While some New York City kids are off batting or running or kicking or skating, hoping to get noticed in a field full of athletes, other kids are quietly working on world domination—and winning.
Some of the best fencers in the world live right here in New York City, the unofficial fencing capital of the USA. They’re paired with some of the best trainers in the country and get to compete around the globe.
Kids are coming from all over the place to fence here, trainers say—New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island. And for good reason, says Sean McClain, who coaches at Empire United Fencing.
“There’s definitely more high-level fencers that live in New York than any place else,” said McClain, who moved from Texas years ago to train with Buckie Leach, one of the best fencing coaches in the country. “It’s not that the clubs in New Jersey aren’t good. It’s just that the clubs are centrally located here. People go out seeking a more competitive environment.”
Jason Rogers has been to 40 countries in his 15 years as a fencer. He started when he was 10 years old, living in Los Angeles. Eventually he moved to New York City. Today he’s an Olympic medalist. He won the silver medal in the 2008 Olympic men’s team saber competition in Beijing.
“I was doing soccer, baseball…I was very mediocre at all the sports. I found out I didn’t really like playing on teams,” said Rogers, who trains at the Manhattan Fencing Center, home of Coach Yury Gelman, kid fencers and other Olympic medalists. “Everyone who was in contention – with the exception of one guy – was in New York. I figured that the best thing to do was to move to New York.”
The lucky local kids who fence here after school are trying it out just like they would with any sport, to see if they like it. Turns out, they do.
“As soon as I got the hang of it I really liked it,” said Jacqueline Dufwa, 11, who started fencing in New York after her family moved here from Sweden. “Skiing was fun, but I like fencing better. It’s my favorite sport.”
Kids say they like fencing because it’s challenging and fun. Parents like it because it teaches discipline and self-confidence.
And because the New York City kids are learning from some of the best in the biz, they often get scholarships to top-notch schools: Harvard. Notre Dame. Princeton. Columbia. New York University.
Daryl Homer, who started fencing when he was 11, just won a $41,000 scholarship to St. John’s University.
“With fencing, if you have bad direction, you’re not going to have the foundation to be good,” Homer said. “The coaches are here. And the fencers here are much stronger.”
Homer, who is now 18, said he loves fencing and hopes to go to the Olympics.
“It gives you a Zorro-type feeling,” he said.
These fencers are very big deals in the fencing world, but there isn’t much fame and fortune for them in the United States. Rogers had to fight to get physical education credit for fencing in Los Angeles, though his school regularly doled them out for kids who did yoga.
“Fencing for us is a purely beautiful amateur sport,” said Liz Cross, the executive director at Fencers Club whose daughter Emily has won three world championships and was a silver medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “Italians are like superstars when they win. But for us, people don’t even know who we are.”
The lack of fame hasn’t stopped New York kids from world fencing domination. Take Nzingha Prescod. She’s 16 years old, quiet and unassuming. She’s also one of the best fencers in the world. She’s won tournament after tournament, including the gold medal at the 2008 Cadet World Championships for women’s foil.
Nzingha trains at Fencers Club, home of Buckie Leach, who has coached such fencing greats as Iris Zimmerman, the first U.S. fencer in history ever to win a world championship.
But Leach isn’t the only great coach in New York City. He and several others – from the Manhattan Fencing Center and Empire United Fencing, to name a few – are the reasons why New York City is now the champion-bearing, Olympic-medalist-wearing, unofficial fencing capital of the USA.
“I think New York has consistently had great fencers over time,” said Olympic medalist Tim Morehouse, a native New Yorker. “I think a lot of people go to the colleges here just so they can train with the coaches here. And you have Olympic mentors here, which makes it seem attainable.”
With so many championships under their belts, the top fencers who’ve trained here are running out of goals. Their next step, they said, is to win a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
Meanwhile, kids are still taking up fencing in droves.
“We live in New Jersey and we pass eight or nine clubs on our way over here,” said Dan Gangemi, and Fencers Club parent. “This is the best club in the country. There’s not another club I’d rather be a part of.”
For many fencing commuters, coming to New York is a move kids make to be more competitive. They fence with the best of the best, sharpen iron against iron, and have fun stacking up awards.
Not that it’s about winning, coaches say.
“The number of medals, the championships, that’s not important here,” Gelman said. “What’s important here is not teaching the children how to fence, but how to live life in a good way.”
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Who Wants to Learn Fencing?
Here are just a few of the top notch local fencing academies that churn out the nation’s finest fencers.
Brooklyn Fencing Center
62 4th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231
718-522-5822
info@brooklynfencing.com
www.brooklynfencing.com
Empire United Fencing
145 W. 30th St., 3rd Flr.
New York, NY 10001
212-594-2118
info@empireunited.net
www.empireunited.net
Fencers Club
229 W. 28th St., 2nd Flr.
New York, NY 10001
212-807-6947
info@fencersclub.com
www.fencersclub.com
Manhattan Fencing Center
225 W. 39th St., 2nd Flr.
New York, NY 10018
212-382-2255
info@manhattanfencing.com
www.manhattanfencing.com
New Amsterdam Fencing Academy
2726 Broadway, 2nd Flr.
New York, NY 10025
212-662-FENCE (3362)
info@nyfencing.com
www.nyfencing.com
New York Athletic Club
180 Central Park South
New York, NY 10019
212-247-5100
www.nyac.org
Sheridan Fencing Academy
2035 2nd Ave., 2nd Flr.
New York, NY 10029
212-831-0764
info@sheridanfencing.com
www.sheridanfencing.com
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