USA Fencing

Date:   January 7, 2011

To:      Men’s and Women’s Foil Fencers and Coaches

From:  Greg Dilworth, Executive Director

           Jim Page, High Performance Director
           Mauro Hamza, Director of USA Foil

RE:      Men’s and Women’s Foil Program Direction: 2011- London 2012

We are making some changes to the structure and support system for Men’s and Women’s Foil and want you all to know how the program is going to work going forward.

We are putting the two programs together under one director and are pleased to announce that Mauro Hamza will take on this responsibility.  His task is to unify and integrate our efforts in foil and to develop a strategy for a pre-cadet, cadet, junior and senior program.  We believe the key to this and to our ability to p

rovide world-class coaching to our most elite athletes will be a closer team of top coaches working together to support each program level, to continue to identify and field athletes with international talent and to help US athletes win in important international competitions.  Mauro’s most important task will be to promote and build this team.

We have heard from many of you, that especially at the senior level, there is a need for consistent coaching and leadership to develop a strong group for team competition.  Many of you have said it is also important, as your personal coaches don’t always travel with you to senior events, that you have consistent coaching and leadership at World Cups.  One of our primary objectives will be to work with the team of coaches, mentioned above, to provide consistent coaching and the direction you correctly point out is so important to building the team for London.

But it is also important to us for this to be an inclusive program with involvement of, and some support for, coaches who are developing top athletes.  We will begin a grant program to cover some of the travel costs and accommodations for coaches with athletes among the top four representing the US at World Cup, Grand Prix, Zonal Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games.  We are redoing our squad budgets now to determine how much we can put into this effort immediately.  Our goal will be for each of the top athletes to have access to coaching by their personal coach in the individual international competitions they attend and to put together the best team of coaches to support our athletes in team competition.   In major events with limited credentials we will do our best to find the access needed to make all this work.

Mauro will be responsible for every aspect of the program.  To assist him with team organization and communication we will name a Foil Team Manager who will work with the men, women and coaches in the program.  Andrea Lagan will fill this role now to get us started and so that you will all have a point of contact for the myriad organizational and logistical issues.  We will name a permanent Foil Team Manager as soon as we can.  One of the first tasks Mauro will have, with Andrea’s help, will be to get USOC athlete support money flowing to the four men and four women who have qualified for a monthly stipend.

Our goal, with you, is to add value and enhance the success of our best athletes and coaches.  We endeavor for all involved to be confident in their preparation and ready produce their best performances in London. 

Contact Information:

We all recognize that you are preparing every day for the Games in 2012 in one way or another.  We hope you will feel comfortable contacting any of us at any time for help that you need.

Mauro Hamza

Director of USA Foil 

m.hamza@usfencing.org 
713-480-1578

Andrea Lagan,
Acting USA Foil Team Manager  
andrea.lagan@usfencing.org 
719-447-5106

Jim Page, 
High Performance Director                                    
jpage22207@aol.com          
719-216-2830

Karen Kuhlman      International Programs Manager
K.kuhlman@usfencing.org  
719-866-2606

Greg Dilworth,
Executive Director  
g.dilworth@usfencing.org  
719-866-4860