The Inability to Rely on Regional Growth

Clubs have to built from the ground up. If the region sputters & dies or grows and flourishes, MFA has to continue a steady build in membership, skill development, & infrastructure building. I think the overall trick is to attend tournaments in parts of the region undergoing growth & avoid the tournaments in parts of the region that are dying off.

I did an earlier post similar to this that discussed the merits of each part of the Inland Empire. Not enough time has passed to see any part of the region change in a noticeable fashion, & I tend to talk up MFA because I can see it growing slowly. We badly need more dedicated foilists and epeeists at the club, as we are currently a saber club in all but name. We've had one student compete in Epee, and that is an excellent start, but in the long term he may be the only one still doing it.

Growth takes so long to achieve in a fencing club. It is hard to predict just how students will grow, and how long it takes for them to understand key concepts. But during the growth phase of a young fencer, they need friends more than anything else. Friends give them more of a reason to come down, hang out, & continue fencing.

What holds a club together is not a coach, but the students. If you have the opportunity to have a social environment outside of school with people who haven't been going to school with you since you were little, it becomes more appealing. I hated school growing up, and would have been a very different person without fencing in my life. It provided me with a way to forget about having no friends in early high school and just have a bunch of fencing buddies. I saw them more often than I interacted with other jerks in English, so it made sense. I also started to get more friends at school because I was no longer desperate to have them. I was already considered cool by a few people at my club, what did I care if nobody at school liked me? In short, fencing gave me more confidence than any other activity growing up.

This club atmosphere is not impacted by how many fencers are in Hamilton. I am trying to create this atmosphere for Missoula, and everyone else can go fly a kite. The hardest thing I will someday have to endure is saying goodbye to a student going off to college or moving away. I remember watching Rich say goodbye to me and a few other accomplished students, it wasn't pretty. The year after he said goodbye to the last of a group of 10 of us who were known to wreck face across the midwest. It was hard, but he's still kicking and producing murderers.