Smith College Fencing

Dear Friends, Families, and most importantly Former Belles:

We're writing to make sure you've heard about the team's successes over the past couple years and to ask you to help the team grow from here. First, a little bragging:

In 2011, the Belles finished 4^th at the USACFC National Championships in Chicago, with the 5^th place sabre squad, 8^th place epee squad, and 11^th place foil squad. Marie Leinberger placed 5^th in the individual sabre, Elliot McLaughlin placed 7^th in the foil, and Anna Valentine placed 11^th in the epee.

In 2012, the team improved their standing to number two in the nation! We had the 2^nd place foil squad, 2^nd place sabre squad, and 10^th place epee squad. Having two squads in the gold medal matches was truly exciting and a major accomplishment for the program!

Our success came from several factors, one of which is coaching. After 15 years, coach Scott Tundermann is starting to get the hang of it. Along with lots of practice, he's studied with high-level coaches at numerous clinics. While he remains self-deprecating and modest, the Northeast Fencing Conference has voted him the Women's Coach of the Year *twice* in the past few years. He is also now the President of the USACFC! In addition, we've hired local alumnae as assistant coaches in the past few years, which has given each squad a dedicated resource at practices and competitions. The team would like to continue to hire assistant coaches and to pay our head coach a professional salary.

Another factor in our success was an influx of fencers with competitive experience from their high school days, whether with a team or a USFA club. We haven't formally started recruiting yet, but fencers are finding their way to Smith for its various merits, educational and otherwise. As much as Scott loves teaching new fencers, it's hard to train a competitive team from scratch in two or three years. Along with winning trophies, it's better for all the fencers and the program overall to have experienced fencers at more advanced technical and tactical levels. We'd like to start recruiting in an organized way, which takes time and resources.

A Watershed Moment
Our strong result in 2011 could have been a lucky coincidence of experienced fencers on the team, a weak year for our competitors"”whatever. But to repeat with an even higher finish in 2012 shows that the Hell's Belles are legitimately one of the top women's club teams in the country. All our hard work, smart training, and competitive diligence are paying off, and we have an opportunity to solidify and build on our successes. We have a plan, and a budget, for doing so.

As we mentioned, the biggest component of the plan is coaching. We need funds to hire three assistant coaches and to pay the head coach to plan and run practices, to give lessons outside of practices, to maintain the equipment and handle all the business and correspondence, and to reach out to high school teams and USFA clubs to recruit promising new members of the Belles.

In addition, the team continues to operate on a shoestring with worn-out equipment (some of you would be chagrined to recognize gear that was here when you were!), crammed into a College van to and from 14-hour tournaments days, and fundraising frantically to be able to travel to Nationals.The Belles deserve better accommodations and less anxiety about making ends meet so they can focus on their training and their studies. Also, those improvements would make the program even more attractive to prospective recruits.

We Need Your Help
After Nationals last spring, Scott met with our Athletic Director and Assistant AD for Club Sports. They are both enthusiastic and supportive, but the bottom line is that, unless fencing becomes a varsity sport at Smith (which we don't seek, and which may not ever be an option anyway), there's no more money coming from the SGA for club sports, no matter how successful we are. What they did say is that we can raise whatever funds we need. That's where we'd like to ask for your help.

For the up-coming season, we have a $6,000 fundraising goal. The funds will go directly to entry fees, travel, equipment, and coaching. Our National Championship is in Knoxville, TN this year, which is going to be an expensive trip.

If you, your parents, your family, or your friends can donate to the Hell's Belles, it will make a huge difference toward our efforts this year and in years to come. It is especially important this first year to prove that we can achieve our remarkable goal: to have a non-NCAA club team that operates and competes just as well as a varsity program (or better!). You all experienced the freedom, camaraderie, and fun of club fencing, and we can take that format and build a top competitive team to boot!

We have a number of contribution levels from which to choose. We know some of you are only a couple years out of Smith, but even a small donation will help, and it will show your support. For those of you with a little more time under your belts, we hope you can give more. And please share this appeal with your parents and anyone else in your life who might like to help the Belles. Everyone who contributes will receive a photo of the team and updates about our adventures. Larger donations will be recognized accordingly. Haven't you always wanted your name engraved on a scoring machine?

Thank you so very much for your support, in whatever form you can give it.


Warmest regards,
The Hell's Belles









Belles Full Swag Kit-
Hell's Belles Logo Sticker
Two Hell's Belles Logo Temporary Tattoos
Hell's Belles Logo Patch
Hell's Belles Team Fencing Socks
Big One 2013 T-shirt