Last weekend's Louisville SYC was my first, either as a ref or coach. I have to say that while some of the fencing made me want to cry, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
A bit more downtime in-between rounds/pools would have been nicer, but the work was pretty easy and considerably less tense than say... a Junior or Division 1 pool.
The venue was carpeted, a nice change from the concrete convention centers. There were a few grounded strips - copper and aluminum - but they were laid out in an odd fashion that didn't immediately make any sense to me. Very often, the "finals" strip was in the back of the room instead of the front.
But, despite a weird layout and a constant flow of bouts with few breaks, I have to say that it was a good time, because the number of people from around the country who came to Louisville a couple of weeks before Christmas to fence was pretty impressive, and what was good for those kids was having some strong national-level refs at the event to give them a taste of what to expect as they grow and fence more nationally. Also, there were a few new referees who attended a seminar and took the written test over the weekend (I'm not sure if a practical was given or not), two of whom are top level Junior women's foil fencers. It's always nice to see new referees coming up from the ranks of fencers.
And it was nice to see kids fencing for the joy of fencing. Too often at National events I go to parents and the kids get wrapped up in points and qualifying for higher level events and teams, etc. These were kids who came to a fencing tournament for the joy of fencing (and to qualify for Nationals...).
Finally, I was impressed by the number of coaches and parents who thanked me for being there. A number of times through the course of the weekend, a parent would thank me for refereeing their child's bout(s). That's not something you see in either IL or at a national level very often.
Count me in for next year (unless I've got a bunch of kids fencing it)!
