Attention online Spartan Fencing community!

As of today, our practices will begin at 8:30 PM, a half an hour later than usual. This is to accommodate a surge in basketball activity in the IM facility as the annual intramural basketball tournament has started.

But worry not! We will continue to have two hour practices that continue until 10:30 PM at night, on the same Monday-Thursday schedule. The only catch is, our first half an hour of practice will be devoted to physical conditioning, and will be carried out on the second floor of the IM building.

If you are a late arrival to our practice and can't find us, try popping open doors to the squash courts on the north half of the second floor. We are in all likelihood stretching in one of them.

Sorry for any inconvenience; stay tuned for more updates soon.

In an effort to put more meaning behind the numbers on the website, I'm going to try a squad by squad writeup to accompany the pictures and videos of our last tournament that are in the process of migrating to website. Please let me know what you think. Enjoy!

As a whole the tournament was undoubtedly a success for MSU. Womens Saber led the way, ending the day with an overall undefeated record of 3-0. Standout performers of the day were sabreurs Meg Holt and Harriet Mctigue, both routinely stepping up to the strip and putting down their opponents the entire morning. The Mens Saber squad had a tough day ending 0-3 overall, but lost two schools by one bout, and UDM by two bouts. Keep it up guys, we'll get them next time.

The Mens and Womens Epee squads ended the day 2-1, both boasting victories over varsity opponent Wayne State owing to some fine bouts from squad leaders Alandra Greenlee and Steve Moyers. Key to the Womens Epee success was relative newcomer to the fencing team Chelsea Champlin, and her win over seasoned NCAA competitor Desiree Kelly. While the Wayne St. Mens squad was fencing shorthanded without their 3-time NCAA champion Slava Zingerman, Wayne remains a well trained and potent force and the success our Epee squads enjoyed against them is worthy of special notice.

Rounding out the team, Womens foil went 1-2 for the day, and Mens foil ended up 2-1. The end results of the day do not speak to the obstacles these squads overcame in achieving their victories.

The Womens foil squad came off of tough losses to Wayne St. and UDM, before falling behind three bouts to rival U of M. Led by captain and club president Shaina Selbig, the womens foilists rallied to win the next four consecutive bouts, culminating in an undefeated performance from Shaina to win the squad and seal a womens team victory over the school as a whole.

In nearly 3 years, the mens foil squad had not beaten any of the schools they competed against this previous Sunday. This day saw wins over both UDM and U of M, despite both schools continuing to enjoy significant advantages of total overall fencing experience and higher average USFA ratings. It is also the first time to our records that MSU has defeated the University of Michigan in both mens and womens foil on the same day

All in all, this tournament saw all squads tested by two fine varsity teams and the #2 overall club fencing squad in the country last year and we were not only competitive with these schools, but victorious in many instances. Hats off to all that came with and supported the team; Hope you're as hungry as we are for more success in two weeks, in South Bend. Go Green!

Hello again online MSU fencing community!

We hope that the holiday season left you feeling refreshed and ready for another round of dominating performances from your Spartan fencing team!

After only two weeks of practice we've already attended another tournament at the University of Detroit Mercy, and while detailed results have yet to come in, the lady Spartans went 2-1 overall against the toughest opponents in the state, while the Mens team went 1-2 with a very close loss to their rivals, the University of Michigan.

Our practices have picked up where they left off, 8-10PM in the basement of IM West, and so have our website updates. The awards section and tournament results in particular have been largely populated with data, though a combination of a finnicky database and lack of printed results from some tournaments have left much of the overall squad reports not readily viewable; rest assured, this will be ironed out within the week.

Thanks for reading! And look for more updates in the very near future. Go Green!

-Will Bonner

Hello again online MSU fencing community.

There's good news and bad news. The good news is new fencers now have profiles in the members section of the page! The bad news is that your webmaster hasn't yet finished going through the photos of new fencers to place with their names, so placeholder images have been used instead while I resize and upload all of the photos.

Also, tournament results aren't publicly available on the site yet. But I assure you it's being worked on and will be up to date in the coming days. In the meantime, I have a long overdue appointment with a bed in my apartment. Thanks for reading

-Will Bonner

Hello again online MSU fencing community!

Apologies again for the huge delay in updates; A variety of school, illness, fencing and jury duty related activities have contributed to keeping me away from my duties as webmaster. But worry not! For a massive update is in the works, including tournament results and updated fencer profiles. Look for the update by this coming Sunday at the latest.

In the meantime, we of the Michigan State University would like to sincerely thank all of the parents, coaches, veteran fencers and students that have put forth the tremendous effort and commitment that made the start of our competitive season so successful. In particular, we'd also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to our new corporate sponsor, SundBerg Ferar for recently coming out and generously supporting our team.

Truly, you've all given us a lot to be thankful for, and we hope you have a safe and blessed holiday. Go Green

-Will Bonner

Hello again online MSU fencing community! Sorry, it's been far too long since I've provided you with an update.

Most importantly is the news that the date of our first tournament has been shifted. The tournament held at Chicago will now be the weekend after Ohio State, November 21st. So sorry if you'd made or avoided plans to make that weekend.

We're also going to be hosting some inhouse tournaments; the annual Green and White tournaments. These are meant to provide a means for squad captains to help decide who gets to travel to the first tournament. Specifics of dates will be decided by weapon captains over the course of this week, so if you are interested in traveling with us make every effort to attend practices this week, or contact your weapon captain if you cannot.

Of course, there are many other factors besides performance at the Green and White that get weighed into travel consideration, and membership on the travel squad can be changed at any time at the discretion of the weapon captain. Keep in mind that the team has mandated a minimum 2 practice per week for travel eligibility, as well as a record of your dues for the semester paid. Individual squads may vary slightly as to the practice requirement; again, ask your squad captain if you're concerned about your ability to make the necessary practices.

We'll be doing equipment orders soon too. If you're a newbie looking to get a full starting kit or a returner in need of some replacement equipment, we'll be filing a group order and getting some manner of discount due to the size of the order. Keep in mind that there are some equipment requirements if you wish to participate in any fencing tournament with the team or on your own. Specific questions about brands, quantities and necessities should once again be directed to squad captains

That'll do it for todays update. But check in again soon! The next task for your webmaster is to update the squad rosters with pictures and profiles. Similarly, if you're interested in appearing on the website make an effort to get to practice some time this week for us to make your profile! Thanks for reading

-Will Bonner

Hello again MSU Fencers!
We've got something close to a tournament schedule for the year. Times and specific building locations for most are still TBA, but you can mark the dates at any rate

That said, here's the tournament dates:
9/26 - MSU USFA individual tournament
11/15 - Ohio State Duals
11/21 - University of Chicago Duals
12/6 - Wayne State Individuals
1/17 - University of Detroit Mercy Duals
2/6-7 - Notre Dame Duals
2/20-21 - Big Ten Duals, Northwestern
3/6-7 Midwestern Fencing Conference Championships, Notre Dame
4/10-11 USA Club Fencing Championships, Swarthmore (PA) 

For the collegiate tournaments, travel spots will be determined by squad captains on the week of the tournament on a tournament by tournament basis. So if you're interested in traveling with us to tournaments, plan on practicing hard throughout the entire season. If you put forth the effort, it will be noticed.

Thanks to everyone that's been showing up to practice, and a special thanks to those that read these updates. You guys are the best! See you at practice

-Will Bonner

Hello again online MSU Fencing community.

We've seen the conclusion of the first week of MSU classes this fall and with it the beginning of what looks to be one of the strongest seasons for MSU fencing ever.

Following up from a tremendously successful Sparticipation effort by the team came an absolutely enormous turnout for both of our practices this week. Most of our practice time was spent learning or reviewing the fundamentals of fencing footwork, getting to know one another with name games and breaking the ice with freeze tag. All in all, a good week to be a part of the team.

Also, for those that don't know: THERE IS NO FENCING PRACTICE THIS MONDAY as we will be observing Labor Day. Practices will resume at their normal time and location (8PM-10PM in the basement of IM West) from this Tuesday Sept 8th and will continue till Thursday the 10th. After that, we will resume the Monday thru Thursday practice schedule that we will stick to until the end of the competitive season, unless otherwise noted.



Before I sign off, I'd like to offer a note of thanks and encouragement to all those new to fencing that have come out to check out the club. We really do appreciate your interest in the sport and the initiative you've put forth in attending our practices, and hope that you continue to do so.

I also ask on behalf of the rest of the team; regardless of how tired, bored or discouraged you may feel from these first few practice sessions that focus heavily on footwork and conditioning, please stick with us for at least another few weeks as we begin to incorporate drills with weapons into our practices.

While bladework is one of the primary draws to the sport of fencing, it is absolutely critical as a matter of competence and safety that you internalize these basic principals of footwork and form before we put a sword in your hands. Traditional fencing schools in Italy and France require new students to spend months practicing footwork patterns before they are allowed to train with weapons, and these countries have been dominant in the sport for decades.


So please bear with us. Shuffling up and down the floor of the IM basement may not seem like the swashbuckling affair you'd envisioned of fencing, but I can guarantee you this much: Put forth a good honest effort with us and you'll learn the fundamentals of a sport that has been practiced the world over for hundreds of years, that has practitioners of all ages and backgrounds.


Thanks again for your time and interest in the MSU fencing program. Hope to see you at practice.

-Will Bonner
Webmaster

Greetings again, online MSU Fencing Community.

I've been given a lot of pertinent info to pass on to you with important upcoming MSU Fencing events, such as Sparticipation, our first practice and our first USFA tournament!


First things first: Sparticipation. Every year at the onset of the school year clubs turn out teams of people to look for newcomers, and the Fencing club is no exception. This coming Tuesday on September 1st from 5-8 we will have a booth out on Munn Field offering information, conversation and fencing demonstrations for all interested parties.

For newcomers it's a terrific opportunity to meet some fencers, ask questions, watch demos and even touch real fencing weapons, though you'll have to come to practice if you want to learn how to use them. For returning fencers it's a terrific opportunity to meet newcomers, answer questions, preform demos and even let newcomers touch fencing weapons, if they ask nicely and don't appear crazy. Notice a pattern here?

And while Sparticipation is completely optional for people that want to join the fencing team, it isn't for those that wish to remain on it. We can't drive to your house and force you to attend but as anyone on the team knows, events like Sparticipation are extremely important to the future of the team and require a good turnout of veterans to be a success. So if you're a returner interested in traveling this year, you'd better bring your butt to Munn on Tuesday or a darn good excuse for not showing up (i.e. abducted by aliens).



If you miss Sparticipation, hopefully you can make it to our first practice. I've been told that our first practice will be on September 2nd, in the basement of IM West where we usually practice from 8 PM to 10 PM, a half an hour earlier than our schedule was last year.

General practice information:

No prior experience with fencing is necessary, nor is experience with any other kind of sport. Similarly, we do not expect you to bring anything with you besides some gym clothes, a willingness to work and a readiness to learn. Much of the first few weeks of practice will be basic athletic conditioning and fencing technique such as proper footwork, en guard stance and attacks and defenses. This is critical for developing not only the technique necessary to fence competitively but also to avoid injury from poor form or poor conditioning. As such these early practices are just as critical for veterans as they are for newcomers and everyone on the team is expected to attend all practices circumstances permit them to.

Directions:

The IM West building can be found on an interactive campus map here. Or, you can look East across the street from Munn Field where we will be for Sparticipation and see the place. Once inside the front doors just head to the basement from the main stairwell on the East side of the building, or ask IM West or a fencer heading to practice where to go as both ought to know where to go. If you want to get a look at where you're going, you can look at the shots of the Turf Arena near the bottom of the page listed here.



Lastly, our first USFA Tournament will be hosted a good while from now, on September 26th in East Lansing with mixed open events in all weapons going on at various points throughout the day. If you're new to fencing you don't need to stress yourself out about this, but for any and all interested in getting back into competitive shape this is an excellent tournament to work out the kinks and maybe even earn some new USFA ratings. Details and pre-registration are available here.

That should leave all the bases covered for now. Quite a long post, if I do say so myself! But there's a lot to be said as we get ever closer to kicking off a new season of Spartan Fencing. Hope to see everyone at Sparticipation and practice in a week.

-Will Bonner

Hello world! And welcome to the Michigan State Fencing Club website!

The purpose of this update is firstly to commemorate the official passing of the webmaster torch from MSU alum and legendary sabreur Ryan Wagoner to yours truly. He's left me with a truly great example of web design to take care of, and I hope to pick up where he left off in taking it up another notch over the next year. By the same token, please don't hesitate to notify me if you've found something I've unknowingly broken in the process of tinkering with the site.

As my second order of business, I've updated the roster and information listed under our Contact list. If you have any questions regarding the club that you can't find answers to elsewhere on the site, feel free to drop any of us a line.

Also, look for an update soon equipped with the details of how our MSU fencers did at summer nationals.

That should just about cover it for now. But stay tuned for more news in the coming days and weeks as we get closer to the onset of another competitive fencing season at Michigan State. Go Green!

-Will Bonner

MSU Fencing Webmaster

Spring is here, and among all the other things it means, it means elections for the MSU Fencing Club. With nine(!) outgoing seniors, a virtually entirely new leadership group is being put in place. This year's elections were held at the annual club banquet on April 19th.

And the Winners Are:
President: Shaina Selbig
Vice President: Alexis Duffey
Sectretary: Katie Friederichs
Treasurer: Jordan Boniface
Recruiter: Erin vonKronenberger
Webmaster: Will Bonner
Historian: Chris Walsh

Men's Captain: Ryan Majewski
Women's Captain: Meg Holt

Congratulations to all the winners. The club will continue to perform at a high level under your leadership.

As a personal note, I will be with you until the end of the summer, and at that point will be handing over the reins to the awesomely alliterative Webmaster Will. It's been an honor and incredible joy to fence for four years and to forge this internet identity for the club.

-Ryan Wagoner
(almost former) MSU Webmaster