited and upset.

I guess really it's just that guy Obry that whines. Srecki is my idol though.

[edew]

The Italians justifiably complain loudly, because the Frenchies get away with murder. And Obry is such a whiner. Same with J.-N. Ferrari, and the whole sabre squad, with the exception of Touya.

As for the Marin County guy, well, we were short of referees, and he's refereed at various NACs. But, it's true that we should definitely avoid having coaches referee. Perhaps we should require that some SoCal referees attend. Where was Amborski? Where was Robbie Carrillo? Where was Laura Horton? Where was John Springgate? Andy Robinson? They're all capable referees and we could use them (at the JrPCCs).