Attendance

Dear Team,

We have received a lot of requests from fencers to be absent from practices for various reasons. We have been forced by circumstances to review our enforcement of the attendance policy. We want to be understanding of the academic commitment our fencers are held to but at the same time they have made a commitment to the team. We do not want anyone to quit fencing over this, we just want to make the policy clear so no one is surprised when they don't letter. This really only applies to the 9-12th graders (unless they are starters for a squad). The letter of the law states you may not miss any practices without it being excused beforehand except in the case of illness (that means absent from school due to illness). If you ask we will still say "Yes, you are excused, but remember you may not letter."

Please remember to email us of you are going to be gone from a practice. We cannot keep up with people telling us at practice that someone else is gone so we will not accept excuses that you send via a teammate. You need to email or call us. If you are already missing a practice for another SPA activity, please don't ask us to excuse you from fencing for another day, we will have to say no. Everyone has 1 day off for other school activities and homework, we tried hard to fit the day off into your schedule, if it does not fit you can swap it with another day that your weapon is practicing if you let us know.

By joining fencing you have made a commitment to the team. Your attendance affects the others on the team, not just you. There have been several times that fencers have shown up to practice on their practice days and most of the other squad members have been absent. This unfairly affects their practice. Many of the absences were approved by coaches without us considering the overall affect.

Therefore in January 2007, we will not approve extra days off, if you choose not to come you have chosen not to letter. Obviously in the case of illness and absence from school or an emergency it will be excused. Homework is not an emergency when you ask every week! If you miss a meet, for any reason including Math or Science meets, (except for illness and absence from school) you will not letter. (We are working to move the TCFC meet so that it does not conflict with JO's).

You are also expected to be at the SPA Invitational Set Up night on January 12th at 6:00 pm, we should be done by 8:00 pm. For the SPA Invitational you should be at SPA 30-15 minutes before your close of registration time and then you will need to stay the entire day take down all of the equipment at the end of the day. I am hoping we are done by 6:00 pm. There is no practice on the 12th so take that time to get some of your homework done!

We don't want to be mean or harsh. If special events come up and your attendance at practices and meets is otherwise excellent you will most likely still letter. But those who are missing an extra practice a week will be affected.

Bob and Jenni