Return to the "POINTER VIEW"Feb. 2, 2001
Return to the "POINTER VIEW"
Feb.
2, 2001
Team
members credit coach, teambuilding for success
Stories and photos by Jim Fox
Staff Writer
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| Junior Laura Miller displays her saber equipment which is different from epee and foil in that her mask is metallic because the face is a scoring area in saber. |
The Army women’s fencing team, as a club sport made up of 10 cadets, relishes the opportunity to beat varsity programs. They accomplished that feat twice Sunday.
Two of the Black Knight fencers who helped Army pull off the double victory represent the youth and the experience of the team. They are senior team captain Kacie Kolb and freshman Chandra Wood.
Neither of them had any fencing experience when they arrived at West Point and took up the sport.
Now, Kolb has four years under her belt and sports a 24-3 record in foil this season.
Wood is still in her first year of fencing in epee but stands at 12-3 on the year.
Both were instrumental Sunday in wins over Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J. (14-13), and a 22-5 victory over the City College of New York.
Kolb was a perfect 6-0 on the day, including a clutch 5-4 win in the final bout against Stevens to clinch the victory.
Wood was 4-2 including a 3-0 sweep of her CCNY opponents.
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| Kolb (left) takes on Stevens Institute of Technology's Mercades Oganda Sunday. Oganda proved to be just one of Kolb's six wins on the day. |
Both attribute their success, in part, to the one-on-one coaching of Orest Stetsiv.
Stetsiv is a Ukrainian fencing instructor who travels up from New York City at least once a week to give individual instruction to both the Army men’s and women’s fencing teams.
The fencing mentor, who has tutored students who have gone on to compete in the Olympics, said one of the key ingredients in making both Kolb and Wood successful is that each of them has "good character" and neither is easily rattled while competing.
"Kacie has learned very well since she was a freshman," Stetsiv said. "She is not nervous. She is smart. It is very important in fencing to be smart. To be able to strategize and recognize what an opponent is going to do."
Kolb admitted that she has matured as a fencer in her four years, especially mentally.
"I used to get real frustrated and upset every time I would lose a point," the future aviation branch officer said. "Now, I kind of brush it off. I have a lot more fun. That has helped me out a lot."
The mechanical engineering major said she attributes Stetsiv’s coaching and the teambuilding that exists between the members of both the men’s and women’s fencing teams for helping make her the fencer she is today.
Col. Gary Tocchet, the women’s fencing team officer representative and a professor in the History Department here said his team captain "has probably been one of the hardest working members of the team.
"She is a hard charger," Tocchet said. "She is out encouraging people. She has worked very hard to get where she is today. She had no background in fencing and now is the team captain. She has earned that by just being selfless and a hard worker."
Tocchet said Wood has been able to harness her athletic talent and focused it into her fencing.
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| Fencing instructor Orest Stetsiv brings his 25 years of international fencing coaching experience to his one-on-one instruction to both the Army men's and women's teams. |
Wood, who attended Penn State University for two years before attending the academy, draws on some of the balance and agility she honed on the basketball court in high school to help her achieve fencing success as a freshman here.
She admits that she is learning the sport, but realizes that it will take more hard work to fine tune the technical aspect of the sport.
The Athens, Pa., native attributes Stetsiv with helping her enormously since October.
"He is great," Wood said about the 25-year veteran of Soviet and Ukrainian fencing. "He knows everything. When I started (working with him), I didn’t know anything. He has taught me so much and he has a great sense of humor, too. He really makes it fun. He should get a lot of credit for how our team is doing."
