NCAAs - bragging

[MomOnBike]

OK, I've been good as long as I can, but I'm bursting with the good news.

Younger Daughter has worked hard all season and has earned a spot fencing (epee) in the NCAA finals. I don't know how well she'll do there - the competition is TOUGH - but she'll be on the strip doing her best.

Maybe I did something right after all.

(The picture is from last year - I'm not bragging, much)

[sfa]

Good for her! Congratulations!

(And I'm so glad this thread wasn't about men's basketball as I suspected it might be!)

Sarah

[Aggie_Ama]

Congrats! I love the off the wall sports, I had a blast watching fencing last summer in the Olympics. I had no idea it was so intense.

[MomOnBike]

Intense it is. Those kids are focused. It's a gas to watch. Not as television friendly as, say, football, though. Things happen too quickly.

Daughter knows and has fenced against all (I think) of the 3 epee medalists.

And I never thought of fencing as off the wall, but then I wouldn't,would I? You don't even want to know the money I've spent on fencing over the years. I think I kept the airline industry alive there for a while, all by myself.

[Aggie_Ama]

I bowled for years which is also NCAA and I think "off the wall". My parents took me on many great adventures to bowl so I think I get you MOB, the things parents (or in my case my parents) do for kids. Pretty much anything that gets no respect from mainstream USA is off the wall to me! And thus way cooler.

Fencing looks like one of those things that would kick your booty when you didn't expect it, do they cross train? Seems like you would need an high level of cardiovascular health to go with all the quickness and agility? I don't like anything coming at me so it is nothing I would ever have pursued, I couldn't stand balls coming towards me so I threw them.

My college was one of the best at Equestrian and people would always be floored that those girls got scholarships to go "horseback riding". I am sure they wanted to clobber people some days.

[ASammy1]

I went to Wayne State University in Detroit where they are ranked in the world for fencing (or at least used to be). They recruit from all over the world too. I had a class with a girl who was recruited from Israel and got a full scholarship!

Good for her and you too, mom!

[Tuckervill]

I used to have a teacher who said, "It's not bragging if it's the truth."

Hope she does well!

Karen

[SadieKate]

Oh wow! You must be bursting at the seams with pride!

Yeah, I didn't open the thread either as I assumed it was basketball. Nothing against basketball, just . . . . well. . . . . um . . . .

[MomOnBike]

Oh, NCAA does basketball, too?

Who knew? (My niece didn't)

Yeah, I'm about to bust my buttons with pride, as my Grandmother would say.

And, yes Aggie A, they need cardio, and leg strength, and arm strength, and tactics, and quickness, and nerves of tempered steel (not to mention the weapons) among other things. Killer instinct comes in handy too. Fencers come off strip just drenched with sweat. And let's not even think about the bruises.

As a spectator, I just sit/stand on the sidelines and vibrate, which is hard enough.