Fencing: A winning approach to ‘physical chess’

By Shaun Goodman ’19

Even though fencing is popular among the members of the team, the sport is still overlooked at West Essex High School by many students.

“Unless you know about it, and you know how cool the sport is, you are not exposed to it until you get to high school, which I think is a major problem,” assistant coach Jozefczyk said.

Fencing intertwines both the physical and mental aspects of sports into what team members call “physical chess.”

“You have to kind of think about how you’re going to trick the other person into thinking that you are doing a certain move, and then think three moves ahead,” Ms. Jozefczyk said.

People tend to downplay fencing, as a sport for nerds or people who do not play the “big-name” sports such as football or basketball.

“Fencing isn’t just a sport for nerds, it is a sport for kids who want to learn strategy but who also want to become stronger,” junior Teddy Press said. “It requires a lot of brainpower to do well and it’s a hard sport that I think deserves more recognition.”

The West Essex fencing team competes in a top division that includes elite teams from different schools such as including Newark Academy and Livingston High School. While the team does work on conditioning, the main focus of their practices is footwork and technique.

“Once we do footwork we break down into the three different weapons and they do blade work and then they’ll have individual bouts with each other,” Ms. Jozefczyk said.

This year, the fencing team made several improvements from the year prior. The boys won a match this year which broke their losing streak, and both the boys and girls were successful at the state championships. The girls team as a whole placed 25th out of 52 high school teams and the boys ranked 45.

“I would describe this season as one of growth, development, and expansion,” Press said.

The team is determined to become more competitive beyond a high school scene. But for now, the team is focused on trusting the rebuilding process.

“A bunch of fencers have started to attend private clubs to take lessons in order to improve during the off-season,” Press said.

At this steady pace of progress, the fencing team could possibly become a top tier team.

Although fencing does not attract the large crowds, the sport remains an ideal outlet for West Essex students who want to challenge both their body and mind.