Jon Bouker—
The Gonzaga fencing team recently took a very big win against Georgetown Prep’s fencing team on Feb. 14 at Georgetown Prep. Coach Mr. Carl Cardozo said that the fencing team is looking forward to a great season coming off of this win this year.
“We did really well against Georgetown Prep; we shut them out,” said Mr. Carl Cardozo, fencing moderator.
The Gonzaga fencing team at Gonzaga is only a club sport and not a full-on varsity sport; however, the team still practices four days a week. The season starts in February and goes through March and a little bit of April, but the team practices year-round. Locally, the team competes against St. Anselm’s, Georgetown Prep and Landon.
“This year, we have already had one match against Georgetown Prep and one against St. Anselm’s, and we are planning to have at least one more against each of them,” said Jack McNair, junior.
There are 20 students in total on the team this year including three at the “varsity level”, three at the “junior varsity level” and the rest just in the club. During covid, the fencing team took a bit of a decline in participants but has since risen back to what it was prior to covid.
“About four or five members of the team did fencing before coming to Gonzaga, and most had no prior experience,” McNair said.
Fencing has conditioning and strength training in the gym with Coach Marcus Taylor once a week, similar to the varsity sports that Gonzaga offers. During normal practices, there is an emphasis on practicing drills and perfecting techniques.
“It’s really two sports at once; there are footwork drills and blade work drills,” Mr. Cardozo said.
Fencing is a very complex sport where fencers have to learn the different types of parries, which are basically ways to block your opponent’s attacks. The different parries are described using numbers— parry 6, parry 4, parry 8, etc. There are also lunges and fleches, which are different offensive moves in fencing.
Every Wednesday, the fencing club hosts something called “free fencing”, where anyone can come and try out fencing, as well as win prizes. Fencing is a great and very underrated sport at Gonzaga that more people should definitely give a shot. Anyone can sign up by simply emailing or going to talk to Mr. Cardozo in Dooley 302.
