still no working blades

coach ashly failed to rewire my blade correctly, how i don't know, so i still have no working blades and possibly no working body cords. joy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

WE ARE AWSOME!

LEDYARD GUYS TAKE FIRST OVERALL
LEDYARD GIRLS TAKE 8TH OVERALL
KEVIN TAKES 4TH
TIM AND I FINISH IN THE TOP 16
COLIN & AUSTIN TAKE 2ND & 3RD IN EPEE WITH ONLY A WEEK OF PRACTICE
BEST SEASON IN LEDYARD FENCING HISTORY


yeah it's all caps because it's that damn important

disregard the last

coach pulled me aside gave me a pep talk got me all fired up and I stayed, I fenced, I felt better so I'm gonna go take some nyquil and hit the hey so that come 5 am i can get up and go fence my best

well this sucks

you see I have state individuals tomorrow and I'm sick. it's getting better but I'm still sick. if I don't feel better tomorrow I am planning to step down and have Austin fence foil in my place. with any luck he'll be willing to lend me his epee gear.

I still want to compete but I refuse to screw the team over just to satisfy myself, but since I still want to fence farting around with epee is the best compromise in case I'm not feeling better.

ECC individuals results

hey heads up this is way to long to be worth reading so just look for anything in bold

hey well as much as this pains me to type NFA.......won gahhh man i thinks my fingers or going to fall of from typing that sentence gahh. there girls and guys team won when it came down to however they figure this crap out at the end of the day i think they do it by victories or how far each fencers manages to get not really sure.

anyway my bouts went something like this

out of 5 pool bouts i had 1 lose and three bagels

my first DE did not go as well as it could have but i won it 15 to 9 I think. that was against one of Bacon's fencers.

my next DE was against Christian, also from Bacon. now first let me say his blade work improved immensely. at the end of the first period the score was 8 to 4 in favor of Christian.

so between my coaches and the fact that I really wanted to win I decided to get my act together and pull out 150%. I lowered my stance and focused completely on what I was doing. so by the end of the 2nd period the score was 9 to 9 and the only reason christian got another point was because the ref yellow carded me (already had one yellow card for turning my back, which was bullshit by the way, so the 2nd made it a red card) for having my foot stepped on (great call ref, great call) so into the third and final period I can see Christian is shaken he just gave up five touches in a row without scoring. he looks shaken, un-confidant and tired so I keep pushing almost 3 min later the score is 13 to 12 in my favor there are i think 2 seconds left on the clock.

now right then time froze for a split second and I flashed back to state teams the very last bout from last season. Me vs Christian, I'm leading by only a single point, just seconds left on the clock. he charges me and i drop instantly into a perfect passot de soto (even if i spell it incorrectly) he missed me but my blade went right under his non sword arm meaning the only result of the action was that time ran out and I won.

time starts going again and I know exactly what he is going to do and exactly what I need to do to beet him the director says ready and christian practically jumps at me and the action has to be reset.

now I'm positive my analysis was correct so I'm ready and waiting for him. as soon as the director says fence christian comes running at me arm extended.... and I drop, my back leg shoots out, my front knee buckles for a split second, then on command starts to support me again so that my back knee dose not hit the ground, and all this time my left arm has been hitting the ground to support me and keep me balanced while my right arm has been shooting out.

Christians foil goes right over me and he runs straight into mine. oh man did I ever shout after that one (standard short victory "YEAH" just louder) to quote Coach Aron who made a surprise appearance this Friday and Saturday "it was a textbook passot de soto" so the ref made the call I was awarded the touch and time was up.

Bacon's coach started shouting from the sidelines saying that the touch was invalid and that I should be carded. (oh boy was he ever pissed) I didn't even give the ref the chance to respond, I shouted back "no my knee didn't hit the floor and you're allowed three points of contact" (points of contact with the floor that is)(I later found out that Bronwin had ecod my statement from the crowd) then the ref responded that what I had done was and I qoute "a perfectly legal move" and that it didn't matter anyway because time had run out.

so final score 14 to 12 I brought the bout to time had an amazing comeback told off the other teams coach without getting in trouble, and beet one of my biggest rivals in a better than last time deja vou moment.

then I lost my last bout to someone from NFA who eventually took forth. nothing i could do about it, his style just happens to be a style which i don't do well against. see there are two ways to win a fencing match one have amazing skill speed and endurance or two it can be like a game of rock paper scissors where one beets out the other.

so my final standing turned out to be 7th! I'm the 7th best male fencer in the eastern Connecticut conference! take that I said it before and now I've proved it I am one of the top 10 in the ECC's!

Kevin took 2nd he lost the final bout against Cooper but still it was a tremendous bout

Tim and Austin ruined my statement that our guys varsity were all easily in the top 10 by coming in bellow the top 10 oh well there loss not mine

also because Tim fenced like crap yesterday I won the 2nd round of the bagel contest 3 zip so I get a free bagel!

I did prove Mr. Predictions wrong almost single handedly by knocking out two of Bacons four Fencers and ending there chances of an overall victory

Bronwin took 3rd in the girls division way to go Bronwin

and my girlfriend Sara who is this blogs newest reader put up a terrific fight and lost a close bout in her first DE and despite her insisting that she didn't do good enough i still say she did great and that several of the refs calls were a load of crap because I know a parry repost when i see one.

ECC Individuals

they are coming up this Saturday and I have never felt this exited before in my life I know the I'm easily one of the top 10 in the ECC's and this Saturday is my chance to prove it.

right now my body is sitting at my desk looking at the computer monitor. but my mind is miles away and a day and a half ahead of me at the ECC's looking out of my mask with the box almost out of my field of vision. I'm calm and confidant, I can see my opponents face struggling to control the emotion, the sense of defeat. I'm shouting out my triumph after every touch. I'm pulling off difficult moves flawlessly. I am the in the zone, or as Miyamoto Musashi would say my mind is the void out of which flows the correct response for every situation

that is where I am now

sorry

sorry I haven't posted lately but my computer is in the shop and I haven't had a lot of time to get stuff done so I'm posting from school to give a small update. we have an unusual meet this weekend it's a home meet and we are going to make a bunch of mismatch teems by taking one fencer from each teem for one of our franken teems. should be interesting.

next week is ECC individuals. the week after is state individuals. then state individuals. and finally at some later date we have the banquet.

so right now the season is winding down to every ones feeling of both relief and regret.

ECC Champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we won! we beat NFA and Fitch! we went 8 & 0 the perfect season!

you had to be there to feel the raw emotion running through everyone I just can't put it into words. I couldn't do it justice so I won't try. but let me tell you, it was the greatest moment of my life thus far. an absolutely unforgettable experience.

Tim and I each managed to secure two more bagels today meaning that our infamous bagel contest ended in a tie which you know what I don't mind at all in fact I think that's the best ending possible. with I believe 8 apiece.

I only lost 2 bouts but I beet Won-he who I have fenced on several other occasions the only thing that really got to me was that in my final bout for the day my hand seized up on me. I'm not sure if that is what caused me to loose or if it was just a bad match up for me. the point is it took me a couple of seconds just to loosen up my grip enough to let go of my foil. IT REALLY SUCKED! but then we won and I forgot all about it so it doesn't really matter.

after we won and the inevitable celebratory hugging everyone in sight which we definitely went nuts doing because I'm sorry but it was just so absolutely necessary =)

um right so lets see after we won I had no voice left and I also had the insatiable urge to spend more time with my 2nd family so we all went to Valentino's, the local pizza restaurant and pigged out, laughed, and had a hell of a lot of fun =D it was a great party and seeing as we had a few people missing it makes me really look forward to the end of season party. but not too much so because I really don't want this season to ever end. I just want it to go on and on forever. it really is a shame that it has to end. but we still have ECC individuals, State Individuals, and State Teams to look forward to so hey should be fun right =)

anyway after pizza and soda I went home showered (because boy did I ever need it) and had myself a nice nap before heading to the movies for a date (which I think went pretty well)

all in all today has been an absolutely perfect. so good night world and thank you for this amazing, unforgettable, perfect, day.

Damn Snow!!!!!!!!!!!

snow continues to iinterupt our practices and this is the week before our most critical and dificult meet I'm pissed I'm ripped and I'm sick. not only that but my computer is caput so i'm postimg this from my kindle I'm not happy about any of this

6 & 0

yeah guys win again. It's great but first we pulled the win against St. B's out of our buts, that was to close for comfort. and then I just lost it against whoever the other team was, I want to say it was Griswold. anyway I feel depressed and need to eat then do calc.

that itch

I haven't fenced in 6 days so right now I'm itching for a good bout. I should mention this now when I say good bout, basically I mean a bout where the opponent is very close to my level of skill. If it's a slaughter then it isn't a good bout. my expectations are not all that high but if all else fails I can always fence against Tim.

School and Sports

this time of year is when students thoughts turn to final exams. but not only to finals but also to sports, and scholarships, and fafsa, and college applications.

I have a grand total of one of these things done. that being my college application

the final schedule changes every other day.

I haven't even started looking for scholarships.

My Mom keeps telling me she is working on fafsa which I quite honestly don't even try to understand because it involves taxes et-cetra.

my coach is concerned about the amount of energy we are putting into our meets because one member of the varsity squad, who happens to be our captain, named Austin, see what I'm doing here starting out like I'm not gonna point fingers and then totally pointing fingers? yeah that's because I'm annoyed went and blew two bouts the other day because he went and fenced like he didn't give a shit which apparently he didn't. now coach is concerned that if we go up with that kind of half assed mentality that it could end up screwing us over when we come up against St. B's, Fitch, and most important of all NFA.

He could be right. we have the best team, and the most experience. but we feel safe we feel secure we are all confident bordering on cocky. Austin has already crossed the border into I don't give a shit land. Kevin can't focus when faced with a shitty ref. which leaves Tim and I doing are honest to God best. why are we trying so hard? because we couldn't care less about the ref, and my ingenious if I do say so myself self motivation strategy of holding a bagel contest with Tim keeps us competitive.

for the record the stress is slowly vaporizing my brain

even the expert agrees

well you see there is some guy who makes predictions about how each team will do over the course of the ECC's his prediction is tht ledyard will go 8 and 0 this season I'm not vain, I'm not full of it. the expert backs my prediction we will win the ECC's this year you can count on it.

ECC's

just been checking my emails and here is the low down. after the various fencing meets held today there are now only 2 teams remaining in the ECC's that are undefeated Ledyard and NFA unfortunately for NFA their winning streak is far weaker then our own. You see today they fenced Bacon and won by only three points. not three bouts, three points. that means that NFA and Bacon had 8 wins apiece and the final outcome had to be determined by the team indicator.

for NFA whose fencers all range at about Christian's level of skill (he is fairly good but his blade work is sloppy which means lots of openings) this is just not going to cut it. if they had that much trouble with Bacon then they won't be able to beet us. we are just on different levels and they won't be able to close that kind of a gap in the remaining time especially when we are all still working so hard to improve, sorry NFA you may have beaten us last year but we had two guys in pain, and instead of Kevin we had Timmy. if you think you stand a chance against the four horseman then your welcome to try. I've been itching for a few close bouts anyway so come at us with everything you've got.