Does anyone know where to find an example for a typical fencing resume? A college coach is asking for my DDs fencing resume and some videos. My DD is an unrated fencer, but does have some tournys under her belt. Would a resume be simply a summary of her instruction and a list of competitions? How in depth should the list of competitions be: overall finish, record in DE, record in pool, # of touches for/against, etc.?
Videos we can try to get at her next competition - should these be a whole bout or edited down?
What about practice videos - instruction, or just free fencing?
I tried googling for fencing resumes, but I keep getting nothing but fencing installer resumes. My DD’s club coach says she always knows when it is spring because people start calling her for privacy fence/chain link fence quotes.
That “Better Fencer” e-book (free) I mentioned upstream has advice on preparing a fencing bio/resume (and videos)…skip to page 36 for what you are looking for.
@saharafrog I sent you a PM as well, but here’s a sample resume as best as it can be cut-and-pasted here. Some more accomplished fencer’s parents may include national points, international rankings, etc (or have other suggestions), but this worked for our DD who did not have national points or international fencing, but was a solid B fencer. She included just enough event results to keep it on one printed page. She only included ROCs, RJCCs, and NACs in her results, and only events in the prior year or so.
Mary Elf
123 Main Street
North Pole NY 11111 mary.elf@northpole.org
Mobile: 555-555-5555
Entering: September 2017
Planned Major: Sled Engineering
Academics
• North Pole NY High School Class of 2017
• Current GPA: x.xx (unweighted), y.yy (weighted)
• Current Class Rank: X of xxx
• ACT: XX Composite (Single Sitting April 2016)
• SAT II Subject Tests: Chemistry (XX), Biology (XX)
• AP Exams: Bio (XX), Eng Comp (XX), Chem (XX)
Fencing
• Weapon: Sabre (Right-Handed)
• Current Rating: B2016
• Club: Claus Fencing Club
• Personal Coach: Kris Kringle 555-555-1234 (mobile) kris@northpole.org
• Referee Ratings: 8 (saber), 9 (epee)
*Recent Results/i
Date, Competition, Event, Event Rating, Result
Dec 2016, Sleigh-Packing RJCC, JWS, A2, 3rd of 35 (earned B16)
Oct 2016, Spooky ROC, Div 2 WS, B2, 3rd of 46
…
@saharafrog It really doesn’t have to be anything fancy or complicated. All on one page, the first section is the demographics with address, birthdate, contact info, school, grades and test scores. Second section would be the fencing section with weapon, handedness, rating and ranking, years fenced, coach and club and contact info of the coach. Third would be list of all notable results from amongst all of her tournaments. If you can upload onto Youtube her highlight videos and in the email you send to the coach can provide the link to the video.
P.S. after I posted this, I realized that Stencils and Sevendad already beat me to the punch and gave you a lot better answer.
Thank you. This helps quite a bit. Though she’s been taking lessons for about 5 years, all of her tournament results should be able to fit on one page.
Hey, I think we were at that “Spooky ROC”, too. That was a tough one!
One other thing I’d add to Stencil’s great line-by-line sample is the fencer’s NCAA Eligibility Center Number (if s/he has one). That allows the college coach to know you’ve at least started the process of getting the prospect’s eligibility certified.
SevenDad, when would you suggest creating an account for NCAA? I see from the link you provided, there are two options; Div 1 and Div 3/Undecided. I don’t want to be presumptive and create a Div 1 account when daughter has not been recruited…
From the NCAA site: “You should register with the NCAA Eligibility Center at the beginning of your sophomore year in high school. You will want to make sure you are on track to graduate on time and meet the NCAA’s required initial-eligibility standards.”
Another source says not to worry about it until after junior year…but to do it July 1 after junior year. Maybe others can chime in?
Regarding the Div1/Div3 distinction, I can’t say…when my daughter registered it was still called “The Clearinghouse” and I don’t recall the portal even giving her a choice at the time. Sorry I can’t be more helpful about that.
@fencingmom My D registered the middle of junior year. I think the NCAA just wants your money earlier, but there was no reason to register sophomore year. Like SevenDad, I don’t recall needing to make a Div1/3 distinction. If it were us, I’d just have put D1 in as my D intended to talk to both D1 and D3 schools.
@fencingmon You may have already seen this from the NCAA page. Seems it will not be difficult switching to the certificate account once you have the profile set up, if afterwards you decide to pursue a Div 1 or 2 school. But after July 1 if an official visit is to be made, then you will have to have the certificate account beforehand.
“1. Certification Account:
You need to be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center to compete at an NCAA
Division I or II school. You also need to be registered with a Certification Account before you can make
official visits or sign a National Letter of Intent in Division I or II.
2. Profile Page:
If you plan to compete at a Division III school or are currently unsure in which division you
want to compete, create a Profile Page. If at any time you wish to pursue a Division I or II path, you will be
able to transition to a Certification Account.”
Fencingmom, please do not get overwrought about the NCAA registration. As you can see from Quiksword’s post above, the registration requirement is only required for actual NCAA competition. The registration requirement was actually part of the check list we received from our school of choice. You have plenty of time and it will all work out.
I defer to BrooklynRye on all things related to fencing recruiting.
But I will say that going through the step of the NCAA Clearinghouse/Eligibility Center was interesting in that it allowed you to see what courses at your kid’s high school could be counted toward the NCAA requirements. (FWIW, it’s fairly easy to meet the requirements, which I think are designed more for the “big money” sports.)
I like @stencils’ sample resume above, but I think Mary Elf made a mistake by neglecting to mention her result in the holiday classic tournament, “Sins of the Fleche”.
Very specific question: According to the rules I’ve seen described, a fencer can meet with college coaches at SN “after his/her events have concluded” (or something like that).
Can anyone chime in on whether that refers to individual events or all events (including team events)?
@SevenDad I believe the “after his/her events have concluded” only applied to the exception to allow fencers to talk to coaches at Summer Nationals before July 1st when Nationals started very early. Since Summer Nationals starts later this year, I think the standard NCAA rule of July 1 holds this year regardless of the event schedule. There’s no specific noted exception this year to the July 1 date noted in the recruitment calendar.
There were a couple of years where nationals started early enough that it was plausible that a rising senior would have completed all of their events prior to July 1. Fencing sometimes gets an exception to the July 1 date when this is the case so fencers who have finished didn’t need to spend multiple days waiting at nationals before being able to speak with coaches.
Does anyone have insight into what’s happened to Stanford’s fencing program? I’ve heard rumors their program is woefully underfunded and is hanging on by threads. They don’t seem to actively recruit and some comments further back in this thread say as much. Anyone?
Also curious about Brown’s program…with a month left before Summer Nationals, I’ve not seen any announcements that they’ve hired a new head coach. One would think they’d want to have a coach in place by then (if not sooner) for recruiting purposes…
@superdomestique A verbal or non-binding commitment is basically a voluntary agreement that can be broken by either party. A written, binding commitment, or NLI, is made to the school, not the coach. DIII (Brown is DI) schools can only offer non-binding commitments. An NLI needs to have athletic financial aid attached to it, which I understand the Ivys do not do, so Brown’s commitments should all be non-binding.
I suppose, if you were accepted ED, then you are a basically bound to that school, but that is more an academic bind than an athletic one. To an incoming freshman, I’d bet there is not much of a distinction though.
