kb
Squire
Posts: 261
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Rice U
Jan 31, 2006 18:28:02 GMT -6
Post by kb on Jan 31, 2006 18:28:02 GMT -6
I read John Trojanowski's editorial on the cancellation of the Van Buskirk on his Rogue site. How sad that the only "Ivy League" school in the south does not offer a stronger fencing program. While academics should be the drawing point for any student looking to further their education, for some of our local high school fencers, the fencing program will be a draw as well. If a student is serious about fencing AND their academics, it is a shame that they cannot find both at Rice U.
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 1:44:50 GMT -6
Post by kd5mdk on Feb 1, 2006 1:44:50 GMT -6
A sad situation indeed.
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 9:16:02 GMT -6
Post by DavidSierra on Feb 1, 2006 9:16:02 GMT -6
Ya know, doesn't U of H have more of a fencing program than Rice? Perhaps the Houston Sports authority should approach THEM about being the "official" NCAA host school for this year...
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Katman
Squire
[ss:Default]
Posts: 269
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 10:26:49 GMT -6
Post by Katman on Feb 1, 2006 10:26:49 GMT -6
UH fencing is a club sport. As a matter of fact, we've been told by the university at some point that fencing wasn't a sport and fencers aren't atheletes, so no NCAA for us. Don't quote me on that though; I'd have to ask some questions to find out exactly what happened there. I do know that we're supposed to be the Fencing Club at University of Houston, to be abbreviated FCUH, and not UHFC least we incur the university's wrath. For a time, before they built the new campus rec. building, our club was shuffled from gym to gym and eventually confined to some racquetball courts underneath the Hofheinz Pavillion. It was rather like practicing in a dungeon. We ran laps as a warm up in the tunnels underneath the basketball court. Once the new building was built we had a room pretty much assured to us. Some fencers were on the student board which made suggestions for some of the building's features. Thus, we have a large room with a suspended wooden floor (excellent for aerobics and fencing), mirrors completely covering every wall, and fencing strips of regulation size (though without enough run-off) laid into the wood. They're a part of the room. Even better is that the designer of the building didn't stop with that room. There are smaller aerobics rooms upstairs that have fencing strips -- all correctly sized -- laid into the floor as well. So we're set for space with the rec. center and should be OK for practice and storing equipment so long as the university doesn't add more aerobics classes. The rec. center is a good venue for us and they haven't made any attempts to revise the parking around it, so we're OK. But as far as hosting the NCAA champs? Well, I can't say we'd have much to do with that decision. Edit: When I say club sport I mean that we're for the most part entirely student driven. We make decisions about how to spend our money (which we must raise on our own through fundraisers such as the Call to Arms though there is a sum that we get to split up among the other sport clubs), what competitions to go to, and yadda yadda yadda. The university's athletic department probably doesn't even know we exist.
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kb
Squire
Posts: 261
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 10:53:11 GMT -6
Post by kb on Feb 1, 2006 10:53:11 GMT -6
UH fencing is a club sport. As a matter of fact, we've been told by the university at some point that fencing wasn't a sport and fencers aren't atheletes, so no NCAA for us. Don't quote me on that though Choke, cough, cough, sputter.....NOT athletes? If it turns out that statement is true, I for one, will gladly step up and sponsor an exhibition tournament where they can pick one athlete from each team, and we field a team of say, Wysocki, LoParco, Bibb, Eaton, Skopik the Elder, Sexton, Krudy, Wright....to name a few of the Texas "A" team. Hand them an epee or saber and then see who's standing at the end of a tournament. And press-LOTS of press! If it involved the football, baseball and basketball team members, then we know we'd have some coverage. Jeez. It would be better than the Riggs/King tennis match way back when.
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kb
Squire
Posts: 261
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 10:55:51 GMT -6
Post by kb on Feb 1, 2006 10:55:51 GMT -6
Oh, OH-even better.....I forgot the Ladies! Yeah, get some of our sweet "A" team girls to smile, step on strip and lower that mask...then take them apart!
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 12:41:57 GMT -6
Post by vraptor on Feb 1, 2006 12:41:57 GMT -6
Oh, let me jump in on this sweet little fantasy. We start with three sets of fuh'ball or whatever atheletes think they can take us. We start out with our guys and when they whip their set, we go with the girls and they whip their set. Then, we get to the vets. You know, the guys with the grey beards and glasses. We just love to munch on kids half our age.
To bring this thread back to the original theme, I do lament the loss of the Van Buskirk. I have the deepest admiration for Rice, it's graduates, it's faculty, and it's academic programs but it's lack of support for a formerly glorious fencing program is disturbing. More importantly, Rice's emphasis on the traditional triumvirate of college sports, football, basketball, and baseball, seems to mark the instutution desperately trying to join the rest of the herd of universities.
Given it's reputation, why would it want to?
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Rice U
Feb 1, 2006 12:43:50 GMT -6
Post by kd5mdk on Feb 1, 2006 12:43:50 GMT -6
They want more opportunities for the Mob to play?
Also, I can't knock their baseball, given the took 1st in the nation a year or so back.
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Rice U
Feb 2, 2006 14:00:25 GMT -6
Post by vraptor on Feb 2, 2006 14:00:25 GMT -6
I got no issues with the Mob. In fact, I'd like to put them in with the UNT One O'Clock Jazz Band. That could be fun.
BUT... Don't get me started on college athletcs. Considering what they've evolved into, if we cared for the kids involved, we'd abolish them. With prejudice.
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nemo
Blademaster
mobilis in mobili
Posts: 729
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Rice U
Feb 27, 2006 15:00:14 GMT -6
Post by nemo on Feb 27, 2006 15:00:14 GMT -6
Rice is okay. They don't give a fig about fencing, but their in large company there...
They offered up the use of their name (although nothing else, it seems) so that the event could take off, so I guess they're kinda cool in a damned-with-faint-praise kinda way...
So I guess they are better than nothing.
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Rice U
Apr 14, 2006 2:22:53 GMT -6
Post by Prudence on Apr 14, 2006 2:22:53 GMT -6
Wow.. I won one of my very first awards at the Van Buskirk Memorial tournaments. This is very sad indeed.
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Rice U
Apr 14, 2006 8:20:41 GMT -6
Post by fox on Apr 14, 2006 8:20:41 GMT -6
It really is sad.
I know they included fencing as a PE course in a recent course catalog. I would expect at least a few to move on to the student fencing club.
I've heard the club itself dropped the ball on some paperwork to be filed. Any chance they will have their act better together in time for the fall semester?
BTW, anyone know just what IS the story on the Van Buskirk?
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Rice U
Aug 4, 2006 7:56:35 GMT -6
Post by schlager7 on Aug 4, 2006 7:56:35 GMT -6
I stumbled across an article from the UH newspaper dated March 9, 2000, back when the club president was a guy named Justin Phillips. As I read it, recalled what Katman wrote earlier in this thread.
The article was friendly to the UH club, but the athletic department attitude irked me (Lord knows, nothing new there.)
Since indignation, like misery, loves company, I thought I'd reprint an excerpt here. The article was written after the UH fencers had enjoyed a successful SWIFA victory. A new fencing and scholastic year is beginning. I'd like to think things had improved, but I know better.
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Phillips' band of fencers (allowing for the political correctness of the times -- there are four women on the team) have "foiled" the aspirations of schools that receive thousands of dollars to support their fencing programs.
In contrast, Phillips says his team receives $1,000-worth of equipment per semester from campus Intramural Sports.
This piddling sum doesn't even outfit his team or provide each member with more than a few sabres, epees or foils.
The Cougar fencers pay 100 percent of the cost of attending a match. Lodging, transportation, meals and tournament entry fees come right out of the members' pockets.
The fencing team wrote a letter to the Athletics Department inquiring about how it could become a sanctioned collegiate sport.
The UH Athletic Department told Phillips that fencers are not athletes and fencing isn't a sport.
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Rice U
Aug 4, 2006 16:31:16 GMT -6
Post by kd5mdk on Aug 4, 2006 16:31:16 GMT -6
What do they mean by that? Are they thinking to call the women "fenceresses" or "fencerettes"?
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Rice U
Aug 5, 2006 10:23:23 GMT -6
Post by Aldo N on Aug 5, 2006 10:23:23 GMT -6
What do they mean by that? Are they thinking to call the women "fenceresses" or "fencerettes"? I've been trying to work out that one, myself. I was really galled by the line, "fencers are not athletes and fencing isn't a sport." I suppose this means the Olympics doesn't count as a sporting event? I would so LOVE to find the origial utterer of that statement, throw a mask, jacket and epee on him... and introduce him to Benjy Ungar or Ben Solomon or (you get the idea).
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Rice U
Aug 6, 2006 20:06:01 GMT -6
Post by Prudence on Aug 6, 2006 20:06:01 GMT -6
Oww I like that... I think we should be called fencerettes.. sounds polished and very feminine.
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Rice U
Aug 7, 2006 16:49:29 GMT -6
Post by Dan Gorman on Aug 7, 2006 16:49:29 GMT -6
And then introduce the fencer to an NFL defensive end and prove what? People keep replying like this to these idiot statements and it wouldn't change anything. If you can destroy me at sudoku or a crossword puzzle, does it make that a sport?
Obviously fencing is a sport, but as long as athletic directors view it as something that will take money or other resources from other established sports, they will take the view that fencing isn't a sport. The only way to approach these people is to show them that it won't cause any undue hardship to the athletic department and it will help them with Title IX. That is to say if you are serious about bringing varsity fencing back to Texas, you'd better be ready to endow the sport, especially the women's team.
Just my take.
Dan
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Rice U
Aug 7, 2006 19:34:28 GMT -6
Post by LongBlade on Aug 7, 2006 19:34:28 GMT -6
Well taken! Couldn't have said it better, Dan!
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Rice U
Aug 13, 2006 22:22:20 GMT -6
Post by Prudence on Aug 13, 2006 22:22:20 GMT -6
I agree, well said.
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