News

Location: University of South Florida, Tampa

Date: October, 26-27, 2024

Florida Fencing Academy entered 5 fencers. Of the six events fenced the FLFA fencers won 3 Golds, 1 silver and 1 Bronze.

FLFA won gold medals in Foil, Saber and Epee events.

Div 1A Saber- 26 Entries

Thomas Dupree won the Gold Medal

Peter Irwin won the Silver Medal

Maddox Motllau finished in 6th place

Div 2 Foil- 45 Entries

Peter Irwin won the Gold Medal and earned his D rating in Foil

Ava Villalobos finished 23rd

Div 1A Foil- 34 Entries

Ava Villalobos finished in 26th place.

Div 3 Saber- 26 Entries

Lincoln Lopez won the Bronze Medal and earned his E rating in Saber

Div 1A Epee- 58 Entries

Thomas Dupree finished 6th

Div 2 Epee- 53 Entries

Thomas Dupree Won the Gold Medal

Lincoln Lopez finished 5th

First off, congratulations to Coach Harper.  He was the State Director for the 2023 Sunshine State Games Fencing Tournament.  The events were well attended with fencers from 25 clubs around the State coming in to compete.  Coach recruited excellent referees and tournament staff. 

Congratulations to our tournament fencers.  Your efforts had the Florida Fencing Academy bringing home 16 medals (2 Gold, 6 Silver and 8 Bronze) and winning the Sunshine State Games Club Championship!  This is the first time in the 25 years of this Academy for winning this award. 

Our Gold Medalists were Ethan Beasley (Y8 Mixed Foil) and Lincoln Lopez (Y14 Mixed Saber). 

Earning Silver Medals were Thomas DuPree (2), Peter Irwin, Randall Bushey, Tevyn McNeal, and Lucius Figueroa.

Earning Bronze Medals were Aveline Zayko (2), Peter Irwin, Ava Villalobos, Tevyn McNeal, Ethan Beasely, Junxi Huang and Derek LaMontagne. 

This sport is for fun and developing not only strategic skills, but life skills as well.  But it is still good to compete and win.  Congratulations to all.  

During the time we will all remember as the COVID years, the Academy downsized but continued to thrive, with students still going to tournaments, earning medals, increasing their ratings and most of all continuing to improve in the sport.  

As the world begins to get back up to speed, so does the Academy.  The Saturday lessons are thriving.  There are plans now for fencing classes to resume at Oak Hall off of Tower Road.  Students continue to sign up.  We are now holding some classes at a dance studio at Creekside Mall so that weather is not a factor in our activities.  

Peter Irwin is one of our advanced students who was in competition in Epee events at the Regional Open on Labor Day weekend.  He earned a Silver Medal and his B rating by finishing second in the Cadet Epee competition, defeating an A rated fencer to advance to the final match in a field of 44 fencers from 13 different states.  Way to go, Peter and congratulations to Coach Harper!

Thomas DuPree was also in three saber events at this competition and finished in the top 15 in two events where most fencers from Florida had already been eliminated.  In Junior Saber competition, he was one of two Florida fencers in the top 16.  It was tough competition with fencers from around the country and we are proud of our students showing their skills in these high level events.

Students of the Florida Fencing Academy continue to develop their skills that will serve them not only in competition, but most importantly in their own personal development.  Fencing is for all ages, so whether you have a child that may benefit from this training, or you would like to see if this sport would be a benefit to you personally, please contact us today.  We are here to help everyone become better today than they were yesterday!

USA Fencing resumed its sanctioning for fencing clubs, so clubs now have the insurance coverage and can resume classes as long as they are following USA Fencing restrictions regarding masks and social distancing.

At the time of the pandemic outbreak, the Academy was housed in a large facility.  Like many small businesses, the Academy had to downsize.  We now have access to a dance studio for some classes and Coach Harper conducts other classes outside of his home.  

We are slowly seeing some clubs holding tournaments in Florida as well as Georgia.  Upcoming tournaments are announced on the website AskFred.net.  National events are found on usafencing.org. 

As the world slowly approaches more normal times, make an appointment with Coach Harper to discuss when you can learn or sharpen your fencing skills.

Coach Harper has resumed fencing lessons with students.  We understand that some may not be comfortable yet engaging in a sport, but we will be around when you are.  

The Academy was unable to continue operating in the facility that we've been in for a while.  It was nice but with the shutdown and no income, it is difficult to pay the lease.  So classes may be in a few different locations until a solid deal is made on a new location.  The search is on!!

If you are interested in talking to the Coach about lessons, he can be reached at (352) 262-0184.  He is looking forward to talking with you and getting back to what he has been doing for decades:  coaching winners!

The Florida Fencing Academy is still exercising great caution due to the COVID-19 virus, so we have not resumed our on-site training.  However, Coach Harper is continuing to do classes via Zoom several days a week.  If you want to be added to the contact list for these classes, contact the coach.  His info is on our Contact Us page.

Also, we have moved out of the very large facility that we have been using for many years.  We are excited to announce that we will be moving into a smaller facility.  A couple of locations are being evaluated.  As soon as the decision is made on the new training location, it will be posted on the website.  

Taking queues from the fencing association, fencers might want to consider looking for a comfortable facemask to wear inside your fencing mask.  We might find them required for competitions when they resume.

Everyone stay safe!

FFA fencers Nickolay Mavrodiev and William Bowden represented the Academy at the USF Papa Ryan's Birthday Bash 2020 in Tampa on Saturday, January 25th. 

While both fenced in the Epee Mixed Open event, it was in the C and Under Epee event that #3 seed Nickolay moved through the bouts to the final match to earn the Silver Medal.

Congrats to Nickolay and to Coach Harper for the great performance!  We are looking forward to the upcoming tournament next week at the University of Florida.

Florida Fencing Academy tournament fencers will be hitting the road in a few weeks for more competition.

The USF Papa Ryan Birthday Bash 2020 will be held on Saturday, January 25th at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  It is always a large competition with many events.

The 54th Annual Green Gator will be held on February 1st and 2nd at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  Saber and Foil events will be on Saturday and Epee events will be on Sunday.  This is another venue with a large attendance, which means good competition and the opportunity to advance.

Good luck, fencers!! 

The Florida Fencing Academy is hosting an Open House for days during the New Year week.

Monday, the Academy will be open from 3pm to 6pm with Aegis Duensing staffing while the 6pm to 8pm session will be staffed by Coach Tyler Kvols-Riedler.

Coach Brian Harper will lead the remaining sessions which will be on Thursday and Friday, 3pm to 6pm as well as 6pm to 8pm.

On Saturday Coach Harper will have two sessions, 9am to noon and 1pm to 5pm.

Tournament Fencers from the Academy may be on hand to assist.  Come out to meet the coaches and see the facility.  And get to see what the sport of fencing is about.  

We are looking forward to seeing you.

Coach Harper is in Salt Lake City, Utah to referee in the competitions for the North American circuit.  He is sharing duties as referee for the Veterans category for their competition for the World Championship team.  

This event is also Olympic trials for other fencers who will move on to competitions in other countries.  Some of these fencers will be competing in Japan at the 2020 Olympics. 

If you want someone coaching you or your child in the art of fencing, how cool is it that we have Coach Brian Harper here in Gainesville running this Academy?  Don't let the opportunity pass you by.  Come check us out!