More High School Fencing Fun

Unlike the last event, nobody got stabbed today! Dillon (the boy who was stabbed last event) fenced again and didn't hold back. I did see him showing his scar to several people through the course of the day. It strikes me he will be winning bar bets and picking up girls with that scar

Our little freshmen girls did a great job. Lost. But did a great job anyway. We had 3 freshmen and 2 seniors girls fencing Saber today. The 2 seniors were alternating as this was a 4 person "team" event. That is our ENTIRE girls Saber team. The other teams showed up with their varsity squads.

One girl, who is a senior, only made 2 practices, and fenced today on the team. Another member of the team was a new freshman who we pulled over from the FOIL fencing squad, she was surprising in her performance and won more bouts than we figured (we were very proud of her). This was her 3rd Saber event. Little Laura, my daughter's friend did GREAT today, she was our secret weapon. She will be an awesome fencer as she matures. My daughter Melen did pretty well, clearly was the 2nd best Saber fencer on our team today and held her own against the varsity fencers from the other teams, won quite a few, lost quite a few. Both Melen and Laura are only freshmen. Today's event was a varsity event with mostly experienced fencers.

These girls held their own against the big teams. Surprised Stevenson and New Trier by staying competitive, hard fought matches. Our girls didn't kick any butt, but they did really well.

I also had a nice talk with the head coach, she is also our Foil coach. We have a medium sized Foil team but our Saber team is barely able to put together enough fencers for a team event. Today's event required 4 person teams. Our boy's only had a 2 person team (Dillon was one of those 2 boys Saber fencers) They basically came out to fence for fun. Our girls team will graduate 2 of our 5 girls leaving us even shorter next year. The head coach agreed to move some of the novice Foil fencers to Saber (both boys and girls). That will make life much easier for our teams to compete in events NEXT year.

We have a few more matches this year, the season the ends at the end of this month. The next challenge will be to convince some of our kids to join some of local fencing clubs. Our kids fence 3 months a year . . . many of the kids they fenced today are involved with fencing year round. Our kids won't get better until they commit to the sport. Only Melen and Laura are "club" fencers as well as being on our high school fencing team.

Below are some action shots from today's event. Hard fought wins. Heartbreaking losses. A good day.

Too bad they lost. But hopefully they enjoyed to competition. Was one of them wearing "SKURKA" on her leg?

Yup, that is so the Coroner can identify the body easier

But they did have a lot of fun. This was a match they did not expect to do well in and I think they did better than they expected.

Nice action shots there, Bob.
Nice to finally see Melen in her fencing garb.
What a cutie she is.
I think it's cool that she's involved in something like fencing.

Not to take things off topic, but my little grandBRAT Kasey is going to start martial arts soon.
This is added on to ballet classes, piano and voice lessons (she doesn't really need piano-- the kid was born a natural on the keys).

She says she wants to be a teacher, which may explain her troubles at her private Catholic school in Akron.
She told her art teacher recently that grass isn't always green, and refused to paint a picture with green grass.

fencing is awesome ! I hope to start kendo soon.

PG..where is your grandkid going to take classes?

In Cuyahoga Falls, Shep