For the competitive fencers in the Gulf Coast Division, the competitions and the new calendar year began with a trip to Shreveport, Louisiana for the Rose Condon Memorial, January 20-21. This was the Ark-La-Miss Division’s contribution to the SSCC.

For some the travels continued on to the South Texas Division and the annual Poujardieu Memorial Tournament, January 26-28. In the open mixed foil event, Salle Mauro’s lead foilist, Michael Galligan, tied for third place in a field of 78 competitors. Jason Ray from the Texas A & M University Fencing Club took 35th place. Daniel Ma from the Rice University club placed 41st. Michael Hogan from the CLFC finished in 45th place. Another A & M fencer, Patrick Bashor, took 71st place.

The Gulf Coast Division fielded no competitors among the 23 that turned out for the open women’s foil competition.

In the open mixed epee competition, with both the largest field of competitors and largest Gulf Coast contingent, John Cantu of the Bayou City Fencing Academy captured 9th place from a field of 90 duellists. Texas A & M’s Jason Ray made it a two-weapon weekend and placed 18th. Bayou City’s Richard Saunders, in 21st place, was close on his heels. Liz Gorman placed 40th while fencing under both the Texas A & M and Salle Mauro banners. BCFA’s Jason Sibre took 42nd place. His colleague Joel Katz took 50th. Greg Unruh from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club took 53rd place. Eryck Kratville from William Trapani’s Kingwood Fencing Academy came in at 57th place. Rice’s Daniel Ma was 59th. Jessica Schilling and Kevin Ragsdale, both BCFA competitors, took 64th and 65th places, respectively. Bayou City’s Justin Flint and Rachel Katz finished in 68th and 75th places, respectively. Shawna Marsteller, also from Bayou City, took 77th place. Rice University’s Angel Askins placed 80th. BCFA fencers Beverly Wellner, Kathleen Osborne and Laurie Hutchinson respectively placed 84th, 85th and 90th.

The open women’s epee competition saw A & M/Salle Mauro fencer Liz Gorman place 7th in a field of 16. Angel Askins of the Rice University Fencing Club took 15th place.

In the open mixed sabre competition, Daniel Gorman, like his wife before him fencing under both the Texas A & M Fencing Club and Salle Mauro banners, captured 5th place in a field of 30. Tim Guerinot, also fencing for Salle Mauro, finished in 8th place. CLFC’s Greg Unruh placed 25th.

The Gulf Coast Division fielded no fencers for the open women’s sabre competition.

The year also began with a young man in Port Arthur, who had dream to fence, finding a home. Jeremy Cooper had maintained an interest in fencing since 1998 when saw the motion picture, The Man in the Iron Mask, but had yet to take any classes. "Around August 2000, I started thinking about moving away from home after college to live in an area that had a fencing club. I went online to the USFA site and decided to see where the closest one was. Too my surprise, we had a club in Port Arthur all the time! I didn't find out where the club was until late January because the contact info never wrote back and I never looked deep enough into the division website to find their location."

"I started fencing in early February and was hooked. I knew from a history channel show that modern fencing was nothing like rapier fighting. Still, it was a sword and I was learning how to use one."

The Oklahoma Division held their part of the SSCC, the Sooner State Games, in Oklahoma City, February 3-4.

The very next weekend, February 10-11, the Gulf Coast Division’s contribution to the SSCC, the Houston Championships, was scheduled.

By February 2001, the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club had lost the use of their secondary space in Clear Lake Park. The club had use of the space for free on the first Tuesday of each month and it was largely given over to dry fencing. Kathryn Morrow, the club member who had initiated the contact with park personnel and reached the agreement, had drifted away from club activities and the agreement had expired with little notice from most of the CLFC officers or directors.

In part they were distracted by an unofficial tertiary location. Earlier, CLFC fencer Michael Hogan had made contact with the proprietor of a local martial arts dojo called the Iron Dragon. Hogan arranged for the space to be made available on Tuesday nights to him and such other club fencers as he determined were active competitors in the various tournaments. The space was set up for electric fencing, providing the competitors with a second night each week to practice wired.

The club was definitely experiencing changes. Since his return from Bosnia, club founder Michael Mergens stayed active as a coach at the Galveston Fencing Club on Tuesday nights, but still showed up to fence at the Clear Lake club on many Thursdays. He also participated in some fencing at the Iron Dragon and was often at Salle Mauro. Mergens was fencing in competitions more than he had in years. Still some CLFC fencers felt he seemed more removed from the club or uncomfortable. Mergens voiced concerns that he understood the other two coaches, Jerry Dunaway and Scott Brown, planned to leave the club in the near future. In fact, neither had such plans, although Dunaway had frequently been absent due to family demands and his work at South Houston High School. Mergens also expressed dissatisfaction with "the politics" within the club.

As opposed to the fluctuations in Clear Lake, Texas A & M University’s fencing club remained a stable yet dynamic force in local fencing. The spring of 2001 saw the club led by Marlene Fuller as president, Jason Ray as the Vice-President and Erica Rayburn as the Treasurer. Daniel Gorman, though not a student, remained as coach with his wife Liz, a graduate student, serving unofficially as their SWIFA representative. The remaining roster was filled out by fencers Tom Champney, Stuart Files, Patrick Bashor, Gavan Tinsley, Beau Brunson, David Mayerich and Heather Burkhardt.

Mid-February also finalized the demise of one fencing club and the birth of another, with the same young coach in the middle of both events. Scott Brown had agreed to take over coaching duties for the La Porte High School Fencing Club since Richard Alvarez had moved away in 1999. In the interval, however, the club had effectively evaporated from a lack of student interest. At the same time, one of Jerry Dunaway’s former fencers from South Houston High School, Elyse Early, had since enrolled in the University of St. Thomas, a private, Catholic University in Houston. She and her sister Anne got together to initiate a new fencing club at St. Thomas, recruiting Scott Brown as coach.

By the middle of February, fencing was the latest sports club at UST. In a show of support usually remarkable for its absence at Rice and the University of Houston, the presidents from the other sports clubs at the University of St. Thomas voted unanimously to grant the club its preliminary status. The UST Fencing Club began practice with the hope to attain full club status for the fall 2001 semester.

Rice University’s Van Buskirk Memorial Tournament was held on March 10 and 11.

The mixed foil event, which the previous year had drawn 30 fencers, now drew 52. This was going to be a tougher competition than the previous year. Another noticeable different was the absence of Hamza’s lead player, Steve Gerberman. In fact, where the previous year Salle Mauro sent six competitors to the mixed foil event, this year there were only two. Conversely, whereas in 2000 there had been no fencers from Beaumont’s Spindletop Cavaliers, this year there were four. The Clear Lake Fencers’ Club had, in 2000, only three fencers compete in the Van Buskirk. This year six did.

The first six mixed foil spots went to fencers from the traditionally stronger South Texas and North Texas Divisions. Richard Spicer secured seventh place for Salle Mauro. Rice University’s Tony Nguyen managed to grab 9th place. The next several places went to the other divisions. Greg Unruh, from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club, captured 18th place. Another CLFC fencer, Don Cravey, had placed 16th out of 30 in 2000. This year he came in 19th, but out of 52. Anna Gardberg, claiming both Rice University and the Northwestern Fencing Club, came in 24th. Right behind her in 25th place was another fencer claiming CLFC, Michael Mergens. A bit behind him was three more CLFC fencers: Rene Garcia, William Satterwhite and Michael Hogan finished 27th, 33rd and 34th, respectively. Rice’s own Rob Purple came in at 36th place, just ahead of Jeremy Cooper from the Spindletop Cavaliers, who placed 37th. Salle Mauro’s Peter Wells took 40th place. Peter Power and Jana Gauthier, both from the Spindletop Cavaliers, placed 46th and 48th, in turn. A fourth competitor from the Beaumont club, Phillip Gauthier, withdrew with an injury.

The women’s foil event had gone in one year from having eight competitors to 17. Once again, Salle Mauro’s Julia Pike tied for third, only this year it was a longer climb to get there. Rice’s Anna Gardberg, claiming Rice came in right behind her in 5th place. The only other Gulf Coast competitors in the event were Candy Torres from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club and Carol Brettoney from Rice, finishing 15th and 17th, respectively.

The mixed epee event was about the same size as the previous year, but it brought quite a surprise for the old-timers. Fencing independent of a club and capturing first place was August Skopik, from the old Salle Sebastiani/Bayou City Blades/Houston Fencers’ Club. "Augie" had come back to fencing.

The next several spots all went to the other divisions’ fencers, until Salle Mauro’s Richard Spicer placed 11th. Don Cravey from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club captured 15th place, followed by Cameron Cooper from Rice University in 16th. 17th, 18th, and 19th places all went to CLFC fencers Michael Mergens, Phil Howard and Siegfried Hanicke, in that order. Kingwood Fencing Academy’s Eryck Kratville followed them in 20th place. CLFC epeeiste Greg Unruh took 22nd. 25th place went to Rice University’s Daniel Ma. William Satterwhite, another CLFC fencer placed 27th. Reuven Lax and Angel Askins, both from Rice took 31st and 33rd places, respectively.

The women’s epee event was sparsely attended, as usual, with 7 competitors. The only local face was Suzanne Simpson, who tied for third while fencing for Rice and Salle Poujardieu.

The mixed sabre event was a little smaller than the previous year, with a field of 13. Of them, only two were from the Gulf Coast Division, Salle Mauro’s Ian Wells who took 6th and CLFC’s Greg Unruh, who came in 11th.

The 2000-2001 Southwest Sectional Circuit Cup concluded on the weekend of March 31-April 1 with the Crescent City Open in New Orleans (Louisiana Division).

Spring also found the peripatetic director of HACA all over the map. First John Clements was at Brigham Young University in Utah. On Saturday, April 7th he gave an eight-hour seminar on the medieval long sword on campus to about 20 people from Utah and Idaho. Then the HACA West Point, New York Chapter sponsored Clements and the first HACA Seminar in the NYC Area on April 22. An enthusiastic gentleman named Robert Hyatt wrote, "The seminar was excellent! John presented a lot of new research that HACA is doing to correct old translation errors and techniques. The end result was that everything was more deadly, more pragmatic, and more "brutally efficient" than we were practicing before. We were taught the HACA study approach and given information on the "flourish" and HACA warm up techniques, stances, cuts and counters. I had the pleasure of being the practice dummy that john did a lot of his counters on, and on most of the counters, I was thrown off balance and/or disarmed and killed before I knew what was happening--it definitely was a treat."

This did not mean HACA had ceased to recruit back in Texas. While most members along the Gulf Coast region of Texas were in Houston at the home chapter, or study group, some were just far enough away to rate separate listings. Emmet Otis Turner was an affiliated HACA member living in Huntsville, Texas, while Daniel Hinson lived in Orange.

May 2001 brought a change to the use of the Iron Dragon dojo by fencers with the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club. Previously, it was used by an informal group of CLFC fencers who knew of it largely by word of mouth via Michael Hogan. Hogan had been the one to get the use of the space in the first place for Tuesday night electric fencing by the main competitive fencers in the club. This month, however, he sent an email the club secretary Nicole Trojanowski, advising of its availability for use by the club membership at large, for a $3.00 floor fee, which went to the Iron Dragon.

The CLFC coaching situation continued to evolve. The original club coach Michael Mergens had phased himself out of teaching at the club. Beyond a few private lessons to individuals he confined most of his instructions to the Galveston Club. The primary coaches, Scott Brown and Jerry Dunaway prepared to attend coaches’ college during the summer of 2000. Scott Brown planned to branch out beyond foil to include sabre in his repertoire.

Even as Dunaway and Brown were going to coaches’ college, they found themselves joined by CLFC fencer Michael Hogan, who had decided to pursue coaching as well. Hogan had shown an interest in coaching for some time. He had, since he came to the club over a year earlier, gotten together with his closer CLFC colleagues to give advice and guidance as they practiced. He had since branched out and approached some of Brown’s and some of Dunaway’s beginner level students, after their formal lessons, to give them additional instruction as they free fenced. This had led to some friction and feelings of interference or an overstepping of bounds. Hogan now planned to correct the situation and become a USFA certified coach.

Another coach branching out a bit was William Trapani, the founder and coach at the Kingwood Fencing Academy on Houston’s suburban north side. Bill Trapani also taught beyond the confines of his club. He gave fencing instruction as part of the summer program for the John Cooper School, a private, non-sectarian college-preparatory school in The Woodlands.

On the topic of coaches, Richard Alvarez returned to Houston. Finding a home near the Heights neighborhood, Alvarez became an occasional visitor back at the clubs. While he did not instruct, he became a reoccurring influence.

Mauro Hamza, meanwhile, expanded his coaching staff. In addition to himself and wife Noura Fawzi, the staff now included Sabina Bazabayeva and Darya "Dasha" Dashevskaya. Bazabayeva served as his junior foil coach. According to her bio, she had been a member of the Russian National Team and had won numerous gold medals in World Cup competitions. Dashevskaya took over as epee coach. Her bio stated that she had been a member of the Olympic fencing team from Kazakhstan.

There were also changes in John Clements’ HACA. The group changed its name from the Historical Armed Combat Association to the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA). The group explained their name, and emphasis, change:

"In July of 2001 we came to the realization that we had outgrown our HACA label. We determined this subject was richer and more involved than anyone previously believed and we further came to perceive that the emerging historical fencing community itself had grown and… in no small way thanks to HACA. When we first took over and reconceived HACA in 1994, we did so as a means of studying the works of the historical masters and resurrecting their arts rather than just creating our own new conceptions. In that time HACA grew popular, became tremendously successful, and extremely influential in the historical fencing community. The environment today, seven years later, is a very different landscape as a result, and to continue to advance the subject in this new climate HACA was once again ready to innovate and change the scene: thus, its rebirth as the ARMA!

"ARMA’s conceptualization has been largely influenced by the work of Dr. Sydney Anglo, as presented in his monumental and revolutionary book, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (Yale University Press 2000). As our official advisor, Dr. Anglo has been instrumental in retooling our vision of historical fencing. His research, along with other recent advances in this subject, has changed the face of fencing and martial arts and had a profound impact on our subject. HACA was about crusading for serious treatment of arms and armor and recognition of the historical manuals as legitimate sources of study. Mission Accomplished! ARMA takes it from here. We felt we had outgrew the HACA identity and came to the decision it was time to refine, expand, and evolve into an even more effective educational organization for the study and practice of Medieval and Renaissance fencing. HACA referred to "historical" armed combat, yet our focus was specifically on Medieval and Renaissance periods, and it did lead to minor confusion for some. Additionally, HACA referred to "armed" combat and yet we have always included a substantial emphasis on unarmed skills. The historical material on Medieval and Renaissance grappling and wrestling arts increasingly coming to light only underscored this for us."

After some discussion on the relationship between medieval and renaissance fighting systems and the lineal descent of the latter from the former, they continued:

"Thus, our new name is not only more accurate but better suited to our function and objective. We chose the word "Renaissance" in our title specifically because it is doubly appropriate, not only in the sense of the historical period itself, but also the idea of renewal and revival, of reawakening. The word Renaissance, meaning literally "rebirth" or "renewal", describes the radical and comprehensive changes that took place in European culture during roughly the 14th to 16th centuries. The Renaissance is the name given the great intellectual and cultural movement which occurred in these centuries. Rebirth was often a key concept in Medieval and Renaissance literature, which spoke of "restoration" and a "reflowering" of civilization. This is indeed what we are currently witnessing in our subject… an unprecedented resurgence and recovery… a renaissance… in lost knowledge of historical European fighting arts"

Much more surprising was the more inclusive quality they sought to put forward, "We now have within the ARMA three distinct program Branches: Our National Training Program has a two-tier track, one for general enthusiasts of all dispositions, and another for long-term oriented practitioners seeking eventual instructor-level certification. The Enthusiast track is well suited to casual practitioners, theatrical combatants, LARP gamers, SCA, reenactors, and just anyone. Plus you will soon see an exciting new Youth Program for those under 16, allowing kids and teens to learn about Medieval and Renaissance history and participate with their very own historical fencing association! We also have another momentous addition with our new Professional Stage Combat Certification Program… a long-need alternative means of acquiring these specialized skills through workshops emphasizing historical skills and headed by none other than new ARMA Provost, Keith Ducklin, a Senior Fight Interpreter of the Royal Armories and soon to be head of fight interpretation at the Higgins Armory Museum."

It would seem that, after a half a dozen year of dismissal and disparagement, argument and acrimony, HACA, as ARMA, would seek detente with the SCA, theatrical fencers, LARPs and re-enactment groups. Indeed, where stage combat was concerned, it seemed ARMA not only wished to make peace, but perhaps usurp the SAFD and embrace and absorb them into ARMA ranks with ARMA’s own certification program.

On August 25th the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club hosted its third annual Fete de Lune Veterans’ Tournament. Naturally, the biggest turnout was among the local Gulf Coast Division fencers. (According to USFA data, there were 267 member fencers within the Gulf Coast Division at this time). First place among the 22 competitors in mixed foil, however, went to Ray Sexton from the Austin Fencing Club in the South Texas Division. Directly behind him was CLFC fencer Don Cravey in 2nd place. CLFC fencers Siegfried Hanicke, Candy Torres and Phil Howard finished in 4th, 6th and 8th places, respectively. Texas A & M fencer Tom Champney slid into 9th place. Michael Mergens, Rod Fleming and Matt Delavoryas, all from the host club, in 10th, 11th and 12th places, immediately followed him. Two more Clear Lake colleagues, Bill Satterwhite and Ted Dyson, placed 14th and 16th. Peter Power from the Spindletop Cavaliers took 17th place. Rachel El-Saleh from Salle Mauro came in 18th. Gil Hillman from the Clear Lake club placed at 20th. Salle Mauro’s Tom Uphoff came in 22nd.

In the mixed epee event, with 23 competitors, August Skopik, fencing for Salle Mauro, captured first place, while Tom Champney from Texas A & M took second. The formidable Ray Sexton had to settle for third. As with foil, close behind Sexton, in 4th place, was Don Cravey from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club. The next Gulf Coast fencer to place was Bill Satterwhite from CLFC in 11th. The 12th, 13th and 14th place spots went to Siegfried Hanicke, Phil Howard and Michael Mergens of CLFC. Ted Dyson, also from the host club, took 18th place. The Spindletop’s Peter Power took 21st place.

CLFC was no longer just about older fencers. The Clear Lake club was finally making headway in re-establishing a younger crowd within the club. Many of these were in the elementary and junior high school grades. Younger fencers like Andrew and Thomas Kelleher and Miles Sisson were stepping into footsteps of Jeff Smith and Preston Partridge from years earlier.

Some clubs even managed to expand their contribution. By the fall of 2001, Dana Andersen-Wyman’s foil class at Brazosport Community College had proven successful enough that he was able to include a sabre class to the curriculum.

To the east, in Port Arthur, fencing found a niche within a magnet school system aimed at younger students. Summit I and II, available for high achievers in elementary and middle schools, respectively, offered accelerated programs such as basic computer programming, dance, drama, fencing, music, and visual arts. Summit III was a Magnet School, focusing on pre-college instruction and career development in the areas of computer engineering technology and the computer sciences.

September 12th, however, brought a stunning announcement to the Clear Lake fencers in the form of an email message sent to many of its members by founder Michael Mergens. Short and concise, Mergens announced, "After much deliberation and thought, I must inform you that it is time for me to move on from CLFC. I have decided to focus my energies on rebuilding the Galveston club and my own fencing. I have watched my "child" grow through infancy to adolescence and now into maturity and am proud to have been there to help it grow. However, like children, there comes a time when you realize there is not much more that you can give and you have to let it go it's own way. I thank you for your friendships through the years and look forward to watching you and meeting you on strip. Laura and I are not moving, so home info remains the same. Feel free to drop by or call."

This lead to a return message from the outgoing president of the club, Phil Howard. "Michael my friend, the Clear Lake Fencers Club will always appreciate your efforts and vision in creating our fencing club. We also appreciate and support your initiative build new clubs. A person should always strive to identify what is important to them and if they are able, have the courage to actualize these initiatives.

"I have been affiliated with three clubs; the University of Wyoming Fencing Club, Sebastiani’s Fencing Club and of course the CLFC. Without hesitation I rate the CLFC as the best club. We have a unique blend of talents, skill levels, diverse backgrounds, and most important - fellowship. Many fencing clubs have a tendency to become arrogant among themselves and to other clubs. To our credit, we have not and you are a significant contributing factor to the overall standard that has helped us become a wonderful fencing club. We also have a presence and reputation within our fencing community to be proud of. When a Gulf Coast division club hosts an event and several of our fencers register, the reaction that we now elicit is ‘All right, the Clear Lake Fencers are coming.’ You are right, the CLFC has grown to maturity.

"As you know, the Galveston Fencers Club has an open invitation to fence at our club on any Thursday night, with no floor fees and with open arms. Please bring as many fencers from this club as you can and as often as you can to fence with us. I would also appreciate it if you would coordinate special events at your club to solicit road trips of fencers from our club.

"On a final note Michael, you have our respect and our friendship. Please don't become a stranger. In the times to come we will need all the friends and family we have and you have made it to family status with many of us."

Not that Mergens intended to wholly retreat to the island. On September 23rd, St. Andrew’s Episcopalian Church in Houston held a "Celtic Festival." One of the events was an exhibition historical fencing. Interestingly, while the church was in the Heights and he lived in Clear Lake, this was Michael Mergens’ church. The Galveston and Clear Lake fencing coach rounded up a trio of his friends from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club to assist. Mergens gave a talk on the evolution of the sword and fencing. Rod Fleming and John Trojanowski gave a demonstration of late medieval hand-and-a-half swordplay, while Mergens and Nicole Trojanowski performed a choreographed rapier-and-dagger scene. The four also did some contemporary foil, epee and sabre work and passed out fliers for GFC, CLFC and Salle Mauro.

Baybrook Mall was the site of the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club’s next public fencing demonstration on October 6th. They were joined by a number of fencers from the South Houston High School Fencing Club.

The club also had a more social bit of club business October 14th. Phil Howard, who once fenced at the old Salle Sebastiani and for the last few years had been the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club president, was leaving, his work transferring him to Venezuela. Always ready for a social event, the CLFC organized a bon voyage party for Phil and Dorothy Howard at the Dickinson home of John and Nicole Trojanowski. Michael Mergens, Richard Alvarez, Don Cravey, Siegfried Hanicke, Deborah McBride, Gil Hillman, Bill Satterwhite and a host of regulars among the CLFC milieu attended. There were the usual food and drinks and a viewing of a video of the men’s epee competitions at the 2000 Olympics. Vice-President Don Cravey capped the evening with the presentation of a swept hilt rapier to the departing president.

The Clear Lake fencers were not the only ones experiencing a change of leadership. On October 8, A Rice Fencing Club member updated their members’ page on the club website. Most profound was the removal of Mauro Hamza from the heading "Faculty Sponsor." Ryan McMullen replaced him.

They were, apparently, not the only fencers looking for a change. Tim Guerinot later wrote, "When I returned from the fall break I Hamza was nowhere to be seen. I was told he went to Egypt. He didn't return for a month. When he did return a change had occured. You couldn't schedule a lesson with him in case you were one of three people at the club.

"I decided I would treat him with kindness and if he wasn't going to REALLY train me like several other fencers at the club I would find a way to getting better and I did. Three of us set our minds to travelling to the Dallas Fencers, UT and A&M to fence whomever we could. Along with the roadwork we watched endless amounts of video on our fellow competitors so we could try and get on equal ground. Fortunately with all our hard work we were able to hang in there."

Fencing in shopping malls continued October 20, when the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club held a public fencing demonstration at Pasadena Town Square, their second visit to that mall.

More serious fencing, tournament style, occurred the same day at the Bayou City Fencing Academy. Bill Trapani brought along some fencers from the Kingwood Fencing Academy to compete.

At Texas A & M, the club officer roster had dwindled. Non-student Daniel Gorman remained as coach with graduate student Liz Gorman, as the unofficial SWIFA representative. Officially the only officer now listed was Jason Ray who was now the club president. He seems to have stayed fairly busy at the club. The club’s web site stated, "he dabbles in all three weapons, assists in coaching, armoring and various other club functions." The remaining roster remained unchanged from the previous spring.

On November 10th, the CLFC wandered even further afield for their final public demonstration of fencing for the fall of 2001. It was, once again, fencing in a shopping mall, only this time it was on the west side of Houston, far from their region. The event occurred as a repayment by the club for Pasadena Town Square allowing the earlier demonstration. Both malls being operated by the same people. Only five from CLFC showed to present fencing: John and Nicole Trojanowski, Rod Fleming, Matt Delavouryas and Debbie Moran. The turn out was light, but enthusiastic and at least the club could know it made good on favors owed.

Since the mall was far from the Clear Lake area, the CLFC fencers referred interested passers-by and spectators to the Bayou City Fencing Academy and Salle Mauro. Both organizations were based not too far from the demonstration site.

More disappointing was an incident involving Salle Mauro’s prize foilist, Steve Gerberman. Gerberman was participating in the men’s foil event at the Junior World Cup competition in Madrid. On November 24, 2001, in the course of the drug tests administered at the events, he tested positive for metabolite of cannabis.

The Gulf Coast was proving to be a fertile ground for all forms of fencing. The USFA division was growing. HACA was healthy. The local SCA maintained a strong fencing cadre, as well. At the same time, loose-knit, unofficial and unnamed groups had begun to form to pursue an interest in period fencing, distinct from local SCA functions and off to the side from the John Clements/ARMA controversies.

One group of, nominally, sport fencers from the Galveston and Clear Lake fencing clubs occasionally practiced at Medieval and Renaissance forms and occasionally incorporated their work into demonstrations. This group included, at various times, Michael Mergens, Rod Fleming and John and Nicole Trojanowski. Besides geography, this group’s common link was past association with Richard Alvarez. Additionally, the Trojanowskis and Fleming had attended the Ducklin seminar sponsored by HACA sometime previous.

Another group had formed in the Rice University area and included some SCA members and some ex-ARMA/HACA members. Dakao Do, a member of the Rice group, observed, "I live in Houston, Texas, where I was fortunate enough to meet David Wise AKA Sir Alexis in the SCA. He's referenced in Brian Price's book in a section on hardened armor."

On the topic of swords, Do remarked, "Didn't get to hold one until I bought one. In Jan '02, I got fed up with my unsatisfying RPGs and did a Google search for swordsmanship. My first SLO ["Sword-Like Object," a term of derision] ever held was a PVC-and-metal-plumbing monstrosity I created two weeks later with materiel from Home Despot. I have since managed to recoup about 80% of the modest materiel costs by disassembling and exchanging them for wood, drill bits, and other hardware I've since used in my armoring. A cheap lesson indeed.

"A couple months later, based on information on AEMMA's website, I ordered a sword from Heimrick Armor in Canada. $155 (+$24 shipping), 46", 4.5 lbs. longsword with 1mm unsharpened edges, POB 4". Robust tang, has withstood some serious whackage against wood."

For the competitive fencers along the Texas Coast, a trip to the South Texas Division for the Poujardieu Memorial Tournament often began the post-holiday fencing. The competition featured fencers from the US Modern Pentathlon Association, the Army and the Air Force and the national team from Mexico.

In the mixed foil competition, Michael Mergens from the Galveston Fencing Club captured 24th place from a field of 56 competitors. Don Cravey, now President of the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club, took 33rd place. Damien Berntsen from Jerry Dunaway’s South Houston High School program took 40th place. Another CLFC fencer, Michael Hogan, finished in 51st place. His colleague Bill Satterwhite took 56th.

In the women’s foil competition, Candy Torres of the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club tied for 19th in a field of 24.

In the mixed epee competition, which always carried the largest and toughest field to fight through, Brad Goldie from the Bayou City Fencing Academy captured 23rd place from a field of 108 duellists. Immediately behind him were two fencers from the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club. Don Cravey placed 24th and Siegfried Haenicke took 25th place. Following them was a string of Salle Mauro fencers. Yael Gercalkov, Andrew Durham, and Jonathan Bibb placed 27th, 36th and 43rd, respectively. The returning August Skopik, also fencing for Salle Mauro, placed 46th. Galveston Fencing Club’s Michael Mergens took 52nd place. Vic Pitre from the Kingwood Fencing Academy came in at 64th place. Jason Gultjaeff from Salle Mauro took 67th place. Another Kingwood fencer, Christian Spiering held on to 69th place. Katherine Burdine from Salle Mauro placed 71st. KFA’s Eric Monus and Salle Mauro’s Joel Katz immediately followed her in 72nd and 73rd places, respectively. Farrell Bohan and Collin Eaton, both Salle Mauro competitors took 90th and 97th places, respectively. CLFC’s William Satterwhite finished in 104th place.

In the women’s epee event, Salle Mauro’s Yael Gercalkov captured 5th place from a field of 33. Her colleague from Salle Mauro, Farrell Bohan and Katherine Burdine took 25th and 29th places, respectively. Kingwood Fencing Academy’s Jeannie Poland took 30th place.

In the mixed sabre event, Salle Mauro’s Tim Guerinot captured second place, renewing his D rating, from a field of 28. Texas A & M’s Beau Brunson took 23rd place.

By 2002, the face of the Gulf Coast Division as shown on the USFA’s website had changed. Eleven clubs were listed. Among the university clubs it listed Rice University, Texas A & M with James Meyer as the contact, the University of Houston with Brendan Hill and the University of St. Thomas with Elyse Early as the contact. Jerry Dunaway and his South Houston High School were also on the list. Missing was the Brazosport Community College Club run by Dana Andersen-Wyman. Of the non-school based clubs there were no surprises. The clubs and their contacts were listed as: Bayou City Fencing Academy with Louise Lepie; the Clear Lake Fencers’ Club and Phil Howard (although he had long since moved to Venezuela); the Galveston Fencing Club and Ellen Adriance; the Kingwood Fencing Academy and William J. Trapani; Salle Mauro with Mauro Hamza; and, the Spindletop Cavalier and Father Sinclair Oubre (although he was rarely in attendance).

In addition to the Rice University Fencing Club, the university also had the Rice Fencing Academy, Mauro Hamza’s project to get varsity women’s fencing to Rice University. The officers at this time included Eileen Chollet, Emily Jones, Katherine Bormann, and Esther Brown. Other RFA fencers included Brenda Arredondo, Harika Basana, Ashley Friggel, Florence Goal, Kristen LaRiviere, Nicola Perry, Dominique Shelton and Lindsay Sutton.

In addition to triumphs on the fencing piste, Hamza score a coup against his rival and former partner Louise Lepie, at the Bayou City Fencing Academy. In 2002 BCFA’s Andrey Geva left and turned up at Salle Mauro as Hamza’s lead epee coach. Darya "Dasha" Dashevskaya became the junior epee coach. He still, of course had his wife, Noura, and Sabina Bazarbayeva teaching foil. His club was growing and it must have seemed he was unstoppable.

The same could not be said for one of his former star pupils. Steve Gerberman had previously failed a drug test before fencing at a Junior World Cup in Madrid. Now the Executive Committee of the FIE suspended Gerberman from any and all national or international competitions for a period of three months. The suspension period started March 7, 2002.

Not that life was all beer and skittles for Geva. May of 2002 was punctuated by his divorce from his wife, Svetlana.

Louise Lepie, meanwhile, did not let any grass grow under her feet. In no time, BCFA had a new head coach, Delfina Perka. Perka was a former Olympian and member of the Polish Women’s Foil Team.

The new University of St. Thomas Fencing Club held its first tournament the same weekend, on March 23rd, in the same Jerabeck Athletic Center that had seen Tim Glass, Peter Westbrook and others compete decades earlier. This first tournament was a mixed unrated foil tournament with a parallel women’s unrated foil tournament attached. Fencers from the Galveston, Clear Lake and South Houston Clubs attended in sufficient numbers for the mixed foil event to become a "D" tournament.

In the mixed foil event, Michael Mergens from the Galveston Fencing Club took first place, acquiring his "D." Second place went to South Houston High School Fencing Club member Blake Lirette. Paul Latino and Dr. Joseph Magee, both from the host club, tied for third.

The women’s event was won by South Houston fencer Dinh Ngo. University of St. Thomas fencer Yazmin Salgado captured second place. Third place was a tie between Jennifer Cubelli from St. Thomas and Rocio Amaro of South Houston.

April 6th saw South Houston High School host an "E and Under" event titled the Post Fool Tournament. Again the format was mixed foil with a parallel women’s foil event. The turnout among local fencers was larger than at the University of St. Thomas competition. Eighteen competitors turned out for the mixed foil event, ensuring another "D" tournament. The foilists came from the Spindletop Cavaliers, the University of St. Thomas Fencing Club and the Clear Lake Fencing Club, in addition to those from the host club. The women'’ foil competition drew eight foilists, ensuring an "E." rating.

Candy Torres from the Clear Lake Fencing Club captured first place and acquired her "E." Second place went to Dinh Ngo of the South Houston club. Amanda "A. J." Rauckman from Clear Lake and Rocio Amaro from South Houston tied for third.

The mixed foil event was won by South Houston fencer Damian Berntsen, receiving his "D" rating. Peter Power of the Spindletop Cavaliers took second place. The third place tie was split between Phillip Gauthier, also from the Spindletop Cavaliers, and Jesus Medina from South Houston.

The real significant issue, however, was not the tournaments that were held, but the one that was not.

There would be no Harold Van Buskirk Memorial tournament. Rice University fencing Coach Mauro Hamza was quite active at this time. For the last three years, since his 1999 election, he had served as the Gulf Coast Division Chair. While serving as Division Chair and Rice instructor, he also maintained his own organization, Salle Mauro, and was working to acquire NCAA status for women’s fencing at Rice. He also taught fencing at the prestigious Downtown club.

Yet somehow, the Gulf Coast Division’s own very prestigious local tournament failed to materialize in 2002. In some quarters, this was cause for grumbling.

There were already building pressures with the Gulf Coast Division. Over recent years the number of clubs and fencers in the division had grown, but the division itself had become fractured and polarized. Like the breakdown of Yugoslavia into the smaller, antagonistic Balkan States, the Gulf Coast Division had become "Balkanized." There were systemic failures along human fault lines.

Within the city of Houston a line in the sand had been drawn between the Bayou City Fencing Academy and Salle Mauro ever since Hamza left to form his own club. Salle Mauro was successful at maintaining a good relationship with Texas A&M, but had lost the affections of the Rice Fencing Club, in turn.

Lepie’s BCFA, a predominantly epee-oriented club since Hamza’s departure, also had formed a relationship with Bill Trapani’s Kingwood Fencing Academy, which was epee-only. Trapani often traveled with his students to tournaments at BCFA.

In the southeastern corner the Galveston, Clear Lake and South Houston clubs largely worked among themselves. They had some interaction with the Spindletop Cavaliers and, as a result of the involvement of Elyse and Anne Early and Scott Brown, with the University of St. Thomas club. In many ways they became a self-supporting sub-division within the division.

There was little love lost between the southeastern clubs and Salle Mauro. Much of the distrust seemed to stem from the latter club’s dominance of Gulf Coast Division administration. The smaller clubs of the southeast often felt that announcements and news of the major tournaments (that is, the tournaments that qualified one for either the Junior Olympics or the summer National Championships) were not disseminated. True or not, they were left feeling left out of important events in the division and some began to make common cause with Louise Lepie at the Bayou City Fencing Academy.

Some of the coaches among the southeast clubs complained of having to make repeated telephone call to learn the time and place of qualifiers. One resource that should have helped was the internet. Between a functional website and an active email list, contacting all of the clubs and most of the fencers in the division should not have been difficult.

By the spring of 2002, however, CLFC fencer John Trojanowski was combing through the official website of the Gulf Coast Division for information about upcoming events and, with great frustration, found that the most recent update on that site had occurred in 1999. The information was over two years old. He determined to do something about it.

Recognizing he had no official status and no authority to act on behalf of the division, in April of 2002, he signed up for a free website and began what he initially titled the "Rogue" Gulf Coast Division Website, an indication he would be going his own way. With emails to various fencers and clubs he began to produce a frequently-updated site whose main mission was to announce upcoming tournaments, workshops and other events.

The Gulf Coast Divisional Qualifiers were held April 13 and 14 at Hamza’s main venue, Salle Mauro. On Sunday the 14th the elections for division officers were also held. Up until this point, Mauro Hamza had largely run unopposed. The apathy and miniscule turnout of recent years was gone.

While the number of those turning out in person was still small, they were easily feeling crowded in the Salle Mauro waiting room. This time Hamza had an opponent, South Houston High School fencing coach Jerry Dunaway. Among those who showed up in person were Jerry Dunaway, Louise Lepie, Bill Trapani, Scott Brown, and John and Nicole Trojanowski. Most of the voting, however, was done by proxy and several proxies were found to not be valid.

Ultimately Mauro Hamza still won the day and was elected Chair of the Gulf Coast Division. His rivals had failed to unseat him. The remaining officers were all nominated by Hamza and ran unopposed. Michael Mergens from the Galveston Fencing Club was elected Vice-Chair. August Skopik claiming the Rice Fencing Club was elected Secretary. Andrey Geva, formerly with Bayou City and now with Salle Mauro, was elected Treasurer.

This would, however, turn out to be the beginning of a period that would see several sharp turns made in the leadership of the division.

In late April a change was required. Michael Mergens military obligations, in the face of increased demands on the military after the attacks of September 11, 2001, required his transfer to Washington D. C. for the next year or so. He would not be able to serve as Vice-Chair. Mergens asked Hamza to allow him to name his own successor. Hamza agreed and Mergens asked his old student from the Clear Lake Fencing Club, John Trojanowski, to take his place. Mergens also asked Trojanowski to check in on the Galveston Fencing Club from time to time. The replacement choice was an interesting touch, since Trojanowski was part of the faction that had supported Dunaway.

Elections or not, the local spring tournaments continued with the Clear Lake Fencing Club hosting an unrated competition in mixed foil and epee on May 18th. In mixed foil the results were:

1 Paul Koo, earning a D (Galveston Fencing Club)

2 David Hochstetler, earning an E (Texas A&M)

T3 Maxwell Scott, earning an E (CLFC)

T3 Greg Unruh, earning an E (Bayou City Fencing Academy)

5 William Davis (Texas A&M)

6 Stephen Porter (Independent)

7 Steve Lalumandier (CLFC)

8 Steve Hicks (CLFC)

9 Scott Harris (CLFC)

10 Andrew Kelleher (CLFC)

11 John Trojanowski (CLFC)

12 Miles Sisson (CLFC)

13 Matt Delevoryas (CLFC)

14 Charlie Hicks (CLFC)

15 Neil Hillborn (CLFC)

The epee results were:

1 Jeremy Cooper, earning an E (Spindletop Cavaliers)

2 Rene Garcia (CLFC)

T3 Steve Lalumandier (CLFC)

T3 Michael Hogan (CLFC)

5 Charles Morehead (Independent)

6 Stephen Porter (Independent)

7 Peter Power (Spindletop Cavaliers)

8 John Trojanowski (CLFC)

9 Bill Satterwhite (CLFC)

10 Jeannie Poland (Kingwood Fencing Academy)

In one of the final bouts, between Steve Lalumandier and Jeremy Cooper, the toll became rather high. Lalumandier, who had years before "thrown out" his knee and wore a brace, managed to "throw it back out" during the competitions. He was able to continue after performing a maneuver that included bending back his left leg to a point where onlookers cringed. A little later in the same bout, he charged Cooper who retreated into an inappropriately placed steel pipe, which served as a Volleyball net support. The supports had been moved to one wall of the gym, but not far enough from the back of the strip. Cooper accepted the brief use of an ice pack and resumed combat.

On the historical fencing front ARMA executed an unexpected change in one of its tried and true. The transmogrified HACA was definitely taking a less strident tone than its prior incarnation, when the organization’s opinions served as a soapbox for director John Clements. The group had already made a kind of peace with theatrical fencing. Now it appeared ready to go further. Previously, Clements held re-creation groups, the SCA, role-playing games (RPGs) and live-action role-playing groups (LARPs) in low esteem. Now, however, the previously unthinkable had occurred.

One company marketed an RPG called The Riddle of Steel. What made the game interesting was that the creator of the combat system, Jake Norwood, was highly familiar with the various western martial arts groups (WMAs). More stunning, though, was the fact that the book was approved as "The closest thing to real combat" by ARMA! As a long-time observer of SCA, HACA and WMA groups, Robert Lyle, noted, "ARMA seems to be playing down some of JC's more strident opinions. Supporting a good system would be in line with a more inclusive approach. Or at least with not alienating so many people."

ARMA also continued to develop study groups and affiliated members across the nation and around the world. It also continued to expand closer to its home base, as well. While most ARMA members from the Texas Coast were part of the Houston study group others like Daniel Hinson in Orange and Emmet Turner in Huntsville worked from the fringe. Kyle Cook, for instance, was an affiliated member in Victoria, Texas.

All manner of people seemed to be carrying swords along the Texas Coast, and it was getting some of them in trouble. In May of 2002, the Sheriff’s Department in Chambers County, just east of Houston, had to suspend one of their sergeants, following allegations of theft made by a drug suspect. The dealer accused the sergeant of stealing his wallet, two knives and a sword. Perhaps more unusual than the accusation (of a type commonly made by arrested suspects) was the intimation that narcotics violators were carrying swords.

Further east still, the Spindletop Cavaliers in Port Arthur got some better press than the deputy when a feature article ran in May 19, 2002 issue of the local Beaumont Enterprise. The article duly mentioned not only founder Sinclair Oubre, but also members Phil Gauthier; his daughter, Jana Gauthier; Jeremy Cooper, of Bridge City; Kevin King, from Beaumont; Tracie Middleton, of Vidor;

The Bayou City Fencing Academy hosted a tournament consisting of foil and epee on June 1st. Greg Unruh of the host club won the epee event, with Siegfried Hanicke from Clear Lake taking second and Nathan Jarvis from BCFA placing third.

The host club was an almost exclusively epee fencing group, but they set up a foil competition as a friendly gesture to a group of predominantly foil-based Clear Lake fencers. In the smaller foil event, Maxwell Scott took first, with Matt Delevoryas placing second and Amanda Rauckman coming in third. All three were from Clear Lake.

June also saw Salle Mauro moving out of their tiny facility to a more spacious second floor establishment on Bellaire Blvd, in the tiny city of Southside Place (wholly surrounded by Houston). As the still-frustrated Tim Guerinot wrote, "At the end of the 2001 season Hamza opened his club at a much better location and we all thought the tide might change." Certainly, things looked good for Hamza. He had a full staff that consisted of himself, his wife, Noura, Dina Bazarbayeva, Dasha Darshevskaya and the recently acquired Andrey Geva. Now he had a newer, larger, better space to organize his classes in.

Surprises were becoming the norm and not all of them were pleasant. One was the very type of freak accident every fencer fears.

Two days before the official grand opening of the new Salle Mauro, on Thursday, June 13, 2002, CLFC fencer Steve Lalumandier was enjoying an informal epee assault at the club with South Houston High School fencer Charles Morehead. It was the end of the night and both had engaged in considerable swordplay up to this point, without incident. CLFC fencer Steve Hicks was nearby watching the exchange. At one point, Lalumandier and Morehead each extended and, nearly simultaneously launched their respective attacks.

Morehead’s epee tip rose slightly, made contact with the lower left quarter of Lalumandier’s mask… and penetrated it! The mask failed. The tip impacted below Lalumandier’s left eye. The blade continued through, stopping after creating a small exit wound near the spot where his left earlobe anchored to his jaw. Morehead instinctively retracted his weapon and Lalumandier flung off his mask.

The club’s fencers, most of whom were not watching when the impact was made, turned to see Lalumandier lying on his back, with both hands clasped over the region of his left eye, and a large amount of blood on the floor. Several of his colleagues later admitted that the first thing which popped into their minds was the name Boris Smirnov, the Russian fencer killed in a similar accident some twenty years earlier. His companions quickly retrieved the club’s first aid kit to stem the blood flow and clean/disinfect the wound while the local Seabrook paramedics were called out. Others had to calm a visibly shaken Morehead.

Lalumandier was rushed to Ben Taub hospital in Houston. Even in a city the size of Houston, he found himself the center of attention for a moment. At one point world-famous trauma surgeon "Red" Duke was nearby with a group of interns. He called them all over to observe Lalumandier, advising them that they would probably never have a chance to see this type of wound again.

He was released from the hospital that same night. Happily, beyond a reoccurring dryness in the left eye and what he termed a "crooked smile," the injury mainly left Lalumandier with a suitably romantic "duelling scar" below his left eye.

Interestingly, unlike most other such accidents, including the one that took the life of Smirnov, Morehead’s epee did not break before penetrating Lalumandier’s mask. It penetrated with the electric tip intact. It was determined that Lalumandier was wearing a barely used, yet ten-year-old Negrini brand foil mask. While it is true the mask was never designed for epee impacts, a subsequent 12-kilogram mask punch test failed to find any other weak spots. It would remain unknown exactly why the mask failed in that moment.

The tip had broken the skin along the edge of the bottom of the Lalumandier’s left eye socket and traveled with his left cheek, never exiting into the mouth before emerging near the point where the left earlobe anchors to the back of the cheek.

Only a week later, on the other side of the greater Houston area, a more fatal sword wound was inflicted. On Friday, June 21, 46-year-old Ronald Dale McKenzie arrived at the home of Paula Ficklin in the Pebble Creek Subdivision near Cleveland, around 8 p.m., reportedly angry and possibly intoxicated. A fight ensued between McKenzie and 28-year-old Floyd Vickery Jr. The encounter terminated with McKenzie dead from a stab wound to the neck inflicted by an ornamental sword allegedly wielded by Floyd Vickery.

On the topic of swords, that summer, John Clements was making his tour. On June 30th there was an ARMA workshop in Princeton, New Jersey. The main focus was long sword as instructed by the ARMA director.

For Tim Guerinot, the fall of 2002 brought hope, then more frustration. "My compadres and myself returned to training at the club ready to set the groundwork for a successfull season. Hamza came to us with a program which we all agreed to follow. We were excited that he might finally coach us. Three weeks later he returned to true form galavanting around the club sipping from a Starbucks coffee issueing orders to his employee's. We just shook our heads and returned to business as usual."

The fall brought with it the annual Texas Renaissance Festival in nearby Plantersville. One aspect of TRF was the continuous work to upgrade and improve the site and the shows from year to year. This season, the word that went out was a change to the jousting field and a change of jousting companies.

One TRF regular noted, "The joust is all new this year... The Jousting Track has been changed up/redesigned, and there will be a new jousting company... new show... etc. This is a really radical departure, as the previous jousting company has been there for at least the last 17 years (that's as long as I've watched them) and probably more. The joust has always attracted a big audience (the 2pm joust has generally pulled the biggest), and may pull bigger crowds than usual this year, depending on whether or not folks like the New Show/New Troupe."

The new company was the Hanlon-Lees Action Theater.

As Richard Alvarez put it, "The "New" show at TRF, is actually the "OLDEST" joust show at TRF. That's right, my old jousting company, The Hanlon-Lees Action Theatre, is performing at TRF this year. The Hanlon-Lees were the first joust company at TRF, way back in 1981(82?), if I recall correctly. That’s when I befriended Taso and Kent and Omms and Robin."

Just a few miles away, in College Station, the fencing season began with the Heavy Metal Circuit Cup at Texas A & M University on the weekend of October 19-20. In a departure from recent years, and showing a greater involvement by the Gulf Coast Division’s officers, Division Secretary August Skopik was on hand to represent the division, itself. He also got in some fencing.

The very next weekend, October 26-27, the A & M fencers again played host. This time they were hosting SWIFA 1, the first tournament of the season for the Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association.

A few weeks later, the University of St. Thomas Fencing Club hosted an "E and under" mixed foil tournament in the Jerabeck Athletic Center on November 2nd.

November 9th the Clear Lake Fencing Club hosted a mixed open epee and foil tournament in League City.

The end of 2002 saw only continued uphill struggles for Tim Guerinot at Salle Mauro. "At the end of 2002 we finally received some help from a newhire epee coach [Geva] who was struck with pity. He gave us lessons to the best of his ability and when Hamza wan't looking would come over and give us useful hints, stay late to critique our bouts and work to the best of his ability to help raise our fencing level."

December brought with it the opening of the motion picture, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In the Bryan-College Station area the local SCA chapter, Shadowlands, put on a demonstration in conjunction with the showing of the film. One participant recalled, "We performed a small demo in concert with a local theatre's showing of Lord of the Rings. We had a rapier demo, some archery shots, a fiber display, and an armour display. The local college [Texas A & M University] was also out for a fencing demo...they enjoyed watching our rapier fighters, and vice versa. I don't think we pulled in any new members, but we probably got exposure to the sort of people who don't normally see us."

From the very beginnings of his stewardship of HACA, later ARMA, John Clements had maintained an interest in the construction and qualities of swords, an interest that equaled, some would argue exceeded, his interest in fencing techniques. Like Hank Reinhardt before him, Clements conducted a series of tests with edge and point of a number of swords. One particular time this included risking a weapon that was a personal favorite. These tests were recorded and video clips posted on the ARMA website. The clips and the results they revealed attracted the interest of sword makers and enthusiasts from many quarters. By February of 2003, these clips elicited much Internet discussion, most notable on a site called Sword Forum International.

The clips showed Hank Reinhardt cleaving a large, thick cardboard tube held by a volunteer and Clements cutting at heavy suspended items with various forms of armor and helmets. They also reinforced John Clements’ reputation for being in the center of controversy.

One clip that garnered particular interest showed Clements making a cut against a suspended 60-lb, weight, which had been covered with a leather gambeson and a chain mail coat. In the video, the blade broke about four inches forward of the cross guard upon impact and flew around to the opposite end of the room from Clements. It could be heard bouncing off the walls. This had been one of Clements’ favorite weapons, created at Raven Armory some year previous.

There was also a video that depicted Clement attempting to use a sword to cleave large bamboo stalks. This sword also broke.

Adrian Ko, the SFI editor-in-chief, noted, "Yes the blade was wide, but my feeling is that if you only learn from the sword cutting successfully and do not learn from the sword not cutting successfully, the learning experience is flawed.

"However, I still have issue with this Director in what he thinks he's learning in these cutting tests. You see, I come from a race of people who made armor and weapons out of hardened yellow bamboo thousands of years ago. We use yellow bamboo as a workman's exterior canvas in the construction of concrete buildings. That the director in a video on his website broke a Del Tin sword cutting a trunk of hardened yellow bamboo but concealed this fact in his published video, denounced me as a "neophyte" and blamed the inability to cut this material successfully on the quality of the sword is more a testament of mettle of the man rather than metal of the sword.

"And by the way, the director told this "neophyte" the words "Nobody told me hardened yellow bamboo isn't cuttable" in this "neophyte's own home. This he covered up to preserve his reputation so that Del Tin's reputation could be the scapegoat."

Another aspect of the video that other enthusiasts noted, however, was that Clements wore no protective gear while pushing his weapons to their limits. One viewer initially remarked, "In a previous thread ARMA members took umbrage at the technique, and safety issues, displayed by David Stokes in his "cutting party" video. In these videos we see members of a developed organization, and their director, engaging in demonstrations which exhibit far worse safety violations than anything displayed by the young Mr. Stokes. Which individual thought that it was safe, or advisable, to have a subject hold a cardboard tube at arms length while Hank took a swing at it? It would have been an even more fascinating video if either party had lost their footing, or grip, don't you think? Why was there no facial protection worn by the majority of the participants let alone the individuals standing around enjoying the spectacle? I'm glad that Johns broken Raven didn't decide to rebound in the other direction."

This drew the response, "The fact that the Raven broke doesn't surprise me as much as the fact that the Norman sword didn't break, or sustain damage, when chopping on those dried hickory sticks, as well as the metal stand they were on.. I guess John didn't learn much from the bamboo incident. Oh, and Johns exclamation of "Fu!k" when the sword broke was of great scholarly merit as well.

The moderator of the board cautioned participants against letting the discussion fall into becoming yet another pro-ARMA/anti-ARMA flame war.

After it was observed that ARMA members were not the only ones being less than safe while testing sword, one poster said, "the "well everybody else does it" justification doesn't work with my kids let alone with adults. If practitioners of these other arts aren't raising a stink perhaps they should.

"Once upon a time I too fell into the "it's a martial art" mentality. That attitude resulted in several hours of surgery followed by months, even years, of painful physical therapy and recovery. I now have only 85% of the range of movement I used to have in a certain part of my body because of that attitude.

It just isn't worth it.

"If you're going to risk life and limb make sure that it's for something important instead of something as inconsequential as this sword stuff. If you're going to put yourself in harms way do it while pulling babies from burning buildings or saving drowning ladies not by chopping on maille covered punching bags. Being safe means living longer and setting an example. Being macho could lead to spending your days crapping in a plastic bag and sucking your food through a straw.

"We must also be cognizant of the image that we portray to the rest of the world. That's why I've been down in the past on certain topics which have been raised on SFI [Sword Forum International] such as "Anyone ever really use a sword?" and "Swords for home defense" etc. Words that appear here have a big impact on how the rest of the world views our hobby. The same applies to the videos that ARMA chooses to display. Some thought really should have gone into the method in which these tests were done since they were going to be displayed on-line. Education is good but we should also be responsible while we're doing it."

As the discussion went back and forth, Adrian Ko, the sword maker and researcher chimed in, "I don't want to come across wrong, but the community is sharing some really legitimate concerns here. And for some reason I'm seeing, as it were, some kind of pre-rehearsed response. Is there some kind of protocol?

"The responses here today are very similar to the incident at the Schola St. George Symposium where John injured his demo partner.

"In that event, John was so intense with his demonstration that he struck the demo partner in the face and in the glasses, and also harshly dealt the demo partner to the concrete ground. Jeff Basham of ARMA came to his defense on the HES [Historical European Swordsmanship] Forum and basically told everyone that the way they practiced was wrong; John was right because John was showing "intent". That kind of "John's right; you're all wrong; someone else is wrong and John is right" mentality/mantra [is what] basically brought shame to HACA/ARMA that day. None of the instructors who were there bought it. What an eye-opener. ARMA people who couldn't process the situation resolved to cry "ARMA-bashing" and played the persecuted puppy. Wake up, guys. You're free thinkers, aren't you? Or is there some mentality or internal dossier you're just regurgitating whenever John is critiqued?

Ko continued, "John was in my own home (he stayed over here and then I'd drive him over to the St. George Symposium) where he showed me the video, the break, then the comment on the broken Del Tin. What he did not say on the video was what he was cutting.

"His words to me, again, here in my own home (and I emphasize this because people seem to sidestep this, and John seems to not acknowledge this to perhaps protect his reputation) is this: "That was hardened yellow bamboo. Nobody told me that you can't cut hardened yellow bamboo." My response to John: "John... we Chinese have been making ARMOR out of hardened yellow bamboo thousands of years before you were even born."

"I told John to pull the video because he was blaming the break on Del Tin quality. In acknowledging it was yellow bamboo and that he didn't know it at the time, it would have shown that he didn't know what he was doing. So on the ARMA forum he said it was green and denounced me as a neophyte. I had respectfully presented to him that he should simply have pulled the video from this website and not cost Del Tin's reputation. Now he cost me my reputation.

"You are invited to defend ARMA and John. I expect no less from anyone. However I do not want this to be unacknowledged or waived off. Green is not yellow. Harming the reputation of another to bolster one's own -- that was not an issue of the metal of the sword but the mettle of the man."

A little later, Ko also wrote, "I'll make this very simple. This is not a story I love to kick around. This is a very serious call upon John Clements to exhibit some character. Don't give me this "You know how to call him" baloney because I've spent weeks pleading with him not to harm Del Tin's reputation as he covered up his own mistake. Again yellow hardened bamboo is uncuttable. Green bamboo is significantly softer. At the time of the cutting, he didn’t know hardened yellow is uncuttable. He was told after the fact. But now that he knows, the burden of upholding good character is on HIM, not me. Admitting that on his website would make the Director of ARMA look pretty foolish, but instead of yanking the video he kept it up there for a while and, well, Fulvio Del Tin was understandably upset."

Randall Pleasant of Flower Mound, Texas in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area chimed in, with, "That said, let me move on to ARMA's safety record - another old story. Like all martial arts groups ARMA has had some injuries. JC cut his leg during a demonstration, JC knock glasses off of someone, a member of the DFW study group cut his knee on the guard of his sword, and I have lost count of the times I have parried against a waster with my fingers. What some of those who love to complain about ARMA's safety record over look is that ARMA probably has a better safety record than any other WMA group (of course, excluding the re-enactment and role playing groups). I think it was less than a year ago people from other groups were flaming ARMA about its safety record. However, the safety records of the other groups include things like a broken neck, a dagger in the eye, knocking people in the head during demonstrations, and one instructor sticking another instructor in the head with a rapier. Funny, then the young man recently got a dagger in the eye I don't remember there being a thread like this discussing the group's safety record. Was that incident not an issue? In fact, things were so quite about the incident that I never heard how he was recovering. Does any one know?

Unfortunately, the ARMA-centric controversies continued on SFI, often in spite of the best efforts of Editor Ko or the various forum moderators. While John Clements and ARMA were the largest, most visible and certainly most controversial group practicing the sword arts along the Texas Coast, they were far from the only game in town. In addition to the SCA there were also the unofficial study groups like the Clear Lake-Galveston group and one around Rice University, which included Dakao Do.

Do described the group he belonged to this way in early 2003. "I live in Houston, TX, USA and practice with a group of roughly 12 people. About 6 or 7 routinely attend weekly. Two people are ex-ARMA, some are SCA, and the rest are merely interested people. MA [martial arts] experience ranges from only AD&D role-playing games to a black-belt tournament fighter. We are all too busy to meet more than twice a week at most. In other words, no one makes WMA a high priority in their lives! ...Including me.

"As much as I would love to spend 5 nights a week on this pursuit, I have a job, graduate degree classes at night, and occasional family business commitments. I am also working with a friend to assemble two Milanese harnesses so that we may practice in harness at our meetings.

"We all use Christian Darce's wooden longswords and rondel daggers and our two ex-ARMA fellows have their padded weapons which they let the group use. I have a Heimrick steel sword (AEMMA mark II) which I let people handle in solo practice to get accustomed to the handling.

Thus far, safety gear is athletic cup for drills. For faster drills, fencing mask as well. For padded free play, we borrow the ex-ARMA fellows' padded gloves and use fencing masks. All attacks are to the touch, but performed as fast as the attacker can safely push himself. Thrusts are much more careful -- usually a slow placement of the point with no force. This will change with more gear (armor / padded daggers).

"I try to rotate every few weeks between Fiore's dagger work, Christian Tobler's German swordsmanship for longsword, and half-swording from Fiore, Tobler, and ARMA (which itself is an amalgam of sources).

"We mostly practice in a gym or outdoors near the gym at a local university (Rice U., in case any Houstonians are reading this!). Our gear is minimal -- masks and wasters thus far -- so storage and hauling aren't a problem.

"As an aside, we have a problem which the SCA people here call the Ansteorran one-step. In practice, many people only practice making a single attack or defense. As a consequence, in free play people tend to attack once or stop an attack, then they fly out from the engagement.

"I am trying to fight this reflex with a three-pronged approach. Whether I will be successful or not remains to be proven in our full-harness free play (starting in March). 1) Solo sequences of cuts/steps, 2) partner drills (see below), and 3) the free play. For 1-2 hours, we then do partner drills. I sometimes plan ahead and use 3-4 Fiore techniques as drills, but sometimes just think up on the spot 2 or 3 different drills. A friend who is studying Christian Tobler's book on Lichtenauer and Ringeck often suggests techniques to try."

Dakao Do, while primarily interested in historical fencing, was also affiliated with the Rice Fencing Club. Like Richard Alvarez and Claude Caux before him, he could move in both worlds.

The Rice Fencing Club, however, was having trouble just holding itself together. Since the days of Harold Van Buskirk through the time of Al Peters, the club had survived with the help of those who taught fencing at the University. A rift, however, existed between the campus organization and Rice’s current coach, Mauro Hamza. Hamza taught the fencing course that was part of Rice’s PE curriculum. When he found fencers with talent and interest he referred them to his off-campus salle. Without the backing of the campus instructor, recruitment was down.

The hard core of the club became the graduate students and non-students from the nearby community. This presented a real problem as the club was required to use only undergraduate students as club officers. Issues had come to a climax the previous year when, for the first time in decades, the Harold Van Buskirk Memorial Tournament failed to be held.

In the months since the Van Buskirk had slid off the calendar in 2002, some fencers from the Clear Lake Fencing Club had begun to reach out toward the Rice group. Most notable was Matt Delevoryas, a Rice alum, himself, although he did not take up fencing until long after he left college. Others from CLFC who began either fencing with or keeping in touch with the Rice group included John and Nicole Trojanowski, and Bill Satterwhite. Also signing on with interest was August Skopik.

Many of those involved had one key idea that joined them together: bring back the Van Buskirk Memorial.

By the spring of 2003, however, Matt Delevoryas was encountering some problems. "I haven't run into anybody associated with RFC yet who doesn't want there to be a 2003 Van Buskirk. This includes students, non-students who serve functions, and non-students who want their turn to relax. But, it's almost as if everybody turns off the Van Buskirk parts of their brains outside of practices, and timeshare between Van Buskirk and practicing during the practices. Everybody seems to have realized that the Van Buskirk will, more likely than not, happen."

The USFA fencers along the Texas Gulf Coast had their share of personal issues as well. The 2002 elections for division officers had made obvious that there were fissures forming. One fencer, who was with Salle Mauro in the spring of 2003, would later write that a turning point of sorts occurred during the North American Cup competition in Overland Park, Kansas in April of 2003. Basically, a core group of parents, comparing notes over the fees they paid for coaching services at Salle Mauro and speaking with coaches from around the country came to the conclusion they were being overcharged.

While still in Kansas some made their concerns known. They met with Mauro Hamza and whatever passed between them proved to be unsatisfactory. Others did so once back in Houston. While it was not, at first, broadcast throughout the local fencing community, although a number of them gravitated to the Bayou City Fencing Academy and that would have been difficult to miss. Fissures were forming. There were defections. The cold war between Salle Mauro and BCFA had acquired a new dynamic.

On August 12, Clear Lake and Galveston fencer John Trojanowski closed his eyes and took a bigger dive onto the fencing community on the worldwide web. Using Fencing Net as his inspiration but willing to be a bit more anarchic, he created the Texas Gulf Coast Fencing Forum. While his wish was not to devolve to the status of the Fencing Sucks site, Trojanowski did allow for anonymous posting. The idea was to allow those in the local fencing community the ability to speak out with safety, but he knew there would be those pushing the envelopes of taste and propriety. There would be a lot of fireworks.

The 2003-2004 fencing season began, for Tim Guerinot at Salle Mauro with a touch of wry irony. "Season 2003- Pretty much the same as 2002 except for the warmup suits he told us we all had to buy if we wanted to compete. They were pretty nice looking so I was interested in an outfit until I found out they cost 300 dollars. I did some research and found the exact warmups for 75 dollars and ordered a pair. He always shook his head in bewilderment wondering if he ever sold me a warmup suit."

By early December, Salle Mauro already had media detailing Geva’s replacement at epee coach, Alexei Sintchinov.

With the open break between Hamza and Geva, the year ended as one might have guessed for Tim Guerinot. "By the end of 2003 two of us are still fencing, training at the epee dudes new club [Alliance Fencing Academy]."

The final break between Andrey Geva and Mauro Hamza had come and gone. The line was again, drawn in the sand. Initially, several members of Salle Mauro left with Geva, just as so many from the Bayou City Fencing Academy had left with Mauro Hamza when he first opened Salle Mauro. Fencers and coaches from other clubs often made a point to keep their distance from the main players in the soap opera so as not to appear to favor one faction or the other. This was, obviously, particularly difficult during tournaments.

Things were not all beer and skittles at BCFA, either. A falling out had occurred between Tomasz Stusinski and his most successful pupils, Joe Wysocki and Tim Guerinot. Both fencers soon left the club and turned up at Alliance.

By February the Salle Mauro website had removed the bios for Andrey Geva and Darya "Dasha" Dashevskaya. You could still see bios for Sabina Bazabayeva, Mauro and his wife. They had also now added a bio for their newest coach, Amgad Khazabak.

Now, however, the Internet was part and parcel of the lives of most of the participants, not just a few, as was the case in the early 1990s. While it appears neither Hamza nor Geva made any posts themselves, their respective adherents and partisans played out the feud in a "flame war" across several sites. So, as with the break with Louise Lepie and Mauro Hamza, this split became a polarizing factor for many and it was played out for all to read.

Sadly, the net result was to give the world at large the impression that the entire Gulf Coast Division was completely dysfunctional.

The first salvo in the mud slinging appears to have been posted on March 5, 2004 on an Internet bulletin board known, appropriately, as Fencing Sucks. The first accusation ran, in part, "A friend of mine who fences at a club in Houston, Texas SALLE MAURO told me her coach, Mauro Hamza charges her family tens of thousands of dollar a year to coach her. She said her father got po'd and did some research on this guy. He claimed to be a three time Olympian 1988 (Bronze Medal), 92 and 96 (Captain of the team) for the Egyptian foil team, Coach of the US junior and cadet fencing team. They found out this guy has lied about everything."

It was followed two hours and ten minutes later by, "I don't know… about where Mauro came from or what he has done, but he's a damn fine coach. If you want corroboration, you can ask any of the top foil coaches in the US. Or Steve Gerberman."

Two days later, the counter-rebuttal appeared, "Here's the real truth about Hamza: Mauro NEVER fenced in ANY Olympic games, despite telling all his students over the past 5 years that he was an Olympian, and a bronze medal winner too. This all came out in the research for a lawsuit that he lost on Friday. Additionally, there is a written statement from the Egyptian fencing federation that he NEVER was on their Olympic team. What a sham. There are a lot of folks wondering if they can get their money back as Mauro mis-represented himself for so long. Want proof, check out his current website, all those lies about his past has been suddenly removed, including his claim to be the fencing coach at Rice University, which is also a lie. Rice threatened him to take it off his website, he complied. Check out any archived website of Salle Mauro, and compare it to his present one which was changed Thursday night. As far as being a good coach regarding Steve Gerberman, Steve came to Hamza ranked #1 in the country, in Junior, an extremely talented fencer. Steve had a top level coach in Chicago before Mauro, who took him to that level."

Others, of course, saw things very differently, "MAURO is one of the nicest people I have ever met. Mauro is also the most generous and kindest person you could ever meet. If you have ever been in need of a foil replacement, or a broken bodycord mended, MAURO is someone you could count on. If you find yourself falling apart at a competition, MAURO is there for you. I feel honored to know MAURO, and I truly believe he should be respected above all."

Charges and counter-charges, anonymous and falsely attributed statements would drag on for months across the website visited by fencers from around the country. Often, the level of venom was quite surprising even to those intimately acquainted with the split. The names of most off Hamza’s past pupils were drug into the fray as evidence either of his skill as a developer of great fencers or as evidence of the opposite.

Several fencers who had gone off to variously colleges and not fenced locally in months or years had their names bandied about. Sadly, young fencers still on the local scene had their names tossed in as well. Steve Gerberman, David and Yale Cohen, Greg Micek, Ben Parkins, and Mike Galligan, among many others, would get sucked into the arguments. The sport fencing community’s positions on Hamza began to resemble the historical fencing controversies that swirled about HACA.

There were postings for one side or another appearing on the Fencing Sucks site almost hourly. By mid-March Louise Lepie and the Bayou City Fencing Academy were drug into the mud fight by one anonymous poster who composed the simple question, "Can anyone tell me anything about Bayou City Fencing Academy in Houston Texas?" The reply was, "I'd rate BCFA a 5 out of 10. The club has amazing potential and shown some nice improvements in the last year. All but one of the coaches are quality. The armorer is a really nice guy who loves the sport and the owner is very nice and in my opinion at times is too nice."

Another case of damned with faint praise occurred in another post about this time that ran, "The only coach at Mauro's who is who they say they are is an underpaid, disrespected woman named Sabina [Bazarbayeva]." The same writer, referring to Delfina Perka, Kamilla Skladanowska and Tomasz Stusinski, at the Bayou City Fencing Academy, wrote, "Both coaches are women who have been actual POLISH foil champions. They're just waiting for the chance to teach some folk who are ready to work. The epee program is not bad. they have two coaches who are very professional and ready and willing to work very hard. Sabre has the most potential with a coach who fenced for Poland on the Sydney Olympic team.

Well, at least someone was occasionally saying something nice about someone at this point. On the whole, however, comments stayed overwhelmingly vitriolic.

Another aspect that periodically appeared in the flame wars were references to what some referred to as the ‘plantation system." The degree to which it occurred (never/common place) was argued back and forth, as well as who were the perpetrators and who were the victims. Essentially, it referred to a presumed practice of bringing in a foreign fencing coach whose status in this country was tied to their ability to keep working. On a brutally simplistic level, it went something like, "If you don’t like your pay/work conditions I can cancel your work visa and you will be deported."

Several operators of fencing clubs would be accused of such practices. Describing one such, someone wrote, "he learned the ways to take advantage of coaches with limited possibilities and from the start applied these methods in a much more pernicious way to the poor coaches he hired and subsequently exploited."

One anonymous anti-Hamza partisan on March 18 made the accusation with a post that read, in part, "I also agree that Sabina is by far the most qualified foil coach… The other Egyptian coach Amgad is also much more qualified than the "boss" and his students compliment his abilities. But he, like the other slaves there doesn't dare open his mouth."

In many ways, 2004 was becoming a year of musical chairs fort coaches. This was not limited to Salle Mauro. As one person familiar with BCFA noted on March 18, 2004, "One foil coach (a multiple time Polish female Olympian who has coached a world champion) is great. They have an Epee coach who is very solid (Witold Rutkowski) who is great but for some reason the owner has not let him do much. Very sad, Witold is a class act. They have a new Russian epee coach who was billed as top notch but folks at the club report she cannot fence that well and speaks no English. The saber coach is worse than useless and has been a thorn in the side of the owner since he got there. A horrible coach who has a bad attitude and will be gone soon sources report. All in all if you are foil or epee it is a nice place to fence, but not many competitive fencers. Andrey Geva at tne newly formed Alliance Fencing Academy in Houston is by far the best coach in the city. A former Russian champion, and national coach in Isreal. He is a real professional and his credentials."

The weekend of March 21-22 Salle Mauro hosted a Regional Youth Circuit tournament at Rice University’s Autry gym.

The surreal turn of the recent elections for division officers was reflected in another anonymous post in the Fencing Sucks flame wars on April 7. "Why don't you move over to BCFA where the foil coaches really know their stuff and the facilities are first class! Even Hamza must have thought so when he gave all his votes (the proxies given to him by your parents) to Louise Lepie."

The Bayou City Fencing Academy had issues of its own to resolve. Sometime around April 10, BCFA and Tomasz Stusinski parted company.

An April 14 post on the Fencing Sucks site foreshadowed another coming staff change, this one at Salle Mauro. In refuting a prior statement that Hamza was the best of the three coaches at the salle, someone wrote, "Let me present this to you my friend. How is it that the only other fencer at the club with a B rating in foil [Michael LoParco] is coached by Sabina, 36 years old and like I just said B rated fencer."

The changing political paradigm was reflected in an April 15 post, "Hey remember how for the past 5 years how… Hamza told you how evil Louise was and that if you were to go to her club you would be banned from his club forever… then he votes for her, not himself or somebody else." Some who left Salle Mauro with Geva and Dashevskaya initially felt common cause with Hamza’s old rival Louise Lepie at Bayou City. Now they were perplexed. Some felt betrayed that a perceived ally had made a pact with Hamza. Emotions and uncertainty ran high.

The very next day, on April 16, an anti-Hamza writer posted the following news (albeit with predictable toning and hyperbole), "Michael LoParco, 36 years old one of Sabina’s students earned his B at the DIV II NAC in Arlington, Texas. Instead of a raise for Sabina for a job well done she has been fired from Salle Mauro.

"Hamza as of yet has not verbally fired Sabina. Hamza opted to cancel her work visa and aware her at least two weeks after cancellation of his executive decision. People on work Visa’s are not eligible for unemployment. Matter of fact Sabina and daughter stand a chance of being deported immediately."

Someone else did note, "An immigrant does not get deported because their work visa expired."

On the Gulf Coast forum, Salle Mauro fencer Michael LoParco, a student of Sabina Bazarbayeva, posted a restrained message. "I received my official ‘walking papers’ from Mauro and Noura this evening when I went to practice. Mauro asked to speak with me in his office about something. We didn't quite make it into the office; instead we had our conversation just outside. Basically he said that I would not be happy at the club since my coach is not working there anymore so it would be better if I am no longer a member of salle mauro. At this point Noura handed me an envelope they had prepared in advance. On the outside it simply said "Michael LoParco - refund"I guess I am a free agent now."

Another Fencing Sucks post from April 16, falsely attributed itself to Sabina Bazarbayeva and read, "To set record straight. I found new job it pays much money. My daughter will have better with more money. Never did I have a bad time with no other coach. Where I fence were many good fencers and coaches. I will get my green card very soon. I will miss fencing." In addition to hyperbole, cruelty had its reign, as well.

It was followed in short order by a note from Marty Wysocki, father of sabre fencers Joe and Sarah Wysocki, ran, in part, "This is not Sabina's reply this is a fraud. First of all it is offensive. Her English is much better." In truth, it would come as a surprise to no one that Sabina Bazarbayeva soon turned up as a foil coach at Andrey Geva’s Alliance Fencing Academy.

The frustration of a fencing parent was expressed at this time, "Up until tonight I have managed to stay out of the political side of fencing and just enjoyed seeing my son having fun at a new sport. My son is extremely distraught over Sabina’s leaving the club in such an abrupt manner and I had a difficult time explaining what happened when I truly did not completely understand it myself."

Adding to the flurry of rumors in early May was the word that Louise Lepie was in the hospital. It was true enough, but turned out to be largely a case of an illness interrupting elective surgery. That settled, it was time for a new rumor.

In the face of the open animosities running throughout the division between some of those associated with the Bayou City Fencing Academy, Salle Mauro and the Alliance Fencing Academy, others were trying to build. Marty Wysocki’s two children, Joe and Sarah, along with Tim Guerinot, made up the core of an embryonic sabre cadre within Houston. For many, the expense of electric sabre gear was just coming into reach and the first widespread flicker of interest was appearing.

In an attempt to encourage this, Wysocki helped organize, "Sabre Nights" on one night every other week. A typical May announcement read, "For those who are NOT aware. We have begun a weekly gathering of saber fencers, men and women (mixed), around the Houston Area. This gathering is a time to fence each other and coach each other. It is not intended as a tournament, but rather a time to help each other grow stronger, encourage each other and also a time for a few of us to attempt to learn how to direct saber bouts. The first three gatherings were excellent and TONIGHT is gathering number four at the Clear Lake Fencers Club, 7 p.m-9 p.m. All are welcome. There will be a vanpool leaving from the Galleria Area tonight... Our thought is that if we build each other up, the local competition level will get better and we will all benefit. It's been fun, hope you can come!"

Other sabre nights were held at the Katy Blades, Bayou City and Alliance facilities. Each club took a turn within the rotation providing a a space with strips.

By May 5, at least one anonymous author on Fencing Sucks posted (among other things) a warning to Alexei Sintchinov, Geva’s replacement as epee coach at Salle Mauro, that he might watch out for his own future. This appeared to have been prompted by rumors he was headed back to Europe, but as another poster noted, "If you knew Alexi, as I do, you would also know that he is in fact going back to Belarus. However, it is because his daughter is having a baby in late May, his first grandchild. In fact his wife has already left for Belarus to be with her."

On May 8, however, someone noticed, "I noticed at SM.com there is no coaching bio for Alexi, and it has obviously been updated for the exclusion of the salle's most recent let-go. There are only bios for Mauro, Naura, and Ahmgad."

As noted, some of the posts on Fencing Sucks were cross-posted to John Trojanowski’s local fencing forum. It tended to more muted responses, however. This was, no doubt, because many of those who replied openly attached their names or obvious nicknames to their posts. In addition to John Trojanowski, Dan Gorman, Grace Haberzettle, Matt Delevoryas, Nicole Trojanowski, Jeremy Cooper, Marty Wysocki and others signed their posts. Others were anonymous and many of those reflected the same shrill tone as the Fencing Sucks posts. There was considerable debate about whether or not to continue to allow anonymous posts. Ultimately, they were continued, but the local forum remainder, overall, a calmer place.

On ARMA’s forum, a USFA fencer named Sean Fin made a post as a reaction to past ARMA remarks about the competitive fencers. "I've been viewing ARMA for a couple of years now, but only recently sat down to thoroughly reading the essays. I can't help but notice what appear to be major misconceptions by some of the writers against sport fencing. I've been a competitive fencer for 8 years (C-Rated Epeeist,) and received my instruction from two nationally ranked fencers (one retired,) and have never seen any of what many of the essays claim are bad hallmarks of sport fencing."

Mauro Hamza got a kind of break in the mud slinging in early June 2004. Attention was turned to Louise Lepie for a reported incident in which she told the parent of a young fencer at BCFA not to let the child participate at the upcoming tournament at the Alliance Fencing Academy. On the Fencing Sucks web site, the reaction was swift and shrill.

"The owner of the Bayou City Academy apparently told her coaches not to attend and fence, not to help the local tournament out by directing and told her parents not go to the tournament. The owner's act was as evil as Hamza's. One of her coaches did compete (welcome to freedom in America Witold… good job!), another showed up to watch (Camilla). By not supporting Alliance, the Bayou City Fencing owner and operator demonstrated the kind of immature stupidity, petty rivalry, evil hatred that has torn up the Gulf Coast division for years…

"You pretend to be friendly and tell your parents that Mauro is evil. You then take his votes at division elections just to stab at another club owner. You have no ethics, no morals, no wonder why despite having the best facilities around you have an empty club."

It was a little better on John Trojanowski’s local forum. At least there many responses came from cooler heads.

Just as critical, but more restrained, was another anonymous critic of the last few years of Gulf Coast Division politics. They posted the following on Fencing Sucks.

"Hamza… forgets all the favors, help and kindness he received from many people while at BCFA (sponsorship for his green card, among other things), and turned out to be the slave master he still is for his coaches. Check the unenforceable non-competition contract he forces his coaches to sign and you'll understand. Check the shenanigans he does with the work permits and visa for the foreign coaches to prevent them to ever go out on their own. Unfortunately, most of the poor coaches don't understand our legal system, are afraid to have their own independent legal counsel, fearful to lose their only job in this country.

"The case with Louise is different. While she is money oriented, she has put a lot of her own money into her business. The result is what is the best fencing facility in Houston, but because of her methods, how she treats her coaches, how she tells her customers what they can and what they cannot do, like which tournament they are allowed to attend, she has few and fewer fencers, and practically no fencer ranked nationally.

"The most curious thing though was the collusion of these two… during the elections for the officers of the Gulf Coast Division in March of this year. Here we have two people that hate each other that got together and the… Egyptian… cast all his proxy votes in favor of Louise who got elected Chairman of the Division.

"It'll be interesting to see what is going to happen next year in the Division with a Chairman who decides to boycott other clubs in the Division."

By June of 2004, Tomasz Stusinski was no longer coaching at the Bayou City Fencing Academy.

By July, with the on-line name calling still going strong, one person, in exasperation wrote, "Can't we all just finish this Andre/Mauro Madness. This whole thing is just giving houston fencing a bad name."

The sentiment was echoed on Independence Day by another, "You know, a LOT of us down here are getting burned out on the 3-way pissing match between Mauro (Salle Mauro), Andrey (Alliance)and Louise (BCFA). They not only can't get along, but never-ending wars with each other are tearing the town apart, ruining any chance the kids and their parents will stay in fencing and make our division a laughing stock." Clearly, everyone was getting tired of the animosity and chaos.

In August of 2004, it was official. Amgad Khazabak was leaving Salle Mauro for a post as fencing coach at a university in Lexington, Kentucky. The coaching wheel continued to spin.

Several Gulf Coast fencers traveled to San Marcos for the Bobcat Open. As one local noted, it was enjoyable in spite of recent rifts. "The Bobcat in San Marcos was a blast. Lots of fencers (even some from Salle Mauro). Needless to say epee was dominated by names like Hurme and Hurley. Wysocki took sabre. There were some Salle Mauro fencers there. They turned in respectable showings. From Houston, the biggest bunch was from Alliance (Bibb took 2nd in Mixed Epee). I saw a few others from Houston, some Bayou City and South Houston fencers. I think I saw a St. Thomas fencer (in foil) and one from Clear Lake (sabre). They all behaved well.

"The folks at San Marcos did a great job. Some of the referees were a bit spotty, but there were minimal technical gaffes. This tournament is usually pretty small, pulling about 25-35 for senior mixed foil or epee. They had to scramble quick to load up gear and refs when it looked like senior mixed epee would hit 100 and foil might go 80. Didn't see Mauro, but I saw Andrey and Delfina (not together). Like I said, the fencers were cool. Alliance was the only group out of Houston to show up in real numbers."

Confrontations and rude encounters were not limited to the USFA crowd. Gene Tausk, an ARMA member noted, "Last year [2004] ARMA Houston did a series of demos at the Texas Rennaissance Fair (I have heard that this fair is the largest in the country and it certainly is popular, but I don't know if this statement is true or not) and of course we were demonstrating sparring with wasters, contact weapons, steel blunts and also disarms, etc. The standard ARMA stuff. After one bout I had, I believe with Eric W., Stacy was going at it with someone with his usual zeal. I was standing next to a group of drunks who were boasting to each other that we were ‘wimps’ who didn't know what we were doing. I confronted them and one of them responded, ‘Dude, I do sport fencing. I know what real fencing is all about. This is (expletive). I can take you on any time.’ Never bout with a drunk, if for no other reasons than legal reasons. I left him to brag to his fellow alkies. It's amazing how brave some people are purely by watching."

By October of 2004, Amgad Khazabak’s bio had been pulled from the Salle Mauro coaching staff page. It now listed only Mauro and Noura. About this same most of the flames on Fencing Sucks had devolved into the basic "My club can beat your club," verbal posturing. For a moment there was a real chance it might be burning itself out.

Then the anti-Alliance cadre began a new offensive. The gist went something like this. Andrey Geva left BCFA taking some 20 fencers with him to Salle Mauro. He then left Salle Mauro taking his fencers with him. Bazarbayeva and Dashevskaya also left and turned up at Alliance. No one could trust a disloyal group like this. I proved a precursor to allegations of "inflated" classifications via small local tournaments, which involved collusion.

No evidence was offered, just more anonymous, unsubstantiated posts. Sadly, those had become coin of the realm in 2004. Even those who never visited the local forum or Fencing Sucks found themselves picking up bits and pieces from those who did.

The topic appeared and disappeared a few times in the fall of 2004, but ultimately went nowhere. Many of the newer posts were more conciliatory.

One in November that disapproved of BCFA and Salle Mauro, did add, "Clear Lake, Katy Blades and Alliance are good places, you'll get your money's worth at all three and the people are nice, they are not there to rip you off and they will not treat you like crap. They are run by GOOD people who are truly interested in advancing the sport of fencing."

Another followed with, "I'll agree with the posters below on Alliance, Katy and Clear Lake. I'd also add that the fencers at UH and Rice are pretty cool. Trapani's bunch in Kingwood are good guys as well."

Still another read, "The rest of Houston's fencing clubs mentioned in the posts below indeed represent a good cross section of what dedicated and honest people can do to spread the popularity of the sport of fencing. In the list of the "good" ones, two were left out which deserve recognition for what they do well, introduce fencing to the student population, Westchester Fencing Club and South Houston High School."

This was followed by the more wry touch by one author, "To the most recent posters. You're dead on! Houston has some killer coaches and fencers. Now I see Akhi Spencer-EL is setting up shop. Sabre's gonna rock this town! (Nice of Mauro & Louise to keep importing coaches and then firing them so they can join other clubs or start their own). Anyway, for anyone outside Houston reading this, ignoring the two prepubes from Salle Mauro and Alliance who keep flaming each other here... I know we do."

Clearly there was a growing clamor to end the wars and leaving the fighting to the piste.Instead, the posts resumed, only for December they largely targeted Louise Lepie.

By December 2004, Akhnaten Spencer-El and Erica Wilder had begun working on a project very similar to the Westbrook Foundation in New York. The project was dubbed Young Elites of Houston. He also began giving private lessons and training to help pay the bills. With Stusinski gone, Spencer-El was clearly the pre-eminent sabre coach in the Gulf Coast Division. Joe Wysocki and Tim Guerinot followed him to Young Elites.

Retention was a problem shared not only among the USFA groups, but by the historical fencing community as well. In December of 2004, ARMA’s John Clements observed, "The demands of the craft and the discipline we present it with screens out people who are looking just for occasional fun, escapism, role-playing, or something easy to past the time. Our goal is not to make something that everyone can do effortlessly with their grandmother, but to learn real martial skills and reconstruct real fighting arts. You just have to accept that this appears only to a small portion of the population, to people of unique character. For example, in Houston I use to get new classes with as many as 25 students, but six weeks later the subject itself as well as my selectivity would widdle [sic] them down to just 5 or so. We want quality in our classmates not quantity. Demonstration of sound technical abilities combined with physical fitness and considerable knowledge of the source texts invariably achieves this, and that's what we want even though we have to expend a lot of effort in the process and sometimes see those with potential lose interest."