@Marypaha - Gamal is clearly no longer with HFT. He was replaced by Adam Maczik. There was an official announcement back at the end of October, announcing Maczik’s hiring, but no mention of him replacing Mahmoud or of Gamal leaving.
My strong surmise, is that new head coach, Daria Schneider, is cleaning house. Maczik is a local guy, teaching at Natick High School for the past several years. He has Olympic-level experience particularly in areas of conditioning that may be invaluable to HFT.
Btw, I think you mean epee’ coach. Gamal was the coach of the Egyptian National Epee Team.
Hahaha! I knew that he was the coach of Egyptian National Epee Team. I don’t know why I said saber ??♀️
Thank you for the info about coach Maszik.
Waiting for the college acceptances rumors ?
Pleased to say that my son had now been accepted to his first choice school and will be fencing at an excellent academic university. I want to thank SevenDad and especially BrooklynRye for all the PMs during the process over the past several months - through pre-read, LL and finally ED acceptance last week. Your experience and wise counsel and words of support and encouragement were appreciated and will always be remembered. The information on this site is fantastic for all fencers that want to continue to fence in college, even those not crushing it on the JPL. Thank you again.
Congratulations @Fuzebox87 , and thank you for the kind words. You and your son did all the heavy-lifting. But it is nice to know the thread was of value and that the experience of people here helped. Please pay it forward. Spread the word. And all continue to share on this thread.
Question - how hard is it to walk onto a college fencing team? Son is E rated, didn’t perform well at Nationals due to dislocated hip - and still recovering so hasn’t competed since then. His dream is to fence in college.
@geekmomof2 - Hi. Welcome to the thread! The short answer is “it depends”. Some squads are more exclusive when it comes to walk-ons. I believe that most will welcome people to practice with the team - Bodies always welcome. If your son is truly an “E” rated level fencer, I doubt his role will go beyond practice. He may be able to go to some local events; perhaps even get to fence if first-line fencers are absent, but unlikely he will be on any travel squad. If he really wants to fence in college, assuming his academics allow and his goals permit, target less competitive programs. Lafayette is a great small liberal arts school with a pretty all-inclusive team. There are programs at elite schools such as Johns Hopkins, Stevens Institute and Haverford where less competitive fencers may find some NCAA fencing time. Prioritize school and academic fit first, but be cognizant of those with less competitive programs.
@geekmomof2 An E would have a hard time being recruited to one of the top tier programs. But if your son really wants to fence on a varsity team in college, there are plenty of smaller schools/programs where an E would thrive. Depending on the type of school and/or region your son is interested in you might have him email coaches at Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Incarnate Word, Lafayette, Lawrence, Sacred Heart, and Wayne State.
My daughter is an E (was unrated going into college) and is the top fencer on her squad at her small liberal arts school.
Hi everyone…I’ve been a reader of this thread for a while now and finally have a Junior in high school that will be applying to college next year. But despite all of the great insights here, I still feel a bit paralyzed on exactly how to advise my DS, who does want to fence in college.
He is B-rated but not on the JNPL. He hopes that it will happen in one of the next few tournaments, but I’m not sure it will. His academics are strong and he wants to go to a selective school. Given this, should he a) reach out to coaches now, even though his fencing resume is not strong, or b) wait to see if Jan. NAC or JO’s goes well for him, or he gets a higher rating locally?
Also, given his fencing stats, should he only reach out to Div III’s - or should he also try to get on the radar of some academically selective Div I programs that are not powerhouses?
His feeling has been that he wants to wait until he has something “good” to say to these coaches, but I wonder if this is the right strategy.
Thanks again to everyone on this forum for posting such great advice!
Wow, that has to be pressure for the kid fencing for results at this stage before reaching out to coaches. I wonder what academically selective D1 schools you have in mind. Some posters with experience in this arena have pointed out that fencers with your DS stats are attractive to Div III’s and NEASC schools. If the academics are stellar I think it’s better to reach out to schools you’re interested in now and get a sense of where your son may have the most opportunity.
@newfencingdad
In the absence of any junior points I’m not sure emailing coaches at this point for the purpose of enhancing likelihood of admission has much value. On the other hand, I don’t see any downside (other than time) and it’s possible that your son could learn something about the schools, teams, and coaches that would help in his application decisions.
The main thing is not to expect anything from such emails especially in terms of help with admissions right now; no point in creating unnecessary anxiety. Indeed, some coaches may not be responsive.
If this weekend, at JOs, or even summer nationals your son has some good results then things could change significantly.
In the absence of climbing into the junior ranking, there will be opportunity later in the year to consider what colleges he can get into that he could fence for in the absence of formal recruitment. This list could be influenced by his interactions with coaches now.
@newfencingdad - Welcome! I strongly echo @helmut?. There is no rush at this point. Even for top recruits outside of the top 5-10, there are dominoes to fall, often in the late spring-summer of each recruiting season, before they hear. At your son’s level, with currently no JNPL presence, he is best doing his research. Assuming that he does not get the breakthrough he is hoping for, and without knowing his academic interests other than that he is a strong candidate shooting for a selective undergrad, I emphasize strong DV3’s like Haverford, MIT, and Johns Hopkins. As a “B” fencer he is in range to fence for those teams. I know how badly your son must want these results. Please let him know that, in the end, he will find a great school and he will almost certainly get to fence. Riding the bench at a DV1 program is not all it’s cracked up to be. Personally, when I have chatted with fencers competing at NCAAs representing less competitive programs, not one would change places to ride the bench at a more competitive school even if it meant winning a national championship. Best school and fit first and foremost. The fencing piece will come. Good luck and please keep in touch!
Thanks all for the good advice - I think your insight echoes his own gut, that he has time and should see if he gets some results before the season ends before reaching out. FWIW, he doesn’t feel that much pressure (just desire) since he is optimistic that results are right around the corner! Again, many thanks.
I just heard from my old pal @superdomestique (we used to joke that I was Batman and he was Robin back in the old days before @BrooklynRye so ably took the helm), so I decided I’d check in.
Wow! This thread has evolved into a truly amazing resource. When I was helping my kids navigate the process I just called up college coaches and asked them questions and eventually found one parent on CC who had helped his daughter with recruiting.
My son was HS class of 2009; my daughter was 2011. It’s been a long time. I’ve been pretty removed from the fencing world for several years, and while I sometimes miss the national circuit and all the friendships from over the years it’s kind of nice (and relaxing) to live a somewhat normal life.
Fencing has been great for our family. Perhaps the biggest benefit was the way it help provide our (academically well qualified) kids a relatively stress free college admissions experience to the schools of each of their choice (Princeton and Duke). And, as an aside, they’re both doing quite well out in the real world.
To all fencers reading this thread, and their parents: good luck, and I hope you all find colleges that fit your talents well. And even though I’m pretty far removed from the fencing world now, I remain happy to respond to any question, either here (if you include an @sherpa) or by PM.
So very happy to see you back on the thread! For those relatively new to the thread, Sherpa is the GOAT in these here parts. Hope you and yours are healthy and happy. Continued success and please (please) continue to add to the knowledge base of this thread you so elegantly crafted and nurtured.
May I ask for suggestions from experienced parents here? If the fencer emailed the coaches but didn’t get response, is it a good idea for parents to email coaches?
FYI, for those of you who might check this thread regularly but not the “2020 Recruitment” one, I FINALLY posted the list of names I have at this point…
@purplevine2021 - When our kids were going through the process I headed up all communication with coaches.
But that was primarily because at that time there was a bit of ambiguity in the NCAA rules about the permissibility of email communication between students and coaches, so we relied on phone calls. Because my kids were busy in school at the times that college coaches were available, I made all the calls. With only one exception, the coaches were receptive and helpful.
@purplevine2021 DS took care of all communication,
Your son could resend the email and ask if the coach received it.
Also, make sure he sees the info earlier in this thread concerning what to include in the email as well the subject line. I think @SevenDad posted it (?)
DS had a system that may be beneficial for those just getting started in the process. He created a new gmail account that only had to do with college selection and gave me the access to it. That way all the SAT junk, college spam, application info, communication with coaches, and FinAid were in one spot and didn’t clutter his main personal email inbox. He wrote all the emails, but I was able to stay in the loop concerning where he was in the process. From time to time, I would flag something for him to take a second look at or follow-up on. It worked quite well and we still use it for fencing expenses- uber receipts, hotels, etc.