Summit City Fencing Club -- Fort Wayne, Indiana

Important Announcement/Update

chuston — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:47:46 +0000

Summit City Fencing Club will be officially dissolving at the end of the current trimester on April 30, 2013 for a variety of reasons. Also, due to a lack of qualified instructors, there will not be any ‘Introduction to Fencing’ classes offered during this trimester. Practices will continue to be held on Wednesday evenings from 7-9 PM at Canterbury Lower School in the New Old Gymnasium, but club operations will be at minimum levels through the end of March 2013. If members wish to participate in practices, please be certain that your membership is current.

Thank you for everyone’s interest and support through the years! It’s been a great ride, and it’s unfortunate that it has to come to an end. We wish everyone the best in the future!

Holiday Practices

chuston — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:31:13 +0000

Winter break has begun for the students and the schools have closed down for the duration, so there will not be any practices until Canterbury reopens in January. To be clear, no practices on December 19th and 26th and on January 2nd. Our first practice in January will be on the 9th. Hope everyone stays safe while traveling and enjoy the holidays, we hope to see you next year!

No practice tonight, Board meeting on 12/10

Steve Koehneke — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:42:38 +0000

Since a lot of folks are probably heading out of town or getting ready for guests, we will not be having practice this evening (11/21). Also, we are scheduling another Board meeting for Monday, Dec 10. Will confirm the exact time and place when it gets a little closer. Though it is a Board meeting, current members are always welcome to attend and we would be especially interested in feedback or ideas at this time. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and we hope to see you all soon!

No practice on 10/31

Steve Koehneke — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:40:11 +0000

No practice tonight due to the presence of ghosts and goblins around Fort Wayne. Happy Halloween!

No more practices at LHSC, Canterbury starts tomorrow!

Steve Koehneke — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:24:42 +0000

Due to a low number of positive RSVPs, the last two practices at the Lutheran Health SportsCenter (operated by Canlan Ice Sports) have been cancelled. The restaurant has been notified and the room will be unavailable. We start up practices again at Canterbury Lower School on Wed, 8/29 — be there or be square!

Members, please mark your calendars for Wed, September 5. We will meet in the Lower School NOG, starting promptly at 7:00 PM. This is a make-up meeting scheduled to address the Presidency and a few other key issues, we hope it won’t take long.

No practice tonight, 8/23

Steve Koehneke — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:11:29 +0000

It seems most people are getting back in the swing of things at school or other routines this week. A request was sent out earlier this afternoon for fencers to RSVP if they are planning on attending tonight, Caitlin has not received any positive responses as of 5:00 PM. As such, we are cancelling practice at the Lutheran Health SportsCenter this evening. We will do the same thing for Tuesday, 8/28, so be sure to let her know if you plan to attend practice that night. Regular practices at Canterbury begin on Wed, 8/29!

Guest Coaches?

Steve Koehneke — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:40:54 +0000

We have gotten some positive feedback about the idea of guest coaches visiting, but we need input from all club members about whether this idea might be feasible or not. The tentative idea is that we would meet somewhere (Canterbury or possibly somewhere else) from approximately 4:00 or 4:30-5:45 PM on certain Sundays. Saturdays are usually tournament days, so those wouldn’t work. Using this schedule on Sundays, the coaches can sleep in during the mornings, come and work with us in the late afternoon, then grab dinner on the way home and be back in their own town not too terribly late in the evening. We would try to do it the first Sunday of every month, maybe every first and third if there was a lot of interest from our fencers. If you would like extra training with experienced coaches and would be willing to carve out that time, please leave a comment below right away! (Even if you said something at one of the practices, please say something again here so we have a very firm idea of how many like this proposal.)

Open Letter to Those Interested in SCFC Activities

Steve Koehneke — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 20:52:09 +0000

To the members and friends of the Summit City Fencing Club:

Due to a variety of factors, the operations of the SCFC will be severely curtailed from now until at least the end of 2012. These issues require the club to discontinue most of our activities until we can “start fresh,” hopefully in the new year. What does this mean?
1.) Practices will be held just once a week on Wednesdays. These will be regular practices with footwork, blade drills, and other exercises, but just on that one day. We are tentatively planning to hold practices at least twice a week starting in 2013, but that may be subject to change.
2.) No Intro to Fencing classes offered until sometime in 2013, exact details to be determined. We will update the “Learn How to Fence” page once we do set something up, but until then, nothing will be offered for any age group.
3.) No tournaments hosted by the SCFC in the 2012-13 season.

It is somewhat unfortunate because we had hoped to capture some of the “Olympic spirit” and get a bunch of new people involved this year, but the logistics make it impossible at this time. We hope that current fencers will continue here in the Fall semester and we look forward to new people signing up for classes & discovering a love for the sport in the new year.

The officers will meet sometime in November to discuss the status of the organization and try to set some reasonable goals for early 2013. Hopefully, things will be looking more positive at that point. Either way, we hope to have more updates on both classes and practices as 2012 draws to a close.

We thank you for your interest in and/or support for the Summit City Fencing Club. We hope we will be back “better and stronger” in the coming months, but for now, circumstances dictate that we minimize our activities. If you would like to be included in our mailing list, please send a message to scfc@summitcityfencing.org and we will definitely let you know when we have news.

Sincerely,
GREG TOWSLEY, Acting President
STEVE KOEHNEKE, Instructor

Renew USFA membership NOW to keep fencing!

Steve Koehneke — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:36:23 +0000

The fencing season (according to USA Fencing) actually begins each August, though the next time the SCFC charges dues is in September. Due to a change in insurance requirements, ALL fencers must be current members of the USFA when practicing or doing other activities. You may pay the $5 Non-Competitive fee now and upgrade later, but we need everyone who is going to the ice rink to join/renew national membership before they can be allowed to fence. Of course, if you do get the full Competitive membership now, you will receive the discount on club dues in September. The good news is that you can do it online right away at this link:
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Fencing/Membership.aspx

Media Update for Mon, 7/30!!!

Steve Koehneke — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 01:13:14 +0000

Almost at the last minute, Randy Spieth from WANE-TV asked if anyone from the Summit City Fencing Club would like to demonstrate what the sport is all about, as part of a piece on “Olympic sports” like gymnastics and swimming. Caitlin Huston and Steve Koehneke fenced some saber together, then Steve spoke briefly with Randy on camera. Check it out during the 11:00 PM broadcast tonight, tell your friends!

Practices at LHSC in July and August

Steve Koehneke — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:22:16 +0000

Doing something slightly different for July and August, we’ll be back at the Lutheran Health Sportscenter (Canlan Ice Sports, 3869 Ice Way) for practices! We’ll be meeting on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 7-9 PM, upstairs in the banquet room. Please note that we will have a limited amount of equipment on hand, so fencers should be sure to bring their own!

Three Rivers Festival Parade

Admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:12:02 +0000

With the parade a little over a week away (7/14) now would be a good time to get some RSVPs. The more members we have marching, the better our exposure. On the day of the parade we will be meeting at Canterbury at 7:45am. We will be carpooling to the parade to lessen the mess at the staging area. We need our members to be in full fencing garb (minus blades). If you plan on marching, let us know here or send an email to the club email address (scfc@summitcityfencing.org).

Thank you and hope to see you there.

No practice on 6/28 or during week of July 4

Steve Koehneke — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:03:56 +0000

Due to a combination of anticipated hot weather AND a large number of fencers being out of town, there will be no practice tonight (6/28) or all next week (7/1-7/7). Stay tuned for more information on where we will be practicing for the remainder of July and August!

Middle School Fencing Camp starts on Monday!

Steve Koehneke — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:08:41 +0000

The Middle School Fencing Camp, held at Canterbury School, starts on Monday (6/18). We currently have 10 students registered, with a maximum of 14 slots, so sign up ASAP if your daughter or son (grades 5-8) wants to take part! Click here for more information (page 6 in program guide) and to register:
http://www.canterburyschool.org/parents/camps/index.aspx