Nikki Franke began her illustrious fencing career her last year in high school; she really enjoyed the combative mental aspect of it and threw herself in wholeheartedly. She attended Brooklyn College and trained with Denise O’Connor. Eventually the two became Olympic teammates. Desirous of a graduate degree, she went to Temple University to serve a…

Back in September of 2018, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Stacey Johnson. Then life got in the way (mostly moving to our new club space) and I haven’t had a chance to edit it until now. I had forgotten just how much insight Ms. Johnson shared, not just about fencing but about perseverance and teamwork, skills that she used to great eff…

Terrence Lasker was one of your run-of-the-mill teenagers who wanted a job working with computers someday. When a Magnet high school opened in Kansas City, he jumped at the chance to study in their state-of-the-art computer science program. What he didn’t expect was turning that passion into a lifelong love of fencing. After being wooed by the prom…

Cody Mattern started fencing at age 15 after, believe it or not, an argument with his brother. After only training for two years he became the Junior National Epee Champion, a feat he repeated the following year. He competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, placing 22nd in Individual and 6th in Team. Next, Cody took part in the US Army’s World Class At…

Lisa Campi Sapery is a woman who has filled pretty much every possible role in our sport: elite college athlete, coach, international referee, referee trainer, club owner, and published author. She is known as the Fencing Referee in various places online, including her YouTube channel, Fencing.net, and Facebook. She started fencing when her sister …

Today’s episode is the story of David Sach, a man who has represented fencing on two continents, and who you probably know best as the Head Assigner of Sabre at most NACs. You know: the guy with the accent at the big table in the middle of the venue. You just had no idea who he really is! David holds elite status in the fencing trifecta of competit…

David Sierra started fencing at Texas A&M when he needed a PE credit and didn’t want to sign up for Advanced Weightlifting or Aerobic Power-walking. Since then, he has worked his way up the referee ranks and is currently the co-owner of Cutting Edge Fencing Center, a Sabre-only club, near Fort Worth, Texas. Listen as he describes what the fencing w…

Maureen Griffin decided to start fencing foil at age 14 when she quit the swim team and her dad told her she had 24 hours to find a new sport. Four years later she came to the US on a fencing scholarship at the University of Wisconsin. After her retirement from fencing in 1988, she came back two years later as an epée fencer, eventually earning a s…

Damien Lehfeldt currently coaches epée at the Richmond Fencing Club. His fencing career began when he was a kid, continued through his years at Brandeis, led him to the Maccabi Games and a berth on the DC Fencers Club epee squad that took gold at the 2012 North American Cup, until one fateful day it occurred to him that he loved coaching more than …

If you say the name “Peet Sasaki” to a group of fencers, they might look at you with a baffled expression on their face... although admittedly for some that’s just their natural look. If, however, you ask them who “FRED“ is, nearly every single one will be able to give you an answer. The name FRED is as ubiquitous a name to a fencer as HAL is to a …

Delia Turner is a vivacious, energetic woman who has accomplished much in life simply by, as she says, “showing up”. She has held a wide variety of jobs, including legal secretary, science teacher, English Department Chair, published author, calligrapher, and Adjunct Faculty at Temple University. She started fencing at 40 years of age and has becom…

Dan Kellner started fencing in the 7th grade. He had a video game called Summer Games and had trouble figuring out the fencing part. He asked his mom about the sport so much that eventually she took him to his first coach, Ted Li. Ted was the Olympic Armourer at the time and would expose Dan to his first taste of attaining a shot at Olympic Gold. L…

Andrew Fischl didn’t start fencing until his junior year of high school but achieved a lot very quickly: he was 5th in the country in 2013. Before fencing, Andrew had tried many sports: soccer, tennis, baseball, lacrosse, etc but none of these sports really engaged him the way fencing did. The reason most people know him is because of the videos he…

Keeth Smart is a saber fencer who achieved a lot of success on the fencing strip. He qualified for three Olympics, placing 30th in 2000, 15th in individual and 4th in the team event in 2004, 6th in individual in 2008. He also won the silver medal in the team event that year, after serving as the anchor. In 2002 and 2004, Keeth won the US National S…

Back in the day, coaches received training at was then called Coaches' College. Begun in the late 80s by the United States Fencing Association, its purpose was to create an opportunity for professional development for fencing coaches. When the cold war ended, the USFA brought Soviet bloc coaches over in 1990 to lead the program with Jack Keene serv…

Michael "Mergs" Mergens, is a USFA certified Armorer, Coach and Referee with over 35 years of experience in the sport of Fencing. He regularly works as the Head Armorer and Team Armorer for many of the USA Fencing National and International events. He is the owner of the online Armorer’s Store (http://www.thearmorersstore.com) and is the author of …

Like all of my guests, Lynn Botelho is a multi-faceted individual. She is a professor of history at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and serves as the Director of Women’s and Gender Studies. She teaches courses on the Renaissance and Reformation, early modern Europe, the history of the body, and English history. She has written numerous books on …

Carla-Mae Richards allowed me to interview her the first day of Summer Nationals this year. It was really intimidating because she is a legend in our sport. Not only was she a fencer back when girls weren’t really allowed to participate in sports, but she became the first Executive Director of what would become the United States Fencing Association…

My guest today is Kamali Thompson. Kamali is a very dynamic and determined individual who not only trains as an elite athlete but is also in medical school. She very candidly talks about her training regimen and turning disappointment into success. A mere three weeks after learning she didn't make the Olympic team she rallied and won the Division 1…

This year’s Summer Nationals and July Challenge broke records for attendance, even though the qualifying paths were more challenging. Many participants and coaches commented on how much more difficult every event was than in past years, which means the overall quality of fencing in our country is increasing! Over 4200 athletes total competed in thi…

My guest today, Jerry Benson, has worn a huge number of hats over the years: fencing club owner, referee, business consultant, fencing Master, HEMA enthusiast, philosopher, a member of the US Fencing Board of Directors, husband, Paralympic coach, and, most importantly: mentor. Jerry has a passion for helping each individual reach his or her persona…

If you have ever hosted a fencing tournament or competed in one, you have today's guest to thank for its smooth operation. Back before Dan Berke created Fencing Time, seeding was done by hand with the help of index cards; one gust of wind could ruin a whole event. Dan, a Microsoft engineer who started fencing later in life, put his impressive techn…

In today's episode you will hear Vincent Bradford talk about her long struggle to reach the Olympics, what it was like for a young woman in fencing "back in the day", and the people who inspired her to greatness. Her athletic career started in horseback riding, but she changed sports after meeting a friend of her riding instructor who was a fencer.…

Thank you for joining me for episode three of the SabreCoachKate podcast. In this interview, you'll hear about the experiences of Olympian Iris Zimmerman Nowack and her exciting evolution from cute four year old in patent leather shoes to fencing Olympian to club owner and coach. I originally interviewed Iris a month ago. In light of her disappoint…

Thank you for joining me today for Episode Two of the SabreCoachKate podcast. Today you'll hear a conversation I had with Roberto Sobalvarro. He is full of surprises. He came to fencing in an unusual way, playing tennis during his young life then taking up fencing on a dare. After graduating from college, he decided to take a job as a high school f…

I chose to begin this podcast with an incredible woman: Ariana Klinkov. She was one of the first women to fence sabre in the U.S., she was the first female sabre referee the U.S. ever sent to an international competition, and she has coached many fencers who have had varying levels of success, including National Team members. She still gets out on …