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History The Bethel Park Fencing Club was founded in 1997 by Christopher Tobias and Kristen Rylander as a high school club. Since then it has evolved into a fully competitive interscholastic fencing team. The fencers have competed in many different states, as well as the Federal Republic of Germany, and have several top ten finishes in local and regional competitions in the U.S. and Europe. Also several members of the club have fenced for NCAA teams and college clubs. Overall the Bethel Park Fencing team is driven towards what they do, and they achieve their goals by working together as a team! |
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Practices Our practices are all year round. We practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30-9:00. We also have open bouting on Wednesdays. We start our practices by warming up. Two captains from the team start warm-ups. We run and do some stretching. Then we start our drills without blades, so we can work on our footwork. Then we do drills with our weapons to practice our blade work. After that we get into bouting. Bethel Park Fencing Team only uses foils and epees. When we are finished with bouting, one captain starts warm-downs. Finally, our coaches, Coach Tobias, Coach Shannon, and Coach Martin talk about the practice, and what we did well, and what we could improve on. That is a typical fencing practice. |
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Champions Brittany Thomas has been fencing since she was in 7th grade. She was the first and only girl to have fenced for six years. Brittany, now in college at Penn State, will continue to fence for the college club. She was team caption her last two years on the team, and she was voted team MVP in 2006 and 2007. Brittany was on the PSFC All-Conference team in 2007. She was also voted the Almanac “Premiere Performer” in 2007. Karen Vaughn fenced from 2001-2004. She had 135 wins in her fencing career at Bethel. She was voted Fencer of the year in 2003-2004. Karen was also team MVP those same years. They named an award after her (Karen E. Vaughn Academic Award), which is presented annually to the fencer with the highest GPA during the fencing season.
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Christopher Williams fenced from 2003-2006. He had a percentage of .709, the second highest of all time statistics. Chris was the best defensive and offensive fencer in 2005. Williams had the Most Victories; he was the Fencer of the Year, and he was voted team MVP. Tyler Stay started fencing in 2003, and is still fencing on our team as a senior. In 2006 he won the Leam P. O’Shea Service Award, which is given to the fencer who has done the most to promote the team and the sport in school and community. Tyler has fought 206 bouts through 2007 fencing season. Ty is currently unable to fence, due to an injury that he received during Cross Country Season. Ty will be expected to return to the strip by January.
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Foil & Epee Everyone on the team fences foil. This year there are seven girls and 15 boys. We’ve been to about five USFA competitions this year. Our team statistics for the girls’ foil team are 6/42, and the boys’ stats are 79/115. In the past the girls’ foil team won the league championship in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006. The boys’ foil has won in 1999.
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Selected people make the epee team. We have a co-ed epee team, which has two girls, and six boys. One day of the week only the epee team gets together and practices after school. They also practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the coaches split us up, and put the epee team in one room, and the foil in another. The epee team’s stats are 27/25. In the past they’ve won the co-ed epee championships in 2006 and 2007.
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Competitions/Trips Competitions are a big part of all sports. There are only 4 other schools we can go against in our division. They are, Mt. Lebanon, North Hills, Upper St. Clair, and Taylor Alderdice. We go to other competitions as well. There are unrated and rated
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competitions we go to in other parts of Pennsylvania or even out of the state. Before a big competition, we always have to be ready. The fencing team gets together, and has captain’s practices, and at regular practice we work extra hard on our drills, and really |
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concentrate when we bout. We all love going to competitions, and getting ratings, and that’s why we take fencing seriously; but hey, we do have a lot of fun too. |
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We fencers hardly take anything seriously, unless it’s a competition. That is why we get to go on trips. The fencing team goes on a trip when they have a winning season. Last year we went to Washington D.C. We got to visit museums, monuments, and parks. It |
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| was a blast!!! We also fenced people from different states. It was a great experience getting to know the technique other fencers use. This year we might go to Hershey. When there are not any trips to go on, we do not take a break. The fencing team gets together and has a party. We all go to each other’s houses or somewhere else to celebrate |
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what we’ve accomplished in the season. There are also banquets we go to, where the coaches pass out awards. The Bethel Park Fencing Team has a lot of enjoyment, and amusement, from beating people up with 43 inch long pieces of steel, and then going on trips for it. Fencing is a great sport to play, and is really exiting. |
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GO BETHEL! BEAT ALDERDICE! |
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