This past Saturday, members of the Hargrave fencing program attended our first-ever competition. They had a great time, made some connections with other fencers, and, most impressively, won first place and went undefeated against four other schools!
This was an incredible accomplishment for them. All three Hargrave competitors are new to foil fencing and only met one hour twice a week for the past season. Their total practice time in the sport comes to just around 20 hours. For comparison, a full-season sport would meet for that time in just two weeks. Despite this, their hard work and dedication led them to a 4-0 team victory, with some individual wins against people who have been fencing for multiple years. While competing in the JV pool for this tournament, three-person teams meant that some of their opponents were the alternates for the top varsity teams in the league, and we still came out on top.
As our students fenced, coaches from other schools constantly complimented them, “That was textbook,” “That was a beautiful touch,” and a few, “They’ve only been fencing for how long?” The other coaches commented that from the first bouts to the end of the day, they saw improvement each time our fencers came to the strip; they learned with each bout, supported each other, and every time they fenced, did a little better.
Our cadets had an amazing showing for Hargrave’s first time competing, and a tremendous amount of work went toward earning that row of green V5s.
