Sponsorship??

[afc fencer]

This is a pie in the sky question but I will ask it anyway. If you are a serious fencer with good results and someone wanted to sponsor you, but that sponsorship cost you a place on an NCAA team and a college scholarship, what would you do?

Well you can just forget to tell the ncaa about the sponsorship money you got. But i think as long as u only use the money u get to cover fencing costs u should be ok. I am not sure of this, so check it out.

[afc fencer]

Here is what the ncaa has on professionalism:



Don't lose your college eligibility by becoming a professional. You are a "professional" if you:


Are paid (in any form) or accept the promise of pay for playing in an athletics contest;

Sign a contract or verbally commit with an agent or a professional sports organization;

Ask that your name be placed on a draft list [Note: In basketball, once you become a student-athlete at an NCAA school, you may enter a professional league's draft one time without jeopardizing your eligibility provided you are not drafted by any team in that league and you declare your intention in writing to return to college within 30 days after the draft];

Use your athletics skill for pay in any form (for example, TV commercials, demonstrations);

Play on a professional athletics team; or

Participate on an amateur sports team and receive any salary, incentive payment, award, gratuity, educational expenses or expense allowances (other than playing apparel, equipment and actual and necessary travel, and room and board expenses).
Before enrolling in college, you may:


Tryout (practice with but not participate against outside competition) with a professional sports team at your expense;

Receive actual and necessary expenses from any professional sports organizations for one visit per professional organization not in excess of 48 hours; and

Receive a fee for teaching a lesson in a particular sport.

[oiuyt]

Answer in the form of a question. If you're a top level fencer who feels that you can get develop more as a fencer NOT fencing for the NCAA varsity school that you're attending, at least while training for the Olympics, does it matter much that you're at a school with NCAA fencing? Not so hypothetical for our top WS fencer currently.

NCAA status/teams are good. I enjoyed fencing for one while I was in school (Johns Hopkins) and I hope that UMass will eventually grant fencing NCAA status. That said, it's certainly not the be all and end all of collegiate fencing. What's important about the school you attend depends on MANY more factors than whether or not the fencing team is NCAA or not. If fencing is important to you it can be a big factor, but even then is unlikely to be the largest (academics and/or cost would appear higher on most people's lists). Look for the school that is the best overall fit for what you want. What does the school offer academically? How is the location relative to home? Do you want to be 3000 miles from home or do you want to be 3 hours drive away? Figure out everything that's important to you and take it all into consideration. Fencing will be a part of that, presumably at least as a plus factor. How much more than that it is depends on how you set your own priorities.

A team having NCAA status tends to correlate well with higher level fencers and a more serious/competitive attitude. That said, there are certainly club teams which are better/more organized/better coached/higher quality than some varsity teams. I'm certainly not going to get into listing the varsity schools that I think do a poor job, but there are a large number of club teams that do a good job. UMass, Northwestern (club men, varsity women), and USMA, as previously mentioned, are three top examples. UNH and U of Florida are a couple more that I would add. A reasonable starting point for finding high level club teams would be looking at who participates in and who does well at the USA Collegiate Fencing Club Championships (formerly known as the National Collegiate Club Fencing Championships). A google search for "USACFC" should find the page as the top link. Finding high level varsity teams can similarly be done by a search of the results of the NCAA championships. There are probably more good NCAA programs without good national championships results than there are good club teams without the same.

"I mean they just gave me money"
This is exactly why you should go talk to someone who can give you official information about the actual regulations that you might be approaching violating. "Just" being given money as an athlete comes VERY close to sounding like risking non-amateur status. I DON'T know exactly what the NCAA rules are. There are all kinds of little nit-picky rules that aren't always clear to people that don't deal with them all the time. That's pretty much exactly describes when you should consult with an expert. Even if you are technically already in violation, will it ever be an issue? Likely not. Likely it would never come up and no one would ever realize. There's a fair chance that I'm the only one posting on this thread who knows who you are in real life and it's very unlikely that the NCAA compliance officer for whatever school you do end up at will ever read this. Hopefully you don't have a problem yet. Finding out exactly what the rules are will allow you to make sure that it stays that way in the future, keeping your options open for wherever you do end up attending. Prior knowledge can help you keep out of future trouble. Find out what you are and aren't allowed to do and use that information.

For what it's worth, USMA will give you a free ride (true whether or not you fence) if you get in. Then again, there are a few strings attached...

There are VERY few full-ride fencing scholarships available. There aren't even very many partial scholarships. There're just too few schools, and many of the schools don't offer any athletics money (any of the Ivy's for example) or don't offer any scholarships in fencing even though they might in other sports. Fencing is generally NOT the way to pay yourself through school.

-B :)

[Army Fencer]

Mo, I AM mortal. Really. Biochemistry will prove this to me tomorrow afternoon...

Strings for USMA: when you graduate, you are commissioned as an officer in the Army. You have to serve a minimum of five years (five years of complete job security in a shakey market...).

If you get in, and you decide to transfer before your junior year, you don't have any obligation what so ever. No string, no nothing.

Regarding sponsorships. I'm going to talk to JAG to see if it's even legal for me as an army officer to accept sponsorships. I've got the letter written and ready to go, after I have my coach take a quick look at it. We'll see what happens.

[sabreklutz]

Originally posted by The0ne
hmhmmm now I'm torn!!!! Someone help me in this dilemma!!!

Does this help any,
Go to West Point and I'll murder you and never speak to you again. Same goes for Annapolis and the other one. Other than that, I recomend somwhere below the mason dixon, CA is nice too.

[The0ne]

That helps quite a bit!!!! I'll try and go somewhere warm!

-Isaiah

[Army Fencer]

Originally posted by sabreklutz
Go to West Point and I'll murder you and never speak to you again.

Why?

[pkt]

Join the Army and Prez Shrub will serve you turkey. Furthermore, you'll be featured in his re-election campaign ads. Paves your way to Hollywood, Hollywood North, Bollywood, ad nauseum.

PK

[pkt]

TheOne and Craig are both right on getting sponsorship.

I was on the receiving end of an ask a few years back. The requester raced go-carts, and it did not fit my budget to sponsor him so I had to say 'no', regrettably because his sport fit my business plan...I had a client who's one of the F1 teams who hassponsorship from Red Bull...

PK