Vote or Die

For those of you who are USFA members, remember to vote!

I'd like to share a story about Tracy Hurley.

This is the one interaction I had with her, and it was at the 2003 NAC D in Saratoga Springs.

Courtney was fencing the Y14 women's foil semifinal match against Arielle Pensler. Every single action went a bit like this. Courtney would press and make a strong lunge. Arielle would break distance and begin a slow attack (we still called "Attack, No. Riposte." then.) Immediately, Courtney would redouble with a fleche into Arielle. Each time there were two lights. Each time, the call was the same.

With each call, Courtney got more and more agitated. I get that; good fencers don't like losing. However, with each touch, Mrs. Hurley also became more and more agitated, and more and more directed at me, at one point screaming, "THIS IS WHY WE FENCE EPEE, COURTNEY!!" (Way to encourage mastery and responsibility, mom!)

I briefly flirted with the idea of awarding a red card (old school, as I said), but figured that the offender's personality would probably be encouraged by the attention. After all, the bout wasn't going to last particularly long.

Upon the loss, tantrums ensued. I don't take that personally, it's part of the game. The Fencing Officials' Commission rep assured me that my calls were spot-on and some armchair quarterbacking was done on the type of cards that could have been thrown (red or black would have been acceptable).

As I walked away from the piste, I heard Mrs. Hurley remark to a cohort, "...and no student of Buckie's will ever lose a bout when Buckie's standing here."

So we've got interesting behavior problems, avoidance of responsibility, and paranoid accusations of partiality. This is the person you want controlling the direction of the USFA? No - it's Kalle Weekes, Mark Stasinos, Jerry Benson, Ro Solbavarro, Greg Dilworth, and Brad Baker.