2020 – radical restart

A lot can happen in a year. A lot certainly happened this year! Yes, there’s a pandemic that looks like it will linger on for a while yet, but there was a lot of rethinking too – a radical restart as a friend of mine says – that may not have happened without the pandemic. From that radical restart has come new people, new ways to play, new toys, new coaches, new connections, new awards. These things deserve to be celebrated!

New people

A sports club is its people, and seen that way we are so much more than we were before – about double in fact! We were growing steadily before covid but after full training recommenced on the gala day in July (remember the Joe-as-Napoleon pie crust?) things really started to happen. And they didn’t stop! Right up until the year’s last week of training MFC was being contacted by new people wanting to explore fencing. In November we welcomed our 100th member! And it’s not only our fencers who comprise the Club, this year we’ve had amazing contributions by parents/guardians pitching in to help with washing, sanitising, hanging up gear, and offering their specific skills. Special thanks to our new Club Armourer and inaugural Club Quartermaster for their efforts in these vital roles.

 

 

 

New ways to play

During the time indoor training was suspended due to the pandemic, the Club pioneered outdoor training, transforming a quiet corner of Hazelbrook into the Gloria Park Fencing Nets. Now that wasn’t an obvious thing to do – fencing is an indoor sport as any fencer will tell you. But pandemics are like that – they challenge you to think about what could be done differently. Balls hanging on string, punching sticks, learning fencing tactics via noughts and crosses – it was an experiment which paid off with participation and enjoyment. We also piloted a school holiday program, another wildly successful new initiative. Each new fencer who came to that program joined up as a Club member after completing it. And to offer adults the chance to join the fun, in September we launched our Have a Stab program for new and returning adult fencers. Most of our burgeoning sabre team comes from that program.

 

New toys

Notice that fancy remote-controlled Favero box that shows the scores and times for the bout? We were able to purchase it through a combination of previous fundraising, the generosity of members in not asking for refunds after the suspension of training in April-May, donations by members and government support for community sports clubs. But that’s not all. On the final fencing day of the year we reached our fundraising goal of raising $1220 for a new Enpointe Display Box. Truly, our members are extraordinary. And to top it all off, in December we received news that MFC had been awarded an Australian Sports Foundation grant to upgrade all Club plastrons to a higher safety standard and double our stock of Club masks!

 

 

 

New coaches

Our coaching team is in many ways the heart of our amazing Club. They are the guardians and exemplars of our culture, they guide our journey towards fencing excellence and quite simply training can’t happen without them. While we started the year without a Head Coach,we’re fortunate to now have Joe Raciborski in that role, bringing his immense knowledge, fencing excellence and commitment to diversity, inclusion and fun. But even Joe couldn’t deliver all the coaching by himself and this year we’ve been fortunate to have a new group of fencers join the coaching team – growing the team from five to ten. Seeing those coaches, especially the young members of the team, turn up week after week with such enthusiasm really is excellent.

 

 

New connections

In 2020 MFC became the first fencing member of Sport NSW – the peak body for sporting organisations in NSW. Through our connection with Sport NSW our founder Richard Emmerick was recognised with a Long Service Award. MFC was also awarded a Certificate of Excellence by Play By The Rules for exceptional work in safely supporting sport during the pandemic and we’ve been invited by them to develop a case study to showcase our initiatives We’ve also been invited by the Australian Sports Foundation to share our story of what volunteer community based sport can look like with the wider sports community. It’s not just us who thinks we’re doing something special here!

 

 

 

New awards

For the first time in MFC history we ran a Club competition in three weapons! Our end of year Richard Emmerick Shield featured 12 events for women and men in U14 and open categories. We also established a Team Spirit award (one of my personal highlights). The full competition results for 2020 can be found here. In another first, for members too young to compete we had our Daring Deeds Day, full of skills and fun certificates full of hard-earned stickers. We'll definitely be doing that again!

 

New things to look forward to

No one knows what the future will bring, but I'm excited to find out. One thing the pandemic delayed this year but will happen in 2021 is the Tokyo Olympics and MFC will be represented by our very own Marina Carrier and Joe Raciborski. You can read more about their Olympic journey here.

 

 

That's quite a few new things!

What makes this place special though, and what really shone through this year, wasn’t just all the new things. It was the shared commitment to making this place amazing, in fencing and in all the support structures around that, including washing, sanitising, armoury, policy-writing, sewing bunting, website maintenance, grant writing, sausage cooking, governance, systems and so much else.

But for now I’ll stick to the fencing. This year we’ve seen a stunning increase in the quality of our athletes – anyone who attended the end of year competition knows that first hand! The crispness of the footwork, the precision of the touches, the tactical awareness, the general fitness – all these things have improved through good coaching and sustained hard work, fuelled by fun! And just as important, the teamwork has also been exceptional – we’ve spurred each other on to greater things. I often return to the Club motto ‘Insieme in cima’ – together to the top! This year we have lived that motto in the fullest way possible.

Well done everyone!

Dr Imogen Waugh,
President, MFC.