CCHS Fencing Club duels feature chess-like strategy, tongue-in-cheek swordplay

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Branden Holthaus and several fellow Charles City students wanted to start a fencing club at the school.

They needed an adult/teacher adviser. Rob Pittman made their short list.

“We thought if anything had to do with swords, Mr. Pittman would be the right guy to go to,” Holthaus said.

When he was approached, Pittman responded like he had been waiting for some aspiring fencers to come poking around for a long time.

“I used to fence in college, and I’m really into the history of it all,” Pittman said. “And I love movies with great sword fights, like the ‘Princess Bride’.”

Like Mandy Patinkin’s Inigo Montoya character in the movie, Pittman is pretty nimble with the trash talk while duelling with club members.

“To thee death,” Pittman announces before every duel.

Holthaus, the president of the club, gave Pittman his toughest challenge during a sabre duel last Thursday when the club met in Comet Gym. Yet Pittman prevailed, scoring 5 to Holthaus’s 2.

“I’m just unstoppable,” Pittman said before shaking hand of Holthaus, who incidentally will live to duel another day.

“We usually do foil and sabre,” Holthaus said. “Today we chose sabre.

“There are more scoring opportunities in sabre … the arms, legs, head. In foil, it’s just the chest area.”

Like Pittman, Holthaus’s interest in fencing was spurred by the movies.

“It’s a little tougher than it looks,” Holthaus said. “Me being the president, I attend most of our meetings and practices, so I’ve gotten better since we started this last year.

“I’m a lot more graceful than when I first started.”

Among the original founding members is junior Olivia Hake.

“I was looking for a sport that required a lot of skill but at the same time is like a chess match,” Hake said. “That’s what fencing is. You’ve got to do a lot of thinking on your feet.”

Pittman also likens fencing to chess. While giving an impromptu lesson after a break in a rotational duelling tournament the club was holding, Pittman explained the importance of planning several moves ahead.

“Now I let her score to my head,” Pittman claimed of the reason why club member Anastasia Baldus was able to reach his headgear during a sabre duel, “just so I could set her up when she went for it again.”

Club members mostly duel amongst themselves, or when a curious student or teacher is brave enough to suit up and enter the fray of one of their tournaments. Pittman said that they plan to participate in a fencing tournament held at one of the nearby clubs or colleges in the near future.

“We hope to enter one this summer,” said Pittman — the club does meet regularly during the summer months. “There was a tournament that would have been perfect for beginners, but it was a week after the state wrestling finals [Pittman is an assistant wrestling coach at CC] and I was a little too wore out to get us ready for that.”

For sophomore Wyatt Wolford, this is his first year with the club.

“I’m getting the basic movements down,” he said. “But I don’t think I’m going to do this in college or anything like that.”