Future fencers develop at Rockland Fencers Club

NYACK - The Rockland Fencing Club held an open house Saturday with one goal in mind: To get more young athletes interested in the up-and-coming sport.

"A lot of parents have already gone through the gambit of all the other sports," said owner and instructor Tyler Overk, a Piermont resident. "They’ve tried soccer, they’ve tried basketball, they’ve tried individual sports like tennis and they just didn’t take to it.

Overk said he and the three other instructors do a fair amount of recruiting at area schools, including Tappan Zee and Nyack high schools, as well as Clarkstown North and Clarkstown South high schools. He said he looks for kids who look to push their boundaries of both brains and brawn.

"It really is a sport that takes just as much mental focus as it does physical power," Overk said. "Our students are very smart and want an activity that’s physically demanding in different ways. It’s not raw power and how strong you are; it’s tricking your opponent, out-thinking them, getting them what you want to do and then going in to score.”

The Rockland Fencing Club merged with the former Nyack Fencing Academy and took over its space at 40 Lydecker Street. After a hefty overhaul, the 6,000-square foot space opened last month to teach mainly the disciplines of epée and foil, Overk said.

With 65 active members ranging from seven to 65 years old, the average age of its fencers is just 14-years-old. Attila Lukacs, co-owner of the club and a former professional fencer in his native Hungary, said it's important to start training fencers early on because the sport is getting more popular and competitive.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s not enough to get into it at 30 or 40 (years old) as it was 10 or 15 years ago," Lukacs said. "Now you have to get in at nine or 10 years old if you really want to be competitive because the U.S. team is a really good team now."

Lukacs' beliefs aren't unfounded. Last Wednesday, Salesian High School grad Daryl Homer earned a silver medal in the sabre event at the Olympic Games. The American men's team also won its first foil gold medal since 1932.

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The Rockland Fencing Club has produced 20 nationally-ranked fencers in the past four years, Overk said. Academy graduates have gone on to fence at schools like Princeton, Harvard, Notre Dame and St. John's.

Maxine Shvachkin, of Ramsay, New Jersey, joined the club two years ago in search of a place to hone her epée skills. The 15-year-old hopes to be the next to join that elite group of graduates. Last year, she finished 27th at a national competition in the Youth-14 division.

“I’ve been going to bigger competitions and getting better results,” she said, crediting her coaches and fellow fencers. "It’s extremely competitive, but we love to help each other out."

Want to take a stab at it? 

Find out more about Rockland Fencing Club here or call 908-892-0632.