Fed up with the current state of things, the University’s club fencing team is
looking to make a change.
The team is one of many in the Pacific Northwest looking to establish a collegiate fencing circuit that will bring better opportunities for teams in the region. The club has been working closely with Portland State, Reed College and Eastern Washington, among others, according to Tony Dundon, the club’s coordinator.
“These tournaments (would be) all-inclusive, big meets where all the fencers compete against one another in different events,” Dundon said. “We would award the best individuals and would award the best teams.”
Dundon said the circuit could start as early as next year. This year functioned as a trial year in which teams tried their best to schedule tournaments and work out logistical problems.
“This is still grassroots,” he said. “We’re still trying to build up the connections and build up a stable system. It doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. There has to be something we can base it on.”
Head coach and graduate student Adam Lake believes it will take some time for the circuit to see a completely developed form.
“In terms of a self-sufficient circuit with rotating tournaments and a real structure to it, I will guess maybe it will take four or five years to really get to that point,” he said.
Organizers plan to work with a coach at Beaverton’s Northwest Fencing Center who has prior experience in starting up a fencing circuit.
“He’s going to help us with the organizational portion and things such as how you set up a separate bank account for the circuit to have some funds to pay your referees and things like that,” Lake said.
If this year’s tournaments were an indication of things to come, then teams shouldn’t have any financial issues. Teams that hosted tournaments this year all found themselves returning a profit, Dundon said.
Collegiate tournaments have been held very infrequently in recent years, he said. The goal for a future circuit would be to hold up to six tournaments each school year.
Last weekend, the team was set to attend a tournament hosted by PSU until it was canceled over what some Oregon team members believe to be an administrative issue brought up by PSU officials. The tournament would have been the fourth that the team had competed in this school year.
“We were looking at having three or four teams,” Dundon said. “It was going to be a fair-sized tournament. We were going to have 35 to 40 fencers.”
Northwest Fencing Center, where the Oregon team hosted its tournament this year, was set to be the venue for the canceled tournament.
Dundon hopes teams can rely on the center as a venue for many of the circuit’s tournaments. With the circuit’s schools all from the Pacific Northwest, the center’s centralized location will ease travel expenditures for cash-strapped clubs.
“Essentially, we solve a lot of our budget problems by changing our location, rather than trying to host the tournament at everybody’s school,” Dundon said.
With a currently limited collegiate tournament schedule, some fencers enter non-collegiate tournaments, such as ones sponsored by the United States Fencing Association. These tournaments often require an advanced skill level and aren’t friendly to those new to the sport. Better accommodation for these novice fencers is another advantage the circuit
could bring.
“I think a circuit would definitely give people like me that are a just starting more opportunities to fence and participate,” freshman Kenneth Hall III said. “With the way things are going right now, there just aren’t any tournaments available that a fencer like me would be able to go to and benefit from.”
“(The circuit) would be good for everybody,” Dundon said. “The competition makes everyone better. It would be better for the fencing community in general.”
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