Foam fighting, also known as Belegarth, picked up in Carbondale in 2001, when a couple of people from Bloomington, Illinois moved to Carbondale for school.
In 2013, a RSO was formed at the university and created the Carthage Belegarth Medieval Combat Club, Founding member CJ Jasinski (Sir Twinkle) said.
The club meets twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. The hours do change based on the season as when it is colder out, they practice in the SIU Rec Center. When warm, they practice in front of Morris Library in the grass. “We run a bunch of different game modes depending on the day,” President Andy Marshall said.
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Some game modes include Aztec Football, fighting in pairs, duels and teams.
“I enjoy coming out, getting to beat up people, but also getting to make connections with other people and getting to introduce myself even after I fight them,” upcoming Vice President Quincy Washington (Q) said.
A lot of members have found lasting friendships with the club from those initial connections.
“It’s very important to us that we have this community of people who are like-minded and enjoy the same thing and that we have this as a safe space to be ourselves, frankly, because there are increasingly few places like that in the world left anymore,” President Andy Marshall said.
Uniquely, the club allows community members to participate as well.
“I’ve been in this community for about 10 years. I started doing it here at SIU, and I’ve been with it ever since,” Instructor David LaBoube said.
Community members even have the chance to participate as instructors. “That allows them to be on the field with us in an official capacity that noncoaches are kind of discouraged from doing by the school,” Andy Marshall said.
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David Croteau, a founding member and the club’s first treasurer secretary, started in 2004 and has participated ever since. “Not only is a lot of the gear the group has stuff that I donated but I also worked for a company called forged foam that makes a lot of the gear that’s used professionally,” Croteau said.
“I’m glad that the group is still going and I’m glad that there’s still people interested coming out. I’m glad that I was convinced to try it out over 20 years ago when I first had someone stop to tell me to try it out,” Croutou said, who met his wife through medieval combat.
Digital Editor Peyton Cook can be reached at [email protected], or on Instagram at @cookmeavisual
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