Thursday, March 31, 2011

End of an Era

just came from the fencing banquet where I got my pin for for my 2nd year on varsity. I got a nice certificate for being a member of the varsity squad. recordings of state teams and individuals which I can't wait to watch.

I also received to very nice awards, plaques,one is the Ledyard booster club award which is for academics leadership and performance.

The other is one of two cornerstone awards, the other went to Sara, congrats to her especially if she happens to read this. the cornerstone wards were basically for being the foundation of the team.

I'm proud to receive these two awards and sorry to see the my last season as a member of the Ledyard fencing team come to and end.

Friday, March 18, 2011

takeing stock of things

so looking back I realized that I beet my rivals Christian and Wan-He basically every time we fenced. Christian beet me once last year at our meet against Bacon, when for some odd reason I just couldn't seem to land a hit, and Wan-He only beet me the first time that we fenced which was the JV invitational at the start of last season, and over the past two years I have beaten both of them 5 times and 2 of the times I beat Christian were 15 point bouts. I am particularly proud off those wins.

now taking stock of the more practical things. My helmet is rusted and dented and even has a couple broken links, my 2 remaining body cords may or may not work, I have one foil which is now in the hands of "armorer" Ashly and therefor may not even be working when I get it back, the Velcro on my nickers is starting to come off and one of the straps on my under arm protector is a mess from half of the string unraveling.

so the helmet should be replaced (probably by a more durable and inevitably more expensive one) soon. I need at least one more body cord and I think the other two are nearing the end. the under arm protector looks stupid but is still usable, my jacket's fine my glove is good, my fencing shoes now have gel pad's which don't slip so those are great, but the biggest issue is the foils I can't get by with only one of those, my Mom can probably fix the Velcro on my nickers in like 20 seconds with her sowing machine so that should be fine.

now last year I got a BF white and a crap blade when the crap blade broke I got a second Bf white now with one of those BF whites (not sure which) dead I'm thinking about getting a BF Blue which is very similar to the BF whites. it's a little stiffer and possible more durable but well wait and see I haven't ordered anything yet.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

So I'm sitting in my room

..... and this place is a mess I can't stand it anymore and I'm gonna do something about it right now and that is the end of it

Sunday, March 6, 2011

It's finally sinking in

it's over.

It's been a great run, and if I could go back and redo the past three years of being a part of this team I don't think I would change one damn thing.

I won't lie I gave up touches, I blew bouts I could have won, I wasn't perfect. but I always came through in the end.

I caught up with everyone else. Tim, Kevin, Austin, they all had a years head start on me and they all got lessons outside of practice. not me. I wish I could have, maybe I could have, but my brother always had something going on for lacrosse or there was something long term that would get in the way. but despite their head start I caught up and I held my own. I proved myself time and time again, I caught up maybe even surpassed some of them.

if i could change something I would have started freshman year.

other than that though i have no regrets. I worked my way up from nothing but potential to the point where I was the one who kept us in state teams until the very end. did I mention that? at the start of my 2nd and 3rd bouts we were down by one win, and my victory in those bouts tied us up with NFA both times.

I was the only one to get two wins against NFA.

Kevin was so close but at the end with a 4 1 lead two sayings collided, "pride cometh before the fall" and "it ain't over till the fat lady sings". when the score reached 4 4 it was already over for us.

it's an unfortunate habit of Kevin's I recently picked up on, if something fails he will try it over and over again until it works even if it costs him the bout. I noticed it first when I got past his flicks the other day, when I beet him for the first time. then I saw it again at the start of states when he was warming up he did the same thing with Tim. then in that last bout he just kept doing the same thing over and over. but like Albert Einstein said "insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results" or something like that anyway. well he was right. the results were the same each time Kevin tried his infighting move the difference in the score's got smaller.

so we lost, the rides over, I've had my fun and now I've got to move on.

I don't want to move on, these people, this team, they have been such a huge part of my life that I hate to think that after this we will all be going our own ways, that I might never see some of them again after this year. I hate it!

this isn't some massive group with 20 or 30 people plus as many over for jv and novice. it's 16 fencers and 3 coaches 4 if you count Bronwin's Dad. I don't want to say goodbye to any of them!

they made me who I am today, especially coach Floyd and coach Lindenberger. but also Austin, Kevin, Tim, Patrick, Sarah, Colin, Bronwin, Ben, Kyle, "armorer" Ashly, Elizabeth, Dave, Paty, Addy, Andrew, Rob, Sarah W, Timmy, Conway, Erin, hell even the insanely annoying Dru and the downright insane Zack, have played a part in making me who I am today.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

2nd and & 7th

The girls finished 7th, way to go girls
and we, the guys, finished 2nd
it was close it was so, so, so, close I could taste victory and then it just got swept away.

I mean I gave them one hell of a fight! I don't think I've ever fenced better than I did today. I won two of my three bouts against our last opponents, NFA, & Tim and Kevin got one win each, that gave us a grand total of four of the 5 wins we needed. and Kevin last bout was so close he had a 4 to 1 lead and it just got swept away from us. I thought for sure we were going to win. but it's alright, congratulations NFA you did a hell of a job out there.

now that said, I hate NFA's coach. that guy just pisses me off. he thinks his team walks on water. not to say they aren't good, they're great fencers but he goes and argues with the refs, he thinks he can't possibly be wrong, and he just loves to make and ass of himself in general.

sorry NFA but that's how I see it and that's how I'll say it.

Friday, March 4, 2011

last practice :(

it was nice I ran practice which basically means i ran warm ups and stretching told everyone to fence and then ended the day with "One, Two, Three, Ledyard!!!!!" It was just a really great last practice :)

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Finally beet Kevin!!

yes I finally beet Kevin and it wasn't a close score oh no it was 5 2. I kept waiting for him to try and flick me then I moved so that we would be flicking air and popped him! I've been trying to do that for three years now so to finally pull it off and as naturally and fluidly as I did was just really, really, awesome! anyway that means that I have now at one time or another beaten everyone on our team with just 1 day of practice left before the end of the season I can finally say that I have beaten everyone on the team.

also another major plus I am no longer ticked at Colin! he finally realized that while yes he is a great fencer he is not better than me, at least not yet anyway. he had been going on about it for a few days which really ticked me off so to finally hear him being humble was very nice. anyway we had a great bout and it's all good between us again which is great because when his ego isn't through the roof he really is a cool dude.