"We're Finding There's Enthusiasm For A Program On The Rise"

Certain sports have long-established hierarchical orders. Programs with long-established traditions churn out annual successful seasons and become an easily recognizable dominant force within their disciplines. It builds a glass ceiling over other programs, the thickness of which continually gets thicker with every year of continued success.

In college fencing, that caste system always centered around a handful of programs from the Midwest and in the Ivy League. A sport featuring multiple national championships for Penn State and Notre Dame created an impenetrable barrier between perceived power programs and every other team in the nation. The Top 10 became an annual cycle during which the top spots passed between the same brands.

The long-standing fortress, though, is finally starting to crack thanks to the emergence of new national brands. Among them is Boston College, a team built by a collective mentality within a sport usually defined by individuals. It has the Eagles positioned to continue making strides against the powerful teams of yore while establishing a new standard within its own walls.

"We've been very fortunate that our group of juniors and seniors are very team-oriented despite being outnumbered by underclass team members," second-year head coach Brendan Doris-Pierce said. "That established the culture that we need, especially as we've been fortunate that our athletes who come into BC as freshmen have done fencing as an individual sport because USA Fencing doesn't stress team competition as much."

Longtime assistant Doris-Pierce took over the program last year as a first-time head coach, and he committed himself to making his own personal stamp on the Eagles. He understood the internal framework of the team from his decade-long work at BC, but becoming the head coach enabled him to begin constructing a team that could compete with and against one another to take strides towards the future.

"We exercise in competition in the first weeks, so every Friday practice is a mock tournament simulating the environment that we're going to be going into," he said. "There's incredible energy and excitement, and we talk about it a lot as a team. When you're competing, if you're starting or not, a team can influence points and outcomes (from the sidelines). You're only fencing three bouts per round, but a fencer's attitude and commitment to the team, and belief in each other, goes much further. When people come to practice, we want them to influence all 27 bouts."

It's created a team capable of competing with some of the nation's elite ranks. BC finished last season with votes in both the men's and women's national polls as several individuals earned competitive honors. The overall team sent a full complement of fencers to the NCAA Northeast Regional at Vassar College, and Bolang Meng represented the Eagles in a 21st place finish at the NCAA Championships.

It was part of a resounding season across the three disciplines for both genders.

Thomas Junseo Park became the first BC fencer to win both the Northeast Fencing Conference's Men's Fencer of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors while placing first team in epee, and Ari Lichy and Cameron Mayer both scored first team foil honors. Philip Acinapuro and Justin Herman added second team honors in foil, and Meng and Ben Slavin earned second team honors in sabre. Park also joined Spencer Kuldell as fencers who finished in the Top 4 at the ACC Championships, with Kuldell doing so in sabre.

On the women's side, Laura Boden completed a 28-5 season in conference competition to earn first team epee honors, and Gabrielle Chau went 32-3 in conference to earn first team sabre. Gillian Lawlor followed that up with second team honors in sabre.

Nearly all returned from last year's roster, with only a couple of exceptions due to graduation, but it only indicated the start of a shift to a younger roster. There is still a considerable blend of depth and experience to go along with the raw talent of the newcomers, and creates a steadying hand for Doris-Pierce, who won NFC Coach of the Year honors last season.

"The freshman class has a number of talented fencers that are consistently high on the USA junior fencing rankings," Doris-Pierce said. "This is going to be a very strong freshman epee class, and we're only excited about how much stronger we're going to be. We had a very successful season last year, and we're only going to get stronger.

"It goes with considerable depth that we have," he continued. "The women's side has depth in foil, which we haven't had over the past few years. It's a seven-dep squad, and it's very competitive. We have two seniors in Kayla Moy and Brooke Solsky who were starters in the past three years, and we have two freshmen who are competing for starting spots."

It's the byproduct of a combined effort for Boston College fencing. The team aspect is on one side, and its impact is most felt during the all-day competitions. Fencing tournaments are typically all-day affairs, and there's a definitive grind to fencers' emotional and physical state. It requires support from within the team, both from the coaches and from teammates.

"You cannot get through the start and stop of a college fencing day with the length of the season without a team that's committed to each other," Doris-Pierce said. "Matches only last three to five minutes, but there's a 15 to 20 minute break before fencing another four minutes before another break. Then there's a half hour before the next round. If you're not carrying each other, the mental grind with that start-and-stop is too much, unless the team energy doesn't stop. When you're feeding off each other, what you're giving and receiving carries the individual."

The second piece is the renewed enthusiasm in the program itself. BC fencing is a fast riser within a sport dominated at the national level by Penn State and Notre Dame. Its past is dotted by schools like NYU and NJIT, and the Ivy League has a long, rich fencing tradition. Boston College is now breaking through that tradition by giving the program some much-needed love, and it's becoming an obvious support on the recruiting trail.

"Athletes in the sport know who the schools are that have fencing," Doris-Pierce said. "Within the sport, the athletes understand these programs a great deal. We're finding that there's an interest in a program that's on the rise. It's rate that there's a program in fencing that could move significantly up the ranks, even within its athletic department. But Boston College is pushing its program as far as it can go, and there's an enthusiasm around this program that people can tell when they head out to national competitions."

BC opens up 2019-2020 season at the NEIFC Fall Invitational this weekend on Saturday, hosted in Northampton, Mass. by Smith College. In two weeks, it'll take to the piste for its conference meet in the Northeast Fencing Conference at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

"We're Finding There's Enthusiasm For A Program On The Rise"

Players Mentioned

Philip Acinapuro

Laura Boden

Gabrielle Chau

Justin Herman

Spencer Kuldell

Gillian Lawlor

Ari Lichy

Cameron Mayer

Bolang Meng

Kayla Moy

Thomas Junseo Park

Ben Slavin

Brooke Solsky

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