Old News From 2004

12-20-2004: The Biggest News of All
No, it's not that fencing has finally grown big enough so that Adidas finally put fencing shoes on their page (link opens new window, which has a link to Allstar Germany). That's a significant change, but it's not the big news.

The big news is:

We have a fencing salle

After years of talking, planning, and hoping, Oxford is getting its very own dedicated fencing school. Doc is in the process of purchasing a building. We are creating a permanent fencing club, with amenities like 8 full-length strips, his and her's changing rooms, armoring facility. We're planning for a full compliment of beginner and intermediate classes, and figuring out all the cool fencing things to put on the wall.

We will gain access to the building sometime in January 2005, and we'll begin rennovations shortly after that. We hope to start fencing sometime in Februrary at the earliest. Fencers have… special needs… we no longer have to share our fencing space.

11-13-2004: The Gathering—Day 1 pictures
Pictures of The Gathering, Nov 13, are up on The Gathering Oxford website (link opens new window).

11-09-2004: The Gathering is here! The Gathering is here!
The Gathering is this weekend — November 13–14th! This is our biggest effort yet — grounded strips, vendor, food, wonderful prizes, sponsorships! W00t!

Visit TheGatheringOxford.com website to pre-register before November 11th!

If you are an Ole Miss fencer — you'll need to help set up the tournament this Friday, 5pm, at the OPC. It's skipping distance from the University. Visit TheGatheringOxford.com website to see the location.

08-17-2004: Gooooooold! Broooooonze!
Women's Individual Sabre. Mariel Zagunis beats Tan Xue (China) 15-9 for the Gold. Sada Jacobson beats Catalina Gheorghitoaia (Romania) 15-7 for the bronze. Here comes the good press: BBC, CBS, Slate.

The USA has now eclipsed China in the medal count. First Gold ever for USA (ancient history doesn't count), first medal ever for the USA women's team. First Gold & Bronze Medals in the world for Women's Sabre. Also -- Soren Thompson got 7th Men's Epee Indiv, knocked out, but not before beating the top seed.

08-14-2004: Olympic Fencing has commenced!
The opening ceremony was yesterday, Friday the 13th. The USA fencing team marched through the parade of nations (couldn't see anybody), excepting the Men's Sabre squad. They had to stay home because they were fencing Saturday morning. Initial results are in — Our Sabre squad fought through to the round of 16, but was eliminated by the round of 8! Sad news! The top-4 fencers for Men's Individual Sabre are going to fence off later today (on NBC at 1pm). All the bracket favorites are out, and these finalists are somewhat unexpected.

Links!

Story on Keeth Smart's performance at the Olympics: NBCOlympics.com. NBC Olympics website, Sabre results. Look for fencing on TV: nearly useless NBC sport-finder listing. Actually found some results Men's Sabre today at 1pm on CNBC (link).

Lots of Olympics stories are online at the USA's premiere Fencing website (link opens new window). Women's Foil starting bracket (link opens new window). Men's Foil starting bracket (link opens new window). Lots of Bulletin Board threads about the Olympics (link opens new window).

Some video clips of our Olympians. These all lead to bulletin board discussions, where the first message has a link to the video:

Just in time for the Olympics — Oxford's very own tournament, The Gathering, has a website! (Link opens new window.) There is not much here yet, as we are still awaiting confirmation for the venue and the dates.

07-08-2004: Oxford Fencers at the Summer Nationals
Good luck to our brave Oxfordian warriors! We have Vicki Reithel competing in Div III Women's foil (today), Alan Kuhnle competing in Div II Men's Foil (tomorrow), and Doc Matthews competing throughout. Results may or may not be listed online by the glorious USFA (link here opens new window).

The next Parks & Recreation fencing class is Monday, July 12th. We will be returning to a normal schedule then.

06-29-2004: Summer schedule
For this week only, there are special practices at the Ole Miss Turner Center. We're doing sharp bouts, hard as we can go. This is in preparation for the Nationals, next week:

Weekday

Time

Wednesday

4:30pm–7:00pm

Thursday

4:30pm–7:00pm

Friday

4:30pm–7:00pm

The Parks & Recreation classes are still scheduled at the times below.

06-24-2004: Summer schedule
The Oxford Fencing Club summer schedule is as follows:

Weekday

Location

Time

Monday

Parks & Rec

4:30pm–6:30pm

Tuesday

Turner Center

7:30pm–9:00pm

Wednesday

Parks & Rec

4:30pm–6:30pm

Thursday

Turner Center

7:30pm–9:00pm

Friday

Turner Center

5:00pm–7:00pm

For the time being, lessons are given in the mornings at Turner Center, by arrangement. This is so we can dedicate nightly practices to bouting in preparation for the Summer Nationals in early June!

05-08-2004: Club says farewell to valued member
The Ole Miss Fencing Club says good-bye to valued member Joseph Oliverius. He returns to Tennessee for more school and fencing. In his brief year at Ole Miss, he took up the foil, jumped to 4 lessons per week, and earned his Foil D not once but twice, as well as rankings in other weapons. He quickly integrated with our cadre of hard-core nightly fencers, he helped teach the Parks & Rec classes, and his drive and dedication improved everybody around him. He will be sorely missed, but we couldn't be more proud. He only ever sent one person to the hospital.


Joseph Oliverius (l) with Walter Flaschka

 

04-06-2004: Divisional Qualifiers
Oxford qualified a slew of fencers to the National Championships. (Results)
And we looked good doing it. (Photos)

02-27-2004: Stomped Heart Photos
February 14, 2004, Oxford hosted the Stomped Heart tournament. (Photos!)

02-17-2004: Future Olympian delivered
Audrey Johanna Flaschka, delivered to Shanna and Walter Flaschka at 3:03am February 17, 2004. Shanna Flaschka did most of the work.

02-13-2004: Stomped Heart Tournament Information
Follow this link to the Ole Miss Fencing Club page for information about the Stomped Heart tournament! Good luck to everybody who is fencing tomorrow!

Also — our very own Walter Flaschka has an article published on Fencing101.com / Fencing.net: Future foil — foil after the FIE changes (link to article). Local Oxfordians got a glimpse of this article in mid-December, but the online version is cleaned up and expanded. Flaschka also contributed to another recent article called, Reversing the Shoulders (link to article).

01-12-2004: 2004 schedule for fencing
This schedule is preliminary, so it might change! Be sure to occasionally check this page!

There is no Fencing on January 19th, 2004, as it is Martin Luther King Day.

Parks & Recreation

Day

Type

Time

Monday

Practice

4:30pm–6:30pm

Wednesday

Practice

4:30pm–6:30pm

Parks and Recreation classes commence January 21, 2004.

Ole Miss

Day

Type

Time

Monday

Unofficial practice

9:00pm–11:00pm

Tuesday

Practice

9:00pm–11:00pm

Thursday

Practice

9:00pm–11:00pm

Friday

Open bouting

7:00pm–whenever

More information will be put online as it is available.

There are also for-credit fencing classes available at Ole Miss. Check with Doc!

01-03-2004: Great photo series
By photographer Peter Bregg, who followed the Canadian team to the 2003 World Championships. (Link opens new window.)

12-07-2003: Late updates!
The webmaster has been having computer problems. Apologies to all who wrote looking for results for The Gathering. The webmaster is also sensible to the fact that he owes RHodges some pictures. We will get on his back and flog him to finish things ASAP — as soon as the computer returns from the fix-it place.

Meanwhile, the FIE has approved some rule changes to foil! How will these changes affect future foil fencing? Here is a position/opinion piece on what to train for. (On changes in foil; PDF file, 118k.)