North Gwinnett Bulldog Blades - Recently Updated Pages

Team Photos

AF3ncer — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:56:34 CDT

Team members pose with the trophies with NGHS Athletic Director Coach Mark Karen

Back Row: Kayla Howey holding the men's trophy, Kyle Spoerke, Devon Drew with her individual championship trophy, Coach Karen, Tyler Adams with his individual championship tropy, Pratik Deshpande

Front Row: Zach Cooper with the overall team trophy, Nicole Gustafson holding the women's trophy

	Following the championship tournament on March 21st, team members and Gary show off the trophies. Back row: Zach Cooper with the Men's 3rd place trophy, Jennifer Turner, Kayla Howey, Nicole Gustafson, Angela Hood with her 3rd place medal, Pratik Deshpande Middle row: Allison Eddy holds the women's trophy for 2nd place and wears her 3rd place medal, Kyle Spoerke holds the team trophy for 2nd place overall, Tyler Adams wears his 3rd place medal and holds his personal trophy and traveling trophy for men's champion, Devon Drew is wearing her 7th place medal and holds her personal trophy and traveling trophy for women's champion and the League Sportsmanship Award trophy. Front Row: Coach Gary DiMaggio
The women's team (minus Lora) at the Roswell tournament. The women took three of 4 medals!	Kayla Howey deflects her opponent's weapon
NGHS men take 3 of 4 medals! The men's medalists at the Northview tournament - Jason, Zach, Richard Bownes and Tyler.	Tyler vs. Richard Bownes at the Northview tournament.

Pratik Deshpande (Left) and Sean Manley (Right) practicing with coach Dimaggio (2007)	Kyle Spoerke (left ) and Tyler Adams (Right ) - Medalists at the Roswell tournament
Allison Eddy fencing at the Lassiter tournament	The 06-07 team presenting Coach Culpeper with the men's points 1st place trophy and team points plaque

Information For Potential Members

AF3ncer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:54:49 CDT

Interested in joining the fencing team? Contact us at ngfencingclub@gmail.com
Beginners classes are starting Aug.22 and 26.

No experience necessary!

All grades welcome!

Listed below is some brief information about the team and requirements.

• NGHS is a member of the Georgia High School Fencing League.

• One fencing tournament a month is held at the different high schools in the league.

• Fencing season runs from September through March.

Fees and Requirements:

• 2008-2009 Membership fees were $187, paid in two installments (1/2 in Sept., 1/2 in Jan.). Membership fees pay for team practices and insurance.

• All those new to fencing are required to go through a beginner’s class before being eligible for tournaments. Beginner fencing classes are led by our high school team coach, Gary DiMaggio, and are held at the North Georgia Fencing Center, a private club close to North Gwinnett High School and cost approximately $60 for 4 one-hour classes.

• Each fencer is required to have their own equipment. A complete equipment package will run between $240 and $270 depending on male or female and quality of equipment desired.

• Each team member must meet the student eligibility and requirements for student athletes as stated by Gwinnett County which includes having a physical on file.

North Gwinnett Bulldog Blades

AF3ncer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:53:30 CDT

Congratulations to the NGHS Fencing Team

for their 2nd place finish overall for 2008-2009!
See the photo of the team with the trophies in the Team Photos section!

Welcome to the North Gwinnett High School Fencing Team website!

North Gwinnett is a member of the Georgia High School Fencing League, now in its 4th year. Nearly 350 fencers from 13 schools compete in tournaments once a month from September to March.

In the 2008-2009 season, our women finished second in the league and the men were third.
Combined , the team finished 2nd overall!
Tyler Adams and Devon Drew each took first place for points for the year.

The team is coached by Gary DiMaggio, a nationally recognized fencer and owner of the North Georgia Fencing Center.

2008-2009 Bulldog Blades

Contact Information	Information For Potential Members
News	Tournament Results
Team Calendar	Team Roster
Team Photos	Gallery of Videos
Corporate Sponsors 2007-2008	Links

Contact Information

AF3ncer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:49:19 CDT

For information about the team or if you wish to join, please contact: ngfencingclub@gmail.com

Men's Team Captain: Kyle Spoerke, Senior

Women's Team Captain: Jennifer Turner, Senior

Parent sponsor: Leisa Howey

Teacher sponsor: Mr. Michael Reilly
michael_reilly@gwinnett.k12.ga.us

No experience is necessary to join but you must attend North Gwinnett High School, or be homeschooled in North's school district.
ALL TEAM MEMBERS WILL COMPETE. FENCING IS AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT; THERE ARE NO STRINGS AND NO ONE WILL "SIT ON THE BENCH."

Team Calendar

AF3ncer — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:30:53 CDT

Team Party - Sunday, May 3rd 3pm - 5pm at the Persyn's lake home.
See you there!

The regular schedule for the season has concluded. See you at the party!

Practice Schedule

Team practices will be held most Wednesdays beginning September at North Georgia Fencing Center (NGFC) from 4:30 to 6:00 pm. Below are the scheduled practices for the rest of the year:

October 29
November 5, 12
January 7, 21, 28
February 4, 11, 18
March 4, 11, 18

Tournament Schedule

Location	Date
Alpharetta Community Center	September 20 (experienced fencers only)
North Gwinnett High School	October 18
Roswell High School	November 15
North Gwinnett High School	January 10
Northview High School	February 21
Championship Tournament - Pope High School	March 21

Team Party and Awards Presentation

Sunday, May 3rd, 3pm - 5pm. See you there!

Team Roster

AF3ncer — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:30:31 CDT

2008-2009 Men's Team

Kyle Spoerke Captain men's team Year: Junior	Tyler Adams Year: Junior	Evan Brehm Year: Sophomore
Jason Choi Year: Freshman	Zac Cooper Year: Sophomore	Pratik Deshpande Year: Senior
Steely Hawkins Year: Senior	Drew Ritzman Year: Sophomore	Dennis Taylor Year: Freshman
2008-2009 Women's Team
Devon Drew Captain women's team Year: Senior	Allison Eddy Year: Sophomore	Nicole Gustafson Year: Sophomore
Angela Hood Year: Sophomore	Kayla Howey Year: Sophomore	Lora Persyn Year: Sophomore
Jennifer Turner Year: Junior

Tournament Results

AF3ncer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:57:20 CDT

March 21, 2008 - Championship Tournament

In the Championship Tournament held on Saturday at Pope High School, Allison Eddy and Angela Hood were outstanding - finishing tied for 3rd place! Devon Drew alsoreceived a medal, finishing 7th. For the men, Tyler Adams earned a medal for 3rd place.

For season-long individual performances, Tyler Adams finished first in the state for the men and Devon Drew was state champion for the women! Devon was also awarded the League Sportsmanship Award, an outstanding recognition given to one fencer in the league. Other top finishes by the NGHS team include Kyle Spoerke who finished 17th overall, Jason Choi who finished 25th and Zach Cooper at 28th. For the women Allison Eddy placed 16th in the state, while Jennifer Turner and Angela Hood were 21st and 22nd.

Out of 12 teams and more than 350 fencers, the women’s team brought home a trophy for 2nd place and the North Gwinnett men finished in 3rd place, leading to a combined finish as 2nd in the State Overall!

Congratulations to all fencers for an outstanding season!

February 21, 2009 - Northview High School
North Gwinnett vs. Northview vs. Centennial vs. Mill Creek
Congratulations to the North Gwinnett Fencing Team for their outstanding performance on Saturday against Northview and Centennial High Schools.
The men's team finished far ahead of their competitors, taking 3 of the top 4 medals. Congratulations to Tyler Adams who finished in first place for the 5th consecutive tournament! Zach Cooper and Jason Choi tied for 3rd place. Drew Ritzman came in 6th, Steely Hawkins was 9th and Evan Prehm and Kyle Spoerke finished at 12 and 13.
For the women, Devon Drew tied for 3rd place and Jennifer Turner took 6th place. Lora Persyn and Angela Hood also scored points, inishing at 14th and 15th.
North goes into the champioship tournament next month with the the #1 seed for both men and women individual fencers - Tyler Adams and Devon Drew - and 2nd place overall for the combined team. Congratulations to all fencers!

January 10, 2009 - North Gwinnett High School
North Gwinnett vs. Lassiter vs. Pope vs. Mill Creek
The meet on Saturday was an outstanding event, from the success of our fencers to the smooth flow of the tournament to the attractive and delicious concession stand!
Both the men’s team and women’s team finished first against Mill Creek, Pope and Lassiter High Schools!

On the men's side, Tyler Adams was the winner in his 4th consecutive tournament and is the men's points leader for the league! Kyle Spoerkefinished 3rd, Jason Choi took 5th place and Zac Cooper placed 8th. Drew Ritzman earned points toward the men's win with a 14th place finish. Pratik, Evan, Steely and Dennis also fenced well against their competitors.

All the North women at the tournament scored pointstoward theirfirst place finish! Devon Drew also finished first for the 4th time this season and leads the league in points for the women. Jennifer Turner brought home a medal for 3rd place and Kayla Howey and Nicole Gustafson placed 7th and 8th. Allison in 11th place and Lora in 15th rounded out a terrific effort from our athletes.

November 15, 2008 - Roswell High School
North Gwinnett vs. Roswell vs. Lassiter vs. Flowery Branch
Congratulations to North Gwinnett Fencers on their fantastic results at the tournament on Saturday! Tyler Adams and Devon Drew each won their event for the 3rd tournament in a row! North also took both second place spots with Kyle Spoerke on the men’s side and Allison Eddy for the women. All of the women were truly outstanding, with 6 of the 8 final spots going to one of the smallest team at the event (us)! Our men had to compete against each other early on, but 5 of our guys still scored points for the team. Congratulations to Evan Brehm for finishing 19th of 49 men in his first high school tournament!

34 women participating

1	DREW, Devon
2	EDDY, Allison
3T	HOWEY, Kayla
6	TURNER, Jennifer
7	GUSTAFSON, Nicole
8	PERSYN, Lora
12	HOOD, Angela

49 men participating

1	ADAMS, Tyler
2	SPOERKE, Kyle
12	CHOI, Jason
13	COOPER, Zach
15	RITZMAN, Drew
19T	BREHM, Evan
21	DESHPANDE, Pratik
28	HAWKINS, Steely
47	TAYLOR, Dennis

October 18, 2008 - North Gwinnett High School
North Gwinnett vs. Pope vs. Chattahoochee vs. Flowery Branch vs. Mill Creek vs. Brookwood
Congratulations to North Gwinnett Fencers on an outstanding tournament this past weekend. You all fenced so well and parents and students both were helpful in making the tournament run so smoothly. On the men’s side, all our fencers advanced to the DE’s. In his first GHSFL tournament, Dennis Taylor advanced to the DE’s but had to face the number 1 seed right off the bat. Tyler Adams showed them all who was really number one, though, and finished in 1st place for the 2nd consecutive tournament. Congratulations also to Kyle Spoerke who took home a 3rd place medal. Jason Choi (7th), Pratik Deshpande (12th), Drew Ritzman (13th) and Zac Cooper (16th) also scored points for the team, and Steely Hawkins just missed at 21st. For the women, Devon Drew also repeated as champion, while Angela Hood placed 3rd in her first GHSFL tournament! Allison Eddy was 6th and Kayla Howey 7th . Nicole Gustafson also had a great tournament, finishing 8th. (Unfortunately, Nicole faced more challenges than she should have in one tournament, having to fence one pool bout twice due to director error and experiencing a failed body cord midway through a DE match.) Lora Persyn and Jennifer Turner also did great in their first tournament, finishing 14th and 17th.

September 20, 2008 - Alpharetta Community Center
North Gwinnett vs. Alpharetta vs. Chattahoochee vs. Milton Returning and experienced fencers only at this tournament. Participating for North Gwinnett were Men: 1. Kyle Spoerke 2. Tyler Adams 3. Jason Choi 4. Zach Cooper 5. Pratik Deshpande 6. Steely Hawkins 7. Drew Ritzman Women: 1. Devon Drew 2. Nicole Gustafson 3. Kayla Howey 4. Jennifer Turner All those who participated from our team advanced to the DEs, and all scored points for the team! Congratulations to Tyler Adams and Devon Drew who took home 1st place medals!

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Final 2007-2008 Tournament Results

The Championship Tournament was held Saturday April 29th, 2008 at Roswell High School

North Gwinnett's fencing team finished 2nd out of 9 teams for the season. This is a huge accomplishment for North's team considering we have one of the smaller teams with only 14 fencers. We came in just behind one of the larger teams that has over 30 fencers. For the past two years, North's team has placed 5th out of 7 teams. This was a big move up in overall team placement due to the whole team working hard all season long.

North's Men's team is the State Championship Men's Team for the second year in a row. They placed first with only 10 men fencers by 54 points ahead of teams much larger. Houston placed 3rd and Sean placed 6th out of 87 men. This was Sean's highest finish and first medal for the season. Steely placed 3rd for a Novice man in the tournament winning his second Novice medal for the season.

In the women's event, Allison placed 2nd and Devon placed 5th out of 68 women in the championship. This has been an awesome first season of fencing for freshman Allison Eddy. This was the 3rd time this season that Allison has placed in the top 8 in a tournament. She won a Novice medal every time possible. This was the second time this season that Allison won both a top 8 medal and 1st place Novice medal.
This was the 4th time this season that Devon won a top 8 medal. Kayla won 7th place Women's Novice in the championship tournament. This was the second time this season Kayla has won a Novice medal. All 3 of North's women fencers present at the championship won a medal. Fantastic job ladies!!!

For the year, Houston finished in 2nd place for the man with the most overall points for the season. Kyle and Kevin tied for 11th overall, Sean Manley was 14th, Zach Cooper was tied for 21st, and Drew Ritzman was 25th out of 98 men fencers in the league for the year.

In the women’s division, Devon finished in 6th place overall out of 88 women this year. Allison finished 1st for all Novice women fencers and 8th overall.

For the year out of 6 tournaments and 5 Novice results:

The women have won 7 top 8 medals which were one 2nd place, three 3rd place, one 5th place, one 6th place, and one 8th place medals.The Novice women have won a total of 9 Novice women medals which were four 1st place, one 3rd place, one 4th place, one 6th place, and one 7th place medals.

The men have won 13 top 8 medals which were one 1st place, four 2nd place, two 3rd place, one 5th place, three 6th place, and two 7th place medals. The Novice men have won a total of 4 Novice men medals which were one 1st place Novice, two 2nd place Novice, and one 3rd place Novice medals.

As a team, they won a total of 33 medals out of 6 tournaments for the season which included 20 top 8 medals and 13 Novice medals.

Our team has a great deal to be proud of for the season. Not only were all 14 fencers tough competitors and good sportsmen, but they had the results to prove it.

Corporate Sponsors 2008-2009

AF3ncer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:54:56 CDT

Company Name :	Location :	Contribution Level :
Subway	525 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.	Gold

News

AF3ncer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:50:22 CDT

Gwinnett Daily Post, March14, 2009

North fencers top seeds for state tourney

North Gwinnett's Devon Drew and Tyler Adams are the No. 1 seeds at this weekend's Georgia High School Fencing League Championships, which will be held at Pope High School in Cobb County. More than 150 fencers from 12 area high schools are entered in the tourney.

Drew, a senior, has four first-place finishes this season and Adams, a junior, has placed first in all five of his tournaments this season.

Gwinnett Daily Post, January 12, 2009
FENCING: Adams, Drew go undefeated

North Gwinnett High School students Tyler Adams and Devon Drew took first place in all of the fencing tournaments they competed in during 2008, a feat no one else in their league accomplished.

Adams competes for the U.S. Fencing Association, where he holds a B ranking.

Drew is the captain of the Bulldogs' girls team and led the team to a second-place finish in the league in 2007.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 1, 2008

FENCING: NORTH GWINNETT North Gwinnett had four medalists at the Georgia High School Fencing League championships on Saturday, which helped the Bulldogs to consecutive first-place overall finishes for the boys squad and a second-place finish for the combined team. Medals were awarded for the day's championship events as well as novice standings, and trophies were given for season-long point totals. In the boys division, with 87 competitors, senior Houston Fullerton tied for third place, and senior Sean Manley finished sixth. Junior Steely Hawkins placed third in the Novice division. The North Gwinnett girls had their highest finish ever as freshman Allison Eddy took second in her first championship event and veteran fencer Devon Drew finished fifth out of a pool of 68. Eddy also took first in novice in the championship tournament, and freshman Kayla Howey took seventh place. For the year, Fullerton placed second for all boys. Kyle Spoerke and Kevin Wood finished tied at 11th, and Manley placed 14th. Other North Gwinnett finishers included Zach Cooper, who tied for 21st, and Drew Ritzman, who finished 25th. In the girls division, Drew finished in sixth place for the year, and Eddy placed 13th. North Gwinnett is the only fencing team from Gwinnett County in the GHSFL, now in its fourth year. The team is coached by Gary DiMaggio of the North Georgia Fencing Center. The league was founded in the 2003-04 school year and has grown to nine participating schools and nearly 200 fencers. Tournaments are held about once a month from September to April.

Links

AF3ncer — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:16:31 CDT

Here are some suggested links to visit for national and local tournament schedules, USFA information, fencing gear, etc.

North Georgia Fencing Center

Fencing.net

Triplette.com

Zivkovic

Leon Paul USA

Absolute Fencing gear

KFIR Fencing gear

USFA

GA Division

Ask Fred

AFC

North Gwinnett.com

Gallery of Videos

AF3ncer — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:26:30 CDT

No videos yet but I hope to get some soon

Suggestions:
Post videos of the team -To add YouTubevideos, click on EasyEdit, then Widget, and then select YouTube.

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