<p>@Warrior</p>
<p>Interesting you should ask…</p>
<p>You’re right, D1 Championships were in April in Portland this year due to the PanAm Games conflicting with SN…</p>
<p>We weren’t there. DS has pretty much phased out of USFA competitions now, now it’s all about academics with fencing limited to NCAAs and Ivies.</p>
<p>But I was referring to 2008 D1 Championships, which were also in April and coincidentally also in Portland that year. They were in April in 2008 because it was an Olympic year, and since D1 National Championships are the final Olympic qualifying event they move them up to April’s NAC “F” every Olympic year.</p>
<p>It was an exciting tournament. D1 Championships have a tough qualification path and thus a small but very strong field. Every pool bout is tough. There’s a lot on the line. No easy bouts for anyone. DS was one of only a handful of HS kids in the event. He did great in pools, earning a bye into the 32. As it turned out he had a future collegiate teammate in his pool and his future college coach watched their bout. It was very enjoyable for me.</p>
<p>It was a crazy time. As I recall, the tournament was either the weekend before AP tests or the weekend between AP weeks. About a month before the tournament DS was notified that he’d been selected for a national community service award and was invited to Washington DC for the ceremony, which was also in the midst of his AP tests. I don’t remember the exact schedule, but it was basically two solid weeks of AP testing with two big trips thrown in, one the weekend before APs, and the other the weekend between APs. This was his junior year. Thankfully he had all of his standardized testing and all of his unofficial visits out of the way before then.</p>