Tampa Bay Fencers 2005 Year in Review

TBF : Fencing is Not Just Competition

TBF Teaches Foil at St Lawrence Catholic School.

(Tampa,FL) Through September, Don and Dr. Burns taught a few students at his son, Ian's, school - St. Lawrence Catholic. These lessons took place for about 6 weeks every Friday. All of the students attending relished the opportunity to finally reveal their inner fencing fighter personas. Besides, as Brian Burns puts it, "A day of fencing beats a day in the office."

We Provide Core Volunteers for World Veterans Championships

(Tampa, FL). This Labor Day weekend was the second time that the Central FL Division hosted the Veterans World Championships.  In 2002, Terry was fencing foil only, and came in 9th.  This year, Terry represented the US in all three weapons in the 60+ Women’s categories and came in 8th in Saber, 12th  in Foil and 17th in Epee. Central FL fencing mover Jim Campoli spearheaded the efforts both times to bring the World Veterans Championship to town and has made huge strides in making the Tampa Bay area a premiere fencing locale.

Terry was responsible for all of the social functions of this exciting tournament attended by 18 different countries. A special treat during the banquet was a number  choreographed by Terry to a theme from "Fiddler on the Roof" danced by TBFencers Ian and Brian Burns, and Jessica Danh. Jess also danced an Irish Step dance; Terry danced with two friends in a Flamenco number; and two other friends did dances from the Scandinavian countries, all to keep with the International mode of the tournament. Kudos were offered by all of the international competitors who saw the performances.

TBF coach Don also provided web master services for the past year. During the event, the scores were posted every night reporting timely scores world wide. Besides being the web master for the event. Don was available to help in every way possible during the competition itself, including coaching Terry and making buttons for all the countries, who got very excited about them -business was hopping!  Personalized buttons for all!

Fencing Demo at John Knox Village

(Tampa, FL) Don and Terry did a repeat of the fencing dance number at a fencing demo at a nursing home in November.  The dance number has all fencing moves in it, so first  a fencing demo was given to explain what fencing is about, then better understanding of the dance).  These geezers aren’t going to fence, but they seemed to enjoy the moment. Just another way we like to bring the joys of fencing to the community.

3rd Annual Pirate Festival and TBF

(Clearwater, FL) TBFencer Matt Richardson was Director of Entertainment of the 3rd Annual Pirate Festival held in Clearwater this November 18-20 at Coachman Park.  He allowed the TBF club to have a fencing ring, where we outfitted attendees with jackets swords and balloons on the tops of masks and they broke the balloons.  Some money was made for the club and there were even some people interested in coming to clubs to learn to really fence!  For many years Matt was a Renaissance Fair employee, and  has a strong background in Stage Combat.  He trained all of the staff for the weekend and it was quite successful. Fellow TBFer and Festival actor, Ray played other characters that weekend as well. We congratulate Matt and the rest of the Pirate Festival staff for a successful swashbucking weekend and hope to do it again next year!

Competition Achievements for 2005
(It's not all here, we're still updating!)

January

Tampa Bay Melee, Land O'Lakes, FL. Hosted by Tampa Bay Fencers.

February

March

1st Place Classical Foil Tournament - West Palm Beach, FL. Classical/Historical Fencing. Don Conrad Uy

April

May

June

1st Place Foil - Grand Assault of Arms, New York, NY. Classical/Historical Fencing. Don Conrad Uy

1st Place Dueling Sword (Epee) - Grand Assault of Arms, New York, NY. Classical/Historical Fencing. Don Conrad Uy

July

1st Place Foil (W60+) - US Fencing Nationals, San Diego, CA. Terry Abrahams

August

September

World Veterans Championship, Tampa, FL. Terry Abrahams represents US in all three weapons.

October

1st Place W Foil, Great Pumpkin Open, Orlando, FL. Sarah Collins

3rd Place DU Foil, War of the Roses , Largo, FL. Sarah Collins

November

December

1st Place Foil (W Vets) December Duel, Gainesville, FL. Terry Abrahams.

2nd Place Foil (W60+) NAC, Pittsburgh, PA, Terry Abrahams

2nd Place Sabre (W60+) NAC, Pittsburgh, PA, Terry Abrahams

3rd Place Epee (W60+) NAC, Pittsburgh, PA, Terry Abrahams

Junior Olympic Qualifiers, Dunedin, FL.- Jessica Danh and Sarah Collins