Banquet!!!

Our team banquet is on March 14th at 6:30 in the Dining Hall. It will be catered by Boca Chica's again. We'll have fun team awards, awards for MVP's, MIP's, award varsity letters and announce the team captains for next year. We hope to see everyone and their families there. Please RSVP and pay us (cash or check - you can make checks out to Jenni Blat) by March 3rd $15.00 per person.

Thanks,

Jenni

Team Dinner - not the Banquet

We'll have a team dinner the night before states (March 2nd). It will be a whole team practice on the 2nd and then we'll go to the dining hall for a dinner of rigatoni, meatballs, salad, bread and desserts. If you choose to have dinner please pay me $10.00 by February 28th. Yes, you have a lot of time to forget to do this, I just wanted you to get it on your calendars.

Jenni

Shattuck Dual Meet

Yes, us again (there might be a couple more-we think subject specific emails work better).

We fence Shattuck Tuesday about 5pm. Please be in the dining hall at 4:30 to set up. They have a long drive so we will be ready when they get there! They have Men's and Women's Foil and Men's Sabre (or at least they did at the other meets). The rest of you still need to be there. Plan on it being 1.5-2 hours. Snacks are provided by

1-23 Shattuck @ SPA 5:00 Dining Hall
Drinks: Mona Dougherty
Drinks: Deb Weiss
Snack: Kim's
Snack: Nordin's

1-31 Blake @ SPA 6:15 small Gym (meet in the entry way)
Drinks: Sirc's
Drinks: Jennifer Fischer
Snack: Jeanne Herzog
Snack: McFall's

Jenni

Blake Dual Meet

This is the one team on one team dual (not duel) meet. It will be good! It will be at SPA. We even get the gym (small one, but a gym) for it! We will get 3 strips going at once. Unfortunately to get the gym we needed to make a slight schedule change. Instead of 1/30 at 4:30, it will need to be 1/31 at 6:15 to set up, start as soon as we can after (I'm thinking 6:30-6:45). They will have full squads for all weapons. We plan to be done 1.5-2 hours (by 8-8:30) if everything goes smoothly. I hope that works as well as possible for everyone. We will not have practice on 1/31. That means do your homework BEFORE the meet! :)

Jenni

Blake Team Meet

Dear Team,

Excellent job on the fencing at the Blake meet. We left the meet around 6 pm and they were still fencing the last round! Since we left early we did not get the results sheets yet. We watched so many of our fencers do incredibly well Saturday! We are very torn about who to award Meet MVP to! The bar has been raised for a lot of you!

To those who stuck it out and got a lot of fencing in, I hope you had fun. To those who stuck it out and did not get a lot of fencing in, we are truly sorry for the long periods of nothing, the delays, and the long day. Had I known it would be similar to last year I would not have told everyone they needed to be there. As after last year's meet they are again asking for help and suggestions. I was very honest about it being difficult to get our fencers and parents behind it again. As it stands we will not be requiring everyone (or anyone) to attend the Blake Meet next year. I am making several suggestions (which I won't bore you with the details about) that wil hopefully make it run smoother. But we will not require anyone to go until they prove they can make run smoothly. Thank you to all of you who passed on your kind words about how well Jenni and her sister, Laura, run the SPA Invitational. We think the team event could be a great time for the kids. For some Saturday was a blast. For many it was just long. Enough of that now! We have Shattuck to look forward to!

Jenni and Bob and Bob

SPA Invitational Pictures

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Blake Team Meet

This Saturday we have the team meet at Blake. It is held at the Upper School by downtown Minneapolis.

The men's teams need to be there by 7:30 am and the women's teams by 11:30.

This will be run like the meet with MSC, you will fence as a team going to 9 bouts. We will start our starters and once we have won substitute in the less experienced fencers. This means that the more experienced fencers will fence more, and the less experienced fencers will have the opportunity to sit with your team and learn by observing what they are doing, as you will be a starter one day.

See you on Saturday!

SPA Invitational Results

You all fenced really well and should be proud.

MF
2 - Michael Logan
6 - Charlie Feng
13 - Alec Nordin
17 - Phillip Dougherty
21 - Robin Sirc

WF
6 - Jee Hyun Choi
9 - Etonde Awaah
14 - Alanna McFall
18 - Katie White
21 - Michaela Kim

WE
3 - Kenzie Brown
4 - Claire Wilhelm
6 - Betsy Bayliss
7 - Linnea Herzog
9 - Jennifer Fischer
13 - Emma White

WS
5 - Hannah Lutz
12 - Arshia Sandozi
13 - Erin Lowenthal
19 - Gavi Levy Haskell
20 - Zuhra Khoyratty

MS
2 - Parker Cook
3 - Harrison Hite
7 - Daniel Zheng
9 - Mudassar Sandozi
14 - Andrei Nesmelov
15 - Abe Cass
18 - Ethan Chun

ME
3 - Jonathan Wald
5 - Alex Kramarczuk
16 - Stephen Weiss
22 - Zach Sethna

Meet MVP's

After each meet I choose either an individual or squad that has perfomed above and beyond our expectations. They earn a cool certificate, adidas socks and a sticker for their mask.

For the meet against MSC the Women's Foil squad earned MVP honors. They all did their job and won the bouts that they needed to win. Great job!

For the SPA Invitational...

Hannah Lutz and Harrison Hite are the MVP's. They both fenced extremely well. We knew you could do it, it was nice to see you win. Congratulations!

Jenni

What happened today?

Dear Fencers and Parents,
As sit here exhausted from a very long day in the gym, cool new socks off, cold pizza by side, and a tall glass of milk, I am trying to wrap my mind around what you all did today??!!
We are stunned. We watched fencers out there today. Even those of you who are telling yourself (YES YOU!) that you did not do well by the score, fenced. None of you sat there and let the opponent do whatever they wanted. You fenced and you fought. Excellent job!
Usually there are a predictable few who we expect to do well. But today there were many, many first year fencers, fencers who have struggled for a couple years, fencers we have watched for many years suddenly fence beyond what they (or we) imagined possible!
I do not tell you this just to make you blush! We know why it happened. It was not the socks (no matter how cool they are!). Practice this week was different than before break. This past week there was a definite change. Many of you stopped playing around and stopped going through the motions. The intensity increased, the speed, the focus, the energy were all there. Even before the meet, we (your coaches) had noticed the change this week.
I hope you have seen that how you practice is how you fence. You need to always practice with intensity, focus, and purpose. Look what you did with 2 days. What could you do with another week (the Blake meet)? or 2 weeks (to Midwest)? How about 6 weeks (to States)? If today were states at least Men's Sabre wins the team event (they are the only one I checked).
Parents!- Thank you so much for all the work you do to support your fencers and our team. While your children make each other feel welcome on the fencing team, you are making each other welcome on the Parent Team! The food you provide, the time you spend, the conversations we have make this truly a team activity. Without you this team would be much less than it is.
So we sit here exhausted. Totally, mentally, and emotionally drained. And we are thrilled! See you Tuesday!

Bob, Jenni, Bob

Remember

I have to say that I was very disappointed at how many members of our team chose to leave before the meet was over. You are not allowed to leave before all the fencing is done and everything is cleaned up. How would it look for a member of the basketball team or soccer team to decide that they were done and left. We are a team, even if you didn't fence it is your responsibility to stay and cheer on your team, not just your squad. I am sorry that we don't have enough space for everyone to fence at once, but you can not leave early. There are only 3 spots on the starting team, these spots are determined by your results in the team meets and in the individual meets. After this Saturday we will have a very clear picture of who is starting. Positions can change after every meet. If you are a first year fencer, you might not start, but that does not give you the right to leave, you still need to suit up and be ready in case the situation changes and you get to fence. It is also important to watch and learn. If you choose to leave early, it is the same as missing a meet and you will not letter or possibly start or fence at the next meet.

On Friday at 6 we have dinner and set-up for our meet on Saturday. You are expected to be there, if you are not, you have chosen not to letter.

We have a meet all day on Saturday, you are expected to be there 30 minutes before your start time, bring $10 to pay for your entry fee and stay until everything is cleaned up or you have chosen not to letter.

MSC Meet

WF - Won 6-3
MS - Lost 5-4
WE - Won 8-1 (They forfeited 6 bouts)
ME - Lost 5-4
WS - Lost 8-1
MF - Lost 8-1

Overall lost 4-2.

This is our toughest meet of the year, so it was a good start. I'll have more stats and details later tonight or tomorrow night.

Don't Forget

We have a meet tomorrow - meet at 3:30 in the cafeteria, we'll set up and then start fencing at 4:00. We only have 2 strips and 6 events so it will take about 90 minutes. Do not plan on leaving early.

You should have registered for the meet on Saturday, if you haven't go to www.mnhsfencing.com. You will need to bring $10 to pay for your entry.