Picking up Dasha, my Russian fencer, plus a young female assistant coach, and driving to St Louis tomorrow for a fencing tournament. The coach is Chrissi, she is one of my former fencing students, a college student who is now learning how to coach, and is on staff at Dasha's high school.
Both will be competing in the Junior Women's Saber event. Its a regional level event and a Junior Olympic qualification event. I believe Dasha will easily win the gold based on the preliminary list of entrants.
I'm also hoping that the other young lady, Chrissi, who I am training as a coach, picks up a medal. Hopefully the silver.
Our goal is to get Dasha at least 2 "regional" gold medals over the next couple of months, that will get her name in the US Fencing magazine. As a foreign citizen she cannot earn regional points, nor can she qualify for the Junior Olympics, and all regional events award both of those to the top finishers. But the college recruiters are aware of those same restrictions and will see that she has the gold medals in multiple events and that will play a factor in getting her on a team, and hopefully even helping with a scholarship.
The original plan was for this to be a 2 day trip with the Lovely Mrs_Bob coming with but Melen got sick, so the Lovely Mrs_Bob went to see Melen. I cancelled the overnight stay because it is not appropriate for a male coach to escort 2 young ladies, one of whom is a minor, on an overnight trip. So it will just be a very very long day, probably extended by the use of caffeine. Chicago to St Louis and back, with a fencing tournament during the afternoon.
With any luck everyone will be home tomorrow evening.
Monday the lovely Mrs_Bob and I have plans to spend the afternoon with Dasha. Dasha needs an English language website with her fencing achievements highlighted. There are 2 websites that show her accomplishments, both Russian. She is the #7 rated saber fencer in Russia in her age group and won gold medals 2 years in a row in the Team Saber competition ... sadly very few coaches can read those websites so Monday afternoon will be dedicated to developing a website that highlights those, and other achievements.
Both will be competing in the Junior Women's Saber event. Its a regional level event and a Junior Olympic qualification event. I believe Dasha will easily win the gold based on the preliminary list of entrants.
I'm also hoping that the other young lady, Chrissi, who I am training as a coach, picks up a medal. Hopefully the silver.
Our goal is to get Dasha at least 2 "regional" gold medals over the next couple of months, that will get her name in the US Fencing magazine. As a foreign citizen she cannot earn regional points, nor can she qualify for the Junior Olympics, and all regional events award both of those to the top finishers. But the college recruiters are aware of those same restrictions and will see that she has the gold medals in multiple events and that will play a factor in getting her on a team, and hopefully even helping with a scholarship.
The original plan was for this to be a 2 day trip with the Lovely Mrs_Bob coming with but Melen got sick, so the Lovely Mrs_Bob went to see Melen. I cancelled the overnight stay because it is not appropriate for a male coach to escort 2 young ladies, one of whom is a minor, on an overnight trip. So it will just be a very very long day, probably extended by the use of caffeine. Chicago to St Louis and back, with a fencing tournament during the afternoon.
With any luck everyone will be home tomorrow evening.
Monday the lovely Mrs_Bob and I have plans to spend the afternoon with Dasha. Dasha needs an English language website with her fencing achievements highlighted. There are 2 websites that show her accomplishments, both Russian. She is the #7 rated saber fencer in Russia in her age group and won gold medals 2 years in a row in the Team Saber competition ... sadly very few coaches can read those websites so Monday afternoon will be dedicated to developing a website that highlights those, and other achievements.