Question: How many national level tournaments does the United States host for the sport of fencing?
About the article "Fencing", section "Universities and schools".

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Fencing has a long history with universities and schools for at least 500 years.
At least one style of fencing, Mensur in Germany, is practiced only within universities.
University students compete internationally at the World University Games.
The United States holds two national level university tournaments including the NCAA championship and the USACFC National Championships tournaments in the USA and the BUCS fencing championships in the United Kingdom.
Equipment costs and the relatively small scale of the sport limits university fencing to a small number of schools.
National fencing organizations have set up programs to encourage more students to fence.
Examples include the Regional Youth Circuit program in the USA and the Leon Paul Youth Development series in the UK.
In recent years, attempts have been made to introduce fencing to a wider and younger audience, by using foam and plastic swords, which require much less protective equipment.
This makes it much less expensive to provide classes, and makes it easier to take fencing to a wider range of schools than traditionally has been the case.
There is even a competition series in Scotland – the Plastic-and-Foam Fencing FunLeague – specifically for Primary and early Secondary school-age children using this equipment.
The UK hosts two national competitions in which schools compete against each other directly: the Public Schools Fencing Championship, a competition only open to Independent Schools, and the Scottish Secondary Schools Championships, open to all secondary schools in Scotland.
It contains both teams and individual events and is highly anticipated.
Schools organise matches directly against one another and school age pupils can compete individually in the British Youth Championships.
Many universities in Ontario, Canada have fencing teams that participate in an annual inter-university competition called the OUA Finals.
Fencing at the high school level has varied in popularity.
Fencing was once part of many schools' physical education curriculum, and many schools had clubs and would compete in inter-school tournaments.
In the second half of the 20th century, fencing gradually faded from physical education curricula in the United States.
This has been attributed to worries about 'weapons in schools' or that it requires expensive equipment.
Fencers, of course, dispute the characterization of fencing foils as weapons since they fail to meet the applicable criteria - a tool of injury or destruction - since foils are engineered specifically to contact the human body without injury.
However, youth fencing has remained a club sport at some schools, and the last several years have seen an increase in fencing clubs and tournaments at the high school level.
The United States Fencing Association has encouraged this through the Regional Youth Circuit program.
High school fencing season is generally in winter.
In many European countries fencing is growing more popular each year.
In Scotland many new competitions have arisen to get these new fencers into fencing at higher levels, such as the Leon Paul Youth Development series where fencers fit in as much fencing as possible against as many of those in their age and weapon group to gain experience.
High school fencing has also gained a renewed following in the United States, evidenced by the establishment of state leagues, an increase in Junior level national competitors, and in 2011 the establishment of a National High School Championship in Cleveland, Ohio.
High school competitive fencing has grown significantly in the state of New Jersey, one of the few states where it remains a varsity sport.
The league is growing steadily, and there are currently 55 varsity programs in the state.
Georgia in particular has seen growing interest in high school fencing.
The Georgia High School Fencing League was founded in 2004 and in the 2013-14 season numbers 17 schools and over 350 fencers.
Member schools hold their own practices and come together about once a month during the fall and winter seasons to fence other member schools, primarily in épée.
Additionally, the On Guard High School League of Georgia was created to allow high school fencers to fence all three weapons (épée, foil and sabre).
This league was formed in 2010 in the 2012-13 season numbered seven schools and over 150 fencers.
The North Carolina Fencing League has grown to include Chapel Hill High School, Elkin High School, Morehead High School, East Chapel Hill High School, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville, Cape Fear Fencing Association of Wilmington, Salem Academy, Reynolds High School and even a non-North Carolina school, Carlisle Preparatory Academy in Martinsville, Virginia.
The latest champion of the league is Chapel Hill High; prior to that, East Chapel Hill won. 
The Australian Fencing Federation (AFF) is the national governing body for the sport of fencing within Australia.  
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During the classical period, fencing was used both for sport and preparation for the duel.
Fencing as a sport was one of the original events in the Olympic Games and widely practiced at schools and domestic competitions.
Additionally, there were professional fencers competing for prize money.
Fencing tournaments were extremely popular events, with spectators flocking to see the most celebrated swordsmen battle it out on the piste.
In many cases, fencers of the period trained for sport fencing the same way they trained for duels—indeed, many fought highly-celebrated duels.
Dueling went into sharp decline after World War I, following the wartime deaths of many members of the classes that practiced it, and the social changes following the war's mass carnage.
After World War II, dueling went out of use in Europe except for rare exceptions.
Training for a duel, once almost mandatory for males of aristocratic backgrounds, all but disappeared, along with the classes themselves.
Fencing continued as a sport like boxing or karate, with tournaments and championships.
However, the need to prepare for a duel with "sharps" all but vanished.
Scoring was done by means of four judges who determined if a hit was made.
Two side judges stood behind and to the side of each fencer, and watched for hits made by that fencer on the opponent's target.
A director followed the fencing from a point several feet away from the center of the action.
At the end of each action, after calling "Halt!
", the director (or, formally, the president of the jury) would describe the action ("Attack is from my left.
Parry and riposte from my right.
"), and then poll the judges in turn ("Does the attack land?").
The judges would answer "Yes", "Yes, but off-target", "No", or "Abstain".
If the judges differed or abstained, the director could overrule them with his vote.
This method was universally used, but had limitations.
As described in an article in the London newspaper, "The Daily Courier", on June 25, 1896: "Every one who has watched a bout with the foils knows that the task of judging the hits is with a pair of amateurs difficult enough, and with a well-matched pair of maîtres d’escrime well-nigh impossible."
There also were problems with bias: well-known fencers were often given the benefit of mistakes (so-called "reputation touches"), and in some cases there was outright cheating.
Aldo Nadi complained about this in his autobiography "The Living Sword" in regard to his famous match with Lucien Gaudin.
The article in the "Daily Courier" described a new invention, the electrical scoring machine, that would revolutionize fencing.
Starting with épée in the 1930s (foil was electrified in 1950s, sabre in 1980s), side judges were replaced by an electrical scoring apparatus, with an audible tone and a red or green light indicating when a touch landed.
The scoring box reduced the bias in judging, and permitted more accurate scoring of faster actions, lighter touches, and more touches to the back and flank than were possible with human judges.
The advent of the electrical scoring apparatus had far-reaching consequences.
The electrical scoring apparatus and the 20th century's overall modernization of athletic activities occurred alongside an increase in the emphasis on fencing as a sport.
The electrical scoring apparatus encouraged an emphasis on the athletic and offensive (rather than defensive) aspects of fencing by altering the ways in which a touch would be considered valid.
The result was an eventual schism between sport and classical fencing, both stylistically and philosophically.
At the time electronic scoring was introduced, all fencers were classically trained, but there were differences in accepting 20th century changes in fencing practice.
The fencing masters who rejected these changes either preserved their tradition, abandoned it in favor of employment as fencing masters in sport fencing, or, as time passed, simply retired.
However, enough classically-oriented fencers remained to keep traditional, classical fencing alive.
For example, Maestro Ramon Martinez of the Martinez Academy of Arms in New York City, continues to teach classical fencing in the traditional manner.
Many people self-identify as classical fencers, but do not share the concept of classical fencing described in this article, preferring the early to mid-20th century style of competitive fencing (which, in the United States, is formalized and governed by the "American Fencing League", or AFL) to the more classical style of the 19th century.
This should not be confused with the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA), which was renamed to the current United States Fencing Association (USFA) in 1981, which is affiliated with the FIE.