07/28/2025
NEWS:
John (our Foil Coach), is moving. Unfortunately, he's going to be living too far away to continue coaching Foil for us. However, we have someone who is taking over the Foil coaching. Brent is a former Collegiate Foil fencer who has been working with us to learn some coaching techniques. Jesse is continuing to be an Assistant Foil coach. Both are planning to attend the upcoming Saber and Foil introductory coaching clinic at Tracy Hall on October 5th.
Currently Brent and I are planning to also attend the 2 day coaching Clinic held at Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy the weekend of October 25th.
I was also able to attend a coaching clinic a few months ago that was led by (IMHO one of the greatest of all time) Coach/Maitre Michell Sicard who retired as the National French Epee team Coach (ok, I fence Epee, I'm biased, I sometimes forget there are other weapons...like foil and saber :) )
With the gains in coaching skills and the stable membership we've had over the last couple of years, my intent is to start growing the club this year. Last year we were around 12-15 people attending per session. I hope to raise that to 15-20 people per session this year.
Sadly, the one thing standing in our way for growth...our goal has been and remains being a club that reduces the costs of entry into the sport to the maximum extent possible. Sadly...we've lost well over half of our uniforms, masks, and blades as they've gone out the door and were never returned. In the past, I've collected a check for $85 to be cashed if the items were not returned, the problem being a few people returned things, but I don't know which person dropped off their equipment (left in bag or a box with no name), meaning, I can't cash any of the checks without 'punishing' someone that did return the equipment.
If you're reading this, and you have some of our gear, but your not fencing, please return it.
So the last change is one I'm not happy about, but...
Going forward, the deposit on uniforms will be $105 dollars (one time cost), which will be deposited. The deposit will only be returned once ALL the equipment has been returned to one of the coaching staff. I hate taking this step, but it's that or possibly be forced to shut down next year, or force everyone on day one to buy their own gear.
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