Extension of age eligibility for youth fencers to make up for cancelled competitions due to Covid-19
competitive fencing experience lost
In the 2019/2020 fencing year, youth fencers will lose almost a third of a year of competitive fencing due to the coronavirus. For these young fencers, this time lost in a crucial period of their development as fencers is tough to replace. The loss is even sharper for those fencers due to age out immediately after Summer Nationals 2020.
How do we get this time back for our youth fencers?
As a thoughtful and bright youth fencer so articulately puts it in her very persuasive letter to USA Fencing’s Board, Executive Director and Tournament Committee Chair, the solution may lie in an extension of age eligibility for fencing’s youngest competitors
As we inch back to normality, we encourage USA Fencing to respond positively to this heartfelt letter from a youth fencer and extend age eligibility for affected youth fencers.
Youth fencer’s letter to USA Fencing to extend age eligibility
“Dear Members of the Board of Directors of USA Fencing; Chair of the Tournament Committee of USA Fencing; and Kris Ekeren, Executive Director of USA Fencing:
My name is __________, I am 13 years old and I fence at _____ in _________, California. My favorite part of fencing is competing. I was excited because I had 2 NACs, an SYC and several RYCs planned during the next 4 months. It was very disappointing to find out that all these events had to be cancelled, but I completely understand that it had to happen. I, and many other youth fencers, would have gained a lot of experience at these tournaments and we are never going to be able to make that up. Therefore, I have a proposition for you: due to the current unique circumstances, USFA should make a one-time change to the competition age groups so that all youth fencers can stay in the age category that they are in presently for the 2020-2021 competition year.
Even though I am not aging out of Y-14 this year, there are a lot of kids who will be after Summer Nationals. I don’t think it is fair that they are going to miss months of competition which hold opportunities to gain points, ratings, medals, and tournament experience. Personally, I would be quite worried if I had to go directly into Cadet next year. During the next few months, I was planning on switching from a #4 blade to a #5, and now I am having trouble timing the change since I can’t get any live practice with the #5 right now. I cannot be the only fencer in this position right now and I bet many kids feel the same way as I do.
My proposal would benefit both USFA and youth fencers. USFA would benefit since they will receive more competition fees because more kids will register for more events. Given that all clubs are shut down, there will be no new fencers preparing for competition. This means that the kids who were competing before the closures are also going to be the only ones competing in the fall. I don’t believe that all fencers will take advantage of this opportunity. Some of the oldest Y-14 fencers (who could be 16 next season) will prioritize Cadet and Junior events and won’t want to fence down. To avoid having kids fence too many events and overcrowd each event, USFA could enforce a rule limiting the amount of events a fencer can participate in per day. Many fencers, myself included, would be relieved to know we would have more time to prepare before we aged out of our categories. Recently, the NCAA granted spring athletes another season of eligibility. They have said that the eligibility change could be thought of “like a red-shirt year” for college athletes. Youth fencers should be able to have a similar opportunity. I hope you will consider my proposal because it is a good solution to a distressing situation facing both fencers and USFA.”
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