Boston University Fencing Club

Last Saturday in the wee hours of the morning, 37 awesome members of BUFC shipped off to Smith for the 2013 NEIFC Fall Invitational - better known as The Big One.

Looks like all of our training is paying off - we had 10 fencers place in the top 32 for their event! Special shout out to Kelly Miller for her 5th place finish in Women's Saber and Maja Capek for 11th in Women's Foil (at her first ever Big One!). We had a fantastic time and are even more excited (if that is even possible) for the rest of the season.

You can check out the Big One results here: http://www.prisedefer.com/LiveResults/

Next stop - Brown University for NFC #1 on Saturday, November 16th!

Eight years ago, this November, my mother brought to me during breakfast an interesting article about fencing and it's growing popularity in New Jersey. Like most 14 year olds, the only thing that had interest to me about this sport was sword fighting and being a three musketeer...and that was basically it. A sport that is mainly one on one and not really team based was not too interesting to me, as someone who played recreational soccer for most of his life. I quickly learned that my high school was having open tryouts for a fencing team, which was about to enter its first season. Why not, I told myself and after a week of using muscles whose pain I had never experienced in my life, I was a part of the Junior Varsity Fencing Team, fencing foil, at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North. The rest, as they say, is history.

Four years later, when deciding on college, I did a search on the four schools I had to decide on if fencing was offered. While at first I would have never put fencing into consideration for college, the more I thought about it, how could I just forget about a sport that I fell in love during four years of high school? The results: two had varsity teams, one had no team, and one had a very interesting website. That interesting website, one that discussed some strange game called "Glove Game," was one of the final parts of my decision making process and before I knew it, I was shipping up to Boston.

With over eight years of fencing, I've held many titles: Junior Varsity C-Strip, Varsity B-Strip, and Men's Foil Captain in High School; Men's Foil Captain, Treasurer and finally President in college. In all those years, no title meant more to me than to be simply a teammate and this of course could not be truer than during my time with the Boston University Fencing Club. This club...there are simply too many words to describe it. Since that first day practice in September 2009 to this last week of practice in May 2013, I've seen the growth of (and I quote the words of a USACFC official) "one of the most well respected fencing clubs in the nation." Hearing these words, while the President of this wonderful team, was my motivation for what has been the most successful year our club has ever been through, with of course Nationals and the 1st ever Alumni Tournament being the two highlights. The experiences we've had through these four years, during practice, tournaments or any other social activity, are so varied and wonderful that I'd be hard pressed to put them all in writing. Every senior graduating, I'm sure, can agree with me that we’ll miss this huge family we’re brought up during our unfortunately short four years as a part of the BUFC.

This team has given me so much that it will be impossible to give back equally as much, especially the best and lifelong friends I have made. While come graduation I will be leaving this great city, I want each and every member of the BUFC to know that there is no way in hell I will forget about you. I plan on making many trips up to Boston, so while I won't be a "permanent fixture" in the Three Court gym, the Multipurpose Rooms or the Cage anymore, or my StuVi 1 apartment, you haven't seen the last of me.

Stay classy and keep me proud, both on and off the strip.

Love, your 2012-2013 President,
Ralph Conserva

Well, with Nationals behind us and a successful 1st Annual Alumni Tournament, our season is officially over. While practices will be much more laid back from now until the end of the semester, we still look forward to another exciting season as it will be quickly approaching. With that said, we now have a new e-board for next school year, which consists of:

Neel Dhanesha - President
Cara Martone - Vice President
Austin Walker - Treasurer
Kelly Miller - Sports Information Director

From one President to the newly elected e-board, I wish you all the best of luck next season. I'll be sure to post my "final love letter" to this team as graduation draws near. Until then, thanks for stopping by!

Your President,
Ralph Conserva, SMG '13

Hi everybody!

We wanted to update everybody about some more exciting news: out 1st Alumni Tournament has been scheduled for April 20th, 2013! Alumni, if you are interested in attending this event, which will take place at Boston University's Fitness and Recreation Center, please email us at bufence@bu.edu.

Looking forward to hearing from many of you and what should prove to be an awesome event!

Thanks,
Ralph

BUFC President

We hope that everyone is off to a great start in this new semester. We have just completed the winter edition of our newsletter. Be sure to take a look!

BUFC Newsletter - Final

Hello everyone!

This month BUFC competed in two tournaments, "The Big One" at Smith College and NFC 1 at MIT in Cambridge. Everyone should be proud of how hard they have worked this semester, especially those who started fencing for the first time this school year.

The next NFCs and Nationals in the spring will be here before you know it!

In the meantime, check out the results of the Big One here
and pictures from the tournaments here

Greetings current fencers, alumni and those interested in our club!

It has been a while since we have made a post, but we thought we would update all of you on the current happenings with the BUFC. But first to reintroduce myself, my name is Ralph Conserva. I am a senior in the School of Management and also the President of our fencing club. Today we will share some exciting pieces of news, as well as some updates on the club this year.

Firstly, our annual Fall Invitational tournament, more commonly known as "The Big One," is only a few days away! This Saturday, we will be sending a group of 39 fencers to Smith College to compete, with even more new fencers accompanying us on our journey this season. We will be sure to update the site with our results after the competition.

We have also started looking to the future, with our deposit already down to travel to Michigan State for nationals next year in April. This will be the furthest our club has ever traveled for any tournament so it should prove to be an important milestone in our history.

With seven tournaments planned out for the year (all of which can be seen in our Tournaments section), the club is excited for a jam packed and thrilling season. Thank you for stopping by and visit again soon for more updates! We will try our best to post more than once every six months.

-Ralph

Cheers from London!

This semester for the BUFC has been quite an exciting one, especially for a spectator like me watching and hearing about our results from Europe. It is all about to get even more thrilling as my fellow team mates compete at our annual club nationals tournament this coming weekend.

One of our current side projects is to piece together our history and alumni base for our club. As we continue to conduct research and dig up anything that could help us with this project, we have also created a LinkedIn group. The link can be found here:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Boston-University-Fencing-Club-Member-4386784?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

If you are a user of LinkedIn and would like to reconnect with past fencers, please request to join and let us know the years you fenced with the BUFC, what weapon you were, any positions you held and specific accomplishments made by the team during your years with the club. We would really appreciate your help.

Once again, good luck to my fellow team mates this coming weekend. Go Terriers!

-Ralph