This metropolis has scant credentials in the NCAA pigskin department, unlike, say, boring cowtowns like Columbus, Ohio, or Ann Arbor, Mich. But when it comes to swordplay, Gotham is Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, USC and the University of Florida all rolled into one. If there was a BCS for refined, gentlemanly hand-to-hand combat, it would be based in Manhattan.
The scene was City Hall Park in September of 2008. Mayor Bloomberg was honoring New York City’s Olympians who competed in Beijing among the overly-tall buildings and air pollution and new stadiums that looked like something concocted on the dessert table of Iron Chef. Six of the eight New Yorkers who made the Olympic trip that summer were fencers. And six of them returned to the 212 area code toting silver medals, thanks, in great part, to Olympic fencing coach Buckie Leach, who was also honored by the Mayor that day. Leach said in the past decade he has seen youth interest in fencing skyrocket. National events that once drew 30 or so young fencers are now bringing in 150 pre-teen participants.
New York Family Sports pinned Leach down for an innocent phone interview at his place of employment, the Fencing Club on 28th Street, where his young students wield foils and sabres in the Flower District. All Zorro jokes were respectfully withheld, and just to mix more sports metaphors, the basketball-minded publisher of this newspaper is featured in the first question.
You should know as we start off that our publisher, Dave Hollander, refers to you as the John Wooden of fencing. What is your reaction—do you feel like John Wooden?
[Laughs] No not really. It is a nice compliment. I don’t think I’d like to go quite that far with it. I got big pressure on me now because John Wooden had a whole bunch of good quotes all the time. I don’t think I can live up to that, but I’ll try.
You do look a bit younger than Wooden. When you were a kid, what drew you into fencing and when did you know you were going to excel at this sport?
I didn’t excel at the sport itself, but more in coaching. I found that I really liked it when I was around 15, 16 years old, and that is when I started thinking about being a coach. The coach I was working with at the time was a good man and seemed to have a good life and enjoyed what he was doing, so it seemed like a good way to go.
How were you introduced to the sport?
I started in a sport called modern pentathlon, which is running, swimming, shooting, fencing and riding—a five sport combination. My father just took me to a fencing club and I worked in the training center and just started fencing and had a great time. Unfortunately there were no dreams of being a musketeer. My dad took me there—it was the old days—so when your parents took you somewhere and said you were going to do something, that’s what you did.
Where was that?
San Antonio.
How did you end up in New York City?
My dad was in the military, so we were traveling around a lot. After San Antonio we were in Ithaca, New York, and I did my fencing academy there, and then to Rochester where I was for about 20 years. After 20 years, I just decided that I needed a place where athletes would stay after they were 17, 18 years old. For most kids in the states once they are going to college, they are leaving town. New York is one of the few places where people don’t leave. New Yorkers are New Yorkers, for the most part, so if they do leave they very often come back. So you can have an athlete from the time he or she is 8 years old until the end of their career. If you are in a smaller town in most of the states, once they’re 17 or 18 they are starting to reach their peak physically and it is time for them to go away and go to a college program. I got here in 2001, and some of the athletes now are just getting started with college and they are right in the area at St. Johns or Columbia, NYU, there are so many options here.
What do you think is the ideal age for someone to take up fencing?
I think about 8 or 9 years old is the best time. It is when they start to understand it the most and really know what they’re doing. We start kids at
6, but then it is just to kind of get them involved in the sport and get
them having fun. They’re not really fencing, but they’re learning to
move their bodies and it is also a time to get them hooked on the sport.
Competition is high for kids and sports, so, coaches try to start them
younger and younger because you want to grab kids before they go to
soccer, basketball, skating or gymnastics.
Is there any particular aspect of the
sport you find kids really latch onto? What is it that hooks them?
I think
for fencing it is a combination of two things.
How do kids typically get exposed to it?
To be
honest, even after all the demonstrations and all the different things
that are around out there for them to discover it, a lot of kids from my
experience just tell their parents, “I would really like to try sword
fighting.” There’s not very much available on it in the general media,
so very often it comes from kids playing with swords they get in a toy
store, the plastic ones, or they see a movie and then they’re interested
in trying it. Also now parents are a little more aware of it as a
college sport. All the Ivy League and places like Ohio State, Penn State
and Notre Dame—all those schools have fencing programs, so that can
help a little bit. Many New York families are looking for that little
edge that is going to get them into the school that they want to get
into, or maybe for a scholarship from that school.
The Olympics on
television probably helped get fencing some exposure.
That is the period of
time when we get the most. 2008 was a good year for us, we had a lot of
medals. For fencing, that was by far our most successful Olympics ever.
Looking ahead,
will you be involved in the next Olympics?
Oh,
certainly. I have one athlete who should, if things go according to
plan, she’ll be on the team. She’s basically the number one junior and
senior right now, so I think she should make it if everything goes well
for the next year and half.
What is her
name?
Nzingha Prescod. She is
the under-17 World Champion.
What is it about
her that has impressed you the most?
Her drive
and her work ethic. And for me that is the number one thing. You can
have talent, but it really isn’t going to take you anywhere unless you
have the work ethic. That’s it. She’s always working. For any athlete
and any coach, that is the big thing. If they are willing to work and
put in the time, they can accomplish quite a bit. She’s got talent,
discipline, focus. She’ll take the time to prepare, and she’s a worker.
Since fencing
has been so much a part of your life, I was wondering when you walk the
busy crosswalks of New York and maneuver through pedestrian hordes, do
you think about busting a fencing move?
Now the
sport is so far removed from what it was when it was real, so I don’t
think I’d be of any value unless I had an umbrella with me, then I would
have the upper hand. Outside of that, I would be under-armed. What I do
think about is when I walk down the street and see kids who seem taller
and stronger and look like they would be good fencers.