Micahnik Retirement Ends 35-Year Era at Penn
Longtime University of Pennsylvania fencing head coach Dave Micahnik recently announced his retirement, ending one of the more noteworthy coaching eras in the history of collegiate fencing. Micahnik had been the coach at his alma mater for 35 years, spanning parts of four decades, with the Quakers amassing numerous team and individual accomplishments during that span.
Dave Micahnik (Penn)
(Note: an overview highlighting the Micahnik era at Penn is coming soon to the CF360 blog – it will recap some of the program's top teams and fencers over the past 35 years.)
Ron Miller (North Carolina)
Only three current college coaches – North Carolina's Ron Miller (42 years), Yale's Henry Harutunian (40) and Temple's Nikki Franke (37; women's team) – have led the varsity fencing programs at their current school for longer than Micahnik's 35-year run. Four other have coached at their current school for 30-plus years: Linda Vollkommer-Lynch (35; Steven Tech women), George Kolombatovich (31; Columbia) and Laurie Schiller (31; Northwestern women). There also are four other current coaches above the
25-year plateau as head fencing coach at their current school: Bill Shipman (28; Brandeis), Emmanuil Kaidanov (27; Penn State), Steve Mormando (27 NYU) and Alex Beguinet (24; Duke).
Laurie Schiller (Northwestern)
Bill Shipman (Brandeis)
CollegeFencing360 has compiled a list of the current NCAA varsity fencing coaches, sorting them based on years directing their current school's fencing program. Note that there still are some holes in this research, so feel free to contact CF360 (editor@collegefencing360.com) with any corrections or additions. The below list also includes a brief summary of each coach's coaching/fencing background (again, based on available bio. info.).
CF360 also is in the process of compiling a more wide-reaching list of all-time college fencing coaches who logged significantly long stints as head coach at one school, those who became synonymous with certain programs – the familiar "faces" of collegiate fencing.
2009 NCAA VARSITY FENCING COACHES TENURE
Henry Harutunian (Yale)
42 years – Ron Miller (North Carolina men; 38 yrs with UNC women) ... former U.S. national-team fencer
40 – Henry Harutunian (Yale men; 36 with Yale women) ... former Brandeis head coach; former national team coach for U.S. and Armeina/USSR
Nikki Franke (Temple)
37 – Nikki Franke (Temple women) ... All-America fencer at Brooklyn College
35 – Dave Micahnik (Pennsylvania) ... former U.S. epee Olympian; fenced collegiately at Penn (recently announced his retirement)
35 – Linda Vollkommer-Lynch (Steven Tech women)
31 – George Kolombatovich (Columbia) ... former Columbia and NYU assistant, also a U.S. national-team coach
31 – Laurie Schiller (Northwestern women; 16 with Northwestern former men's varsity/now club) ... former fencer at Rutgers
George Kolombatovich (Columbia)
Emmanuil Kaidanov (Penn State)
28 – Bill Shipman (Brandeis) ... former U-Penn assistant
27 – Emmanuil Kaidanov (Penn State men; 24 with PSU women) ... former fencer and coach in the Soviet Union
27 – Steve Mormando (NYU women; 24 with NYU men) ... former NYU assistant; former U.S. Olympic sabreist
26 – Alex Beguinet (Duke) ... former coach at Salle La Boessiere (Portland, OR)
Steve Marmando (NYU)
Jerzy Radz (Wayne State)
18 – Jerzy Radz (Wayne State) ... former Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wahington (Mo.) Univ. head coach, earlier coaching with Polish national team and at Watsaw Sports Club
14 – Yury Gelman (St. John's) ... former Ukranian national-team coach
14 – Dayn DeRose (Drew men; 11 w. women) ... former Milburn HS coach
14 – Jarek Koniusz (MIT) ... former coach in Poland and U.S. national team
14 – Gamil Kaliouby (Wellesley) ... former coach at Holy Cross and Boston Univ. (clubs), also has coach at the Boston Fencing Club and the Academy of Fencing; three-time Olympic foilist (Egypt)
Yury Gelman (St. John's)
Abdel Salam (Air Force)
11 – Abdel Salem (Air Force) ... former head coach at Lone Star Fencing Club (Dallas), Westside Fencing Center (L.A.) and Salle Csiszar (Philadelphia); former Olympian for Egypt
11 – Lisa Milgram (Stanford women) ... former Stanford assistant and UCSD head coach; former nationally-ranked fencer and NCAA medalist (foil) at Penn State
11 – Todd Dressell (Detroit) ... former UM-Dearborn coach (club); fenced for Oakland (MI) Univ. club team
Vladimir Nazlymov (Ohio State)
10 – Vladimir Nazlymov (Ohio State) ... former coach of Kansas City (Mo.) school district, with U.S. national team and USSR national team ; former world champion and Olympic medalist in sabre (USSR)
10 – Peter Brand (Harvard) ... former Brown coach and MIT assistant; former national-team fencer
10 – Atilio Tass (Brown) ... former ND assistant and coach of Tuscon (AZ) Fencing Club, after gaining his coaching training in Hungary; two-time Olympic fencing for Argentina
9 – Aleksandr Ulanovskiy (Queens College women)
8 – James Murray (Johns Hopkins women) ... former coach at Haverford, Salle Cziszar (Philadelphia) and Salle Santelli (N.Y. City)
8 – Tibi Sala (Hunter) ... former Hunter assistant
8 – Roger Cummings (Fairleigh Dickinson women) ... former Ramapo HS head coach and Rutgers assistant; former Olympic epeeist
7 – Janusz Bednarski (Notre Dame ) ... former ND assistant, head coach at CFS Fencing Club (Denver) and head coach of Polish national team
6 – Austin Young (Johns Hopkins men) ... former Rutgers assistant
5 – Heidi Runyan (UC San Diego) ... former UCSD assistant; former nationally-ranked fencer (sabre and foil)
5 – Mika'il Sankof (Stevens Tech men) – continuing coach at Peter Westboork Foundation; U.S. sabre Olympian and four-time NCAA champ (as Michael Lofton), at NYU
4 – Iryna Dolgikh (Cornell women) ... former assistant at Penn State ; world-champion foilist (Ukraine)
4 – Thomas Vrabel (Sacred Heart) ... former assistant at Brown and Navy, continuing coach at Candelwood Fencing Center (CT)
4 – Bruce Gillman (Vassar) ... former assistant at Garden City (NY) HS, Sacred Heart and Ohio State, also coach at Fencing Center of Long Island and Candlewood Fencing Center (CT)
3 – Zoltan Dudas (Princeton) ... former Notre Dame assistant; former coach at the Szegedi Postas Sports Club (Hungary)
2 – Yefim Litvan (N.J.I.T.) ... former Rutgers coach, U.S. Olympic coach , N.Y. Athletic Club coach, U-Penn assistant and club coach in Ukraine
2 – Michael D'Asaro (Cal Tech) ... former Cal Tech assistant; former U.S. national-team sabreist
2 – Chris Spencer (Haverford) ... former coach at Mt. Holyoke, Boston Fencing Club and Northhampton Fencing Club; NCAA qualifier at Brandeis (foil)
1 – George Pogosov (Stanford men) ... former Ukranian national team coach; former Olympic medalist
1 – Andy Tulleners (Cleveland State) ... former CSU assistant
1 – Tom Gauntner (Lafayette) ... former fencer at Lafayette
Alex Beguinet (longtime coach at Duke)
* Note: CF360 still is in the process of confirming the length of the coaching tenures at their current schools for five coaches: Steve Amich (Lawrence), Jason Sachs (Tufts women), Paul Yuen (CCNy women), Syd Fadner (Boston College), Peter Rosas (Yeshiva men) and Judy Cummings (Yeshiva women).