Why are so many regional qualifying events starting on Friday?
The 2022/2023 season has a record number of regional qualifying events that start on a Friday. Of the 101 events listed by US Fencing, 23 of them have a weekday start.
SYCs have usually started on Fridays and run through the weekend because they are larger events open to fencers nationally and require more time to complete. One SYC stands out for having a Thursday start requiring some fencers who must travel to miss up to 2 or 3 school days to participate.
The RYC, RJCC and ROC have typically been standalone tournaments that can be completed over 2 weekend days. But this season, organizers have combined RYCs with RJCCs, or RJCCs with ROCs, substantially enlarging the events which now stretch over 3 days.
The Friday start for these regional events translates into at least one missed school day for fencers with an event on Friday, and possibly 2 missed school days if that fencer must travel to the event the day before.
The scheduling of week day starts for regional events create a difficult choice for fencing families. While fencers have always accepted the need to miss school to participate in NACs, fencers should not be expected to miss school for a regional event as well.
The need to miss even more school to participate in a regional tournament creates unnecessary stress for the young fencer, and seems to contradict the American Development Model for youth sports that USA Fencing is looking to adopt.
We recognize that holding a single category regional tournament, like a standalone RYC may be a money losing proposition for the fencing clubs who hold them, hence the need to increase the number of events per tournament to make the economics work. Many fencing clubs depend on the proceeds earned from the regional tournaments to fund their annual operations and cannot afford to lose money on them.
Balancing the needs of fencers who should not have to miss school for a regional qualifying tournament, and the needs of the club tournament organizers to come out cash positive is something that USA fencing needs to sort out for the 2023/2024 season.
Note: Thank you to the parents who brought this issue to FP’s attention. FP has raised the issue with US Fencing in a conversation earlier this week.
