Blame Football
 

Emik Kaidanov just got fired from Penn State apparently for no good reason. Fencer throws athletic tape on the ground. Staff assistant thinks its a joint. SA goes over coaches head instead of talking to coach. Fencer gets grilled and drug tested. Fencer is clean. Coach has closed door meeting with SA. Feelings are hurt. Complaints are lodged. Best fencing coach in America fired.

... lawsuit to follow at 11.

I don't know if that'll happen. He was getting ready to retire and they gave his job to the assumed successor.

Was the "assumed successor" the staff assistant who made the complaint? :eyebrow:

No. They gave it to his long time assistant coach who I assume he's very tight with. He might not want to mess that up which would be one reason not to hit them with a lawsuit. On the other hand he could weaken every other coaches hand by submitting.

Is it really clear that the Coach was actually "fired" ?

Maybe he was protesting that the staff person "went over his head",
and so resigned in protest or took early retirement, rather than "submitting".

It does sound strange for the a manager to have been "fired"
... unless there was something more involved than described in the OP.

The school is not commenting so a lot is not clear.

Gah! Tough day of fencing in Buffalo yesterday. The guys who placed 1st, 2nd, and 5th out of 25 were all in my 6 man pool and the only "B" in the tourney sand-bagged coming into the de's one below me mid-pack. I fenced him well but came up short. The room was very cramped, with narrow strips, humid, and hot. I directed a few bouts and was kinda nervous about getting hit due to the lack of space. Then again I got to go fencing! I got to fence the best guys in the room. I hung out with some Syracuse friends, met some Canadians, and touched base with a bunch of other guys. Good times.

Is directing a bout the same as refereeing, or does someone else still decide who won?

It's the same thing. We have a lot of self-directed events in epee since its usually pretty straight forward.

Does anyone still compete in the saber? Seems like it would require tremendous strength in the wrist

Sabre is still fenced and I actually fenced it tonight. A modern electric sabre is a lot lighter than a cavalry sword though. Sabre as its fenced now is more about speed and the blade actions suffer for it. It is still very explosive and a damn lot of fun. I fenced heavy sabre a couple years ago with a rounded blade, it was fun but I felt lucky to have gotten through it with minimal bruising. There is still Schlager fencing and historical fencing if you want something heavy cracking your noggin or actual blood.

Oh Griff, Hollywood's calling.

I'd love to stage one of these.

there can be only one!