Collegiate sport clubs allow students to participate in a wide variety of sports that aren’t available at the University athletics level. The students that are in these clubs can participate in tournaments or challenges throughout that club’s season. 

  At the University of Central Missouri, there are a lot of student sport clubs, which include fishing, bowling, rugby, climbing, inline hockey, men’s rugby, women’s rugby and swimming, but UCM also has a fencing club, which is a sport that the average student doesn’t know about. The fencing club has just over 20 students involved, and they compete in tournaments for awards.

  The fencing team members train twice a week for about two hours each day in the Lovinger gym, but before tournaments, individuals will have separate training sessions to prepare.

  Graduate student Joseph Hartman, a criminal justice major, has been fencing at the university for five and a half years. With his experience, he still emphasizes the importance of learning the basics.

  “The basics is really what will let you learn everything else and you build off of it,” Hartman said. “If you don’t have the basics pairs down, you can’t move onto anything else.” 

  Members of the fencing club practice to improve for competitions. However, last year, the fencing club wasn’t able to compete in any tournaments because of COVID-19 protocols. This year is different. Once a month, the fencing team competes within their conference or Guild.

 The University of Missouri, Missouri S&T and St. Louis University are the schools in the same Guild as UCM. 

  Hartman and sophomore teammate Lauren Channel, a music education major, said they are excited for tournaments this year because they get to compete and show what they have worked on for the last two years. 

  After suffering a knee injury in high school, Channel decided that when she got to college she would participate in a club so she could stay busy. 

  “I just looked up all the clubs and I saw fencing, and I was like, ‘that’s cool!’” Channel said. “I can just do that, and I don’t think it would hurt my knees too much. So, that’s why I chose it.” 

  Channel said she loves participating in fencing along with her teammates. She said that over time, the fencing club has made her feel like she belongs at the university. That aspect is what makes being in the fencing club fun for her and everyone else. 

  It has been 2 months since the fencing season started and the fencing team has improved. 

  “We performed well at our SLU tournament, and the fencers have been doing well against each other in practices,” team manager Alana Golden said. 

  The UCM fencing team will be hosting a fencing tournament that will take place in the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, lower courts Nov. 6 and 7, beginning at 10:00 a.m. both days.