Get Ready For Tournament Season!
First, don’t forget:
**IMPORTANT** RENEW OR START YOUR USA FENCING MEMBERSHIP!
–As a USA Fencing Member Fencing Club, we are REQUIRED to have 100% of our students members of USA Fencing. It is also a requirement for our liability insurance. Please make sure you renew or start your USA Fencing Membership!
Previous USA Fencing Members and current students:
Non-Competitive Membership will no longer be available.
Access Membership: Good for classes and local competitions — MOST FENCERS WILL BE GETTING THE ACCESS MEMBERSHIP).
Competitive Membership: Required if participating in National and Regional Competitions — Only those few that participate in National and Regional events will need the Competitive Membership).
If you renew your membership before Aug. 1, 2023, you can do so at 2022-23 season prices.
Join or renew your membership at: https://www.usafencing.org/page/show/698114-individual-memberships
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THE TOURNAMENT SEASON IS AROUND THE CORNER – HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
You don’t have to compete, but we encourage it. Especially try our season starter: 82nd Open. This is intended to be a tournament to teach beginners about how to participate in tournaments. We encourage all our new fencers to try this tournament! This will also be a tune up tournament for our regular competitors as they prepare for the tournament season. You will not need to have any equipment, any home event, we provide all the equipment/uniform you need. Just make sure the students are dressed to fence, be prepared to change into fencing knickers (pants), and have the appropriate shoes.
(Want to learn more about tournament before the event? Please visit our Primer on Fencing Tournaments: https://allamericanfencing.com/a-primer-on-tournaments/)
The tournament is scheduled to be on Saturday, August 26, 2023, event fee is $20. These will be the following events:
82nd Open
8AM: Y10 Foil
8AM: Y12 Foil
12PM: Senior Men’s Foil
12PM: Senior Women’s Foil
You can register for these events at: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/61aadaba-6755-450d-8dd2-8d8999b49649
See age categories below. Your student may fall in more than 1 age category. You may select which age category to fence in. Senior events are for all students born 2010 or later. Youth events and Men/Women events may be combined if there aren’t enough fencers in one category.
Age Categories:
Y10: Born between 2013 – 2016
Y12: Born between 2011 – 2014
Y14: Born between 2009 – 2012
CADET: Born between 2007 – 2010
JUNIOR: Born between 2004 – 2010
SENIOR/OPEN: Born 2010 or earlier
VETERAN: Born 1984 or earlier
You will have to create an account on AskFRED (https://www.askfred.net/). AskFRED posts upcoming events, handles registrations, and posts results for most non-national/non-regional events that we participate in. If you previously utilized AskFRED, you’ll see that it is a new website. Accounts were migrated over – use the email associated with your Legacy AskFRED account. You’ll need to confirm your email address first when you go to the login page.
UPCOMING EVENTS ON ASKFRED
We participate in events throughout the state, and sometimes in Virginia and South Carolina. If these events are non-national/non-regional events, you can register for the events on AskFRED (https://www.askfred.net/). Other clubs are still putting together their schedule, so you’ll find that there aren’t many events listed in North Carolina yet. As we get closer to the start of the school year, you will see those events start to be listed and we will let everyone know if we plan to attend any tournaments as a group.
Anyone can compete at any tournament anywhere (unless there are listed restrictions). You are more than welcome to attend an event without the team. Please let us know if you plan to do so, so we can make sure you have all the proper equipment.
We will also have a schedule available on our website to download when most of the events are finalized.
Here are ones we know about (but not yet on AskFRED):
Harry Rulnick Open
Fayetteville, NC
October 7, 2023
Cape Fear Fencing Association Event
Wilmington, NC
October 21, 2023
PISACAFE YOUTH CIRCUIT
We partner with Greensboro Fencing Academy and Cape Fear Fencing Association to host the Pisacafe Circuit (in case you’re wonder why it’s called that, it stands for, PIedmont, SAndhills, CApe FEar…the areas where the clubs are located). The Pisacafe Circuit is a season long series of tournament intended to get young fencers participating in events not only at their own club. Throughout the season, all participating fencers earn points for each event they participate in. The number of points you receive is based on how many events you participated in throughout the season, the number of people in the event, and your placement in each event.
We award prizes for the athletes that place in the top three points winners. And here’s the cool thing, you don’t even have to place first in every event to be a top points winner! One of our fencers took second place in points last year because they attended EVERY event, even though they didn’t medal at every event. Other fencers that may have placed in an event, didn’t compete at every event and didn’t earn as many points at the end of the season.
And you get to meet other youth fencers from around the state!
HOMESCHOOL LEAGUE
We participate in a homeschool fencing league. There is a homeschool team. This year’s varsity team is Isaac Canady, Lily Kube, and Zion Facey. But there are also individual events. We encourage all our homeschool fencers to participate in the individual events. All age groups can participate in the individual events. Events have not yet been announced.
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL EVENTS
These have been announced by USA Fencing. What’s the difference between these events and the events that we register for and participate on AskFRED? All National and Regional events must be registered for on the USA Fencing website. Fencers MUST be have USA Fencing Competitive Membership (not Access). Events are more expensive, but more fencers are competing in each event (usually over 75 fencers). Sometimes events will have equipment suppliers on site. There are National and Regional youth, open, and vet events. If you plan on participating in these events, please let Coach Gerhard know.
These are the events that we looking at participating in:
Forge Fencing Veteran ROC
Durham, NC
September 16, 2023
Veteran events, all weapons.
Information and Registration: https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/7563
Deadline to register: September 10, 2023
River City Regional Rumble
Richmond, VA
September 23-24, 2023
Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet, Junior, Div1A, Div2, Div3, Vet
Information and Registration: https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/7522
Deadline to register: September 1, 2023
Bull City RYC and RJCC
Durham, NC
October 14-15, 2023
Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet, Junior
Information and Registration: NOT YET AVAILABLE
American Challenge South ROC (Coach is on the fence about participating since there will be another big event in Myrtle Beach in December)
Myrtle Beach, NC
November 3-5, 2023
Y8, Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet, Junior, DIV1A, DIV2, VET
Information and Registration: https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/7600
Deadline: October 16, 2023
The Southern RYC/RJCC/ROC
Myrtle Beach, NC
December 16-18, 2023
Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet, Junior, DIV1A, DIV2, VET
Information and Registration: https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/7728
Deadline: November 10, 2023
Fairfax Challenge
Fredericksburg, VA
January 19-21, 2024
Y8, Y10, Y12, Y14, Cadet, Junior, DIV1A, DIV2, VET
Information and Registration: https://member.usafencing.org/details/tournaments/7601
Deadline: NOT YET AVAILABLE
Apex RYC
Apex, NC
February 3-4, 2024
Y10, Y12, Y14
Information and Registration: NOT YET AVAILABLE
Deadline: NOT YET AVAILABLE
