Nerds, En Garde! Stuart Lee Points to Fencing’s Appeal

Stuart Lee ran his own business for 15 years and worked as a stockbroker, too. But always lurking inside was his phantom fencer.

Since the day a friend dragged him to a community college fencing class in Anchorage at age 18, Lee has been a fencer at heart.

Even through all those years doing other things, he often fenced three or four times a week and jokes that his wife was “a fencing widow.”

Now the 53-year-old Hillcrest resident is spreading that passion for swordplay from his new studio in La Mesa—Lion Heart Fencing Academy.

On the hill south of Jackson Drive and across from Grossmont Center, his Center Drive facility has 4,000 square feet of practice space and electronic scoring systems. The walls are filled with fencing posters, photos and the swords, masks and equipment so associated with the sport.

Lee, who took over the building in January and celebrated its grand opening in March, holds classes there and runs his club, which has grown steadily since its opening.

Lee has about 40 students, gaining several new members each week now that Lion Heart is open.

The county has five fencing studios, but Lion Heart is the only one in East County, and Lee claims his studio is “the nicest fencing facility in San Diego County.”

There, he can spread his passion for a growing sport to students young and old. It’s been his lifetime addiction, and he wants to share it.

For Lee, fencing is a rich mix of athleticism, brainpower, romance and tradition. He calls it a safe martial art that just happens to be “full speed and full contact” but with trappings of chivalry and sportsmanship.

 “Fencing is tactics,” says Lee, who also teaches the Olympic sport at Grossmont College and is a sponsor of the school’s fencing club. “It’s patience. It’s trap-setting as opposed to aggression. Fencing has been called chess at 100 miles an hour. It’s extremely tactical.”

Fingers in Fencing Throughout the County

Lee’s roots are deep in the San Diego fencing community.

In 1995, he started the Coeur du Lion fencing club, originally based in Escondido.

From 1997 through 2004, Lee also was the varsity men’s and women’s fencing coach at UC San Diego, and he served as president for the first four years of the San Diego Scholastic Fencing Conference, which consists of middle-school and high-school fencing teams. He gave up the presidency this year because of his commitment to opening his new club.

After taking up the sport in Alaska, he continued to fence after moving to San Diego (where he was following a high school friend and, of course, sunshine) and studied with a master fencer in Los Angeles.

In San Diego, he has been a San Diego division champion in foil and epee (two of the three weapons of fencing, along with saber) and was on a Pacific Coast region championship team from San Diego in epee. He is a certified fencing master in foil and is working on his certification in the other two disciplines.

He still fences in what he jokes as “old guys” competitions—age-group and team events.

But his focus now is on establishing the academy, growing his classes and club and spreading the word about the sport.

He sees it as a terrific alternative to traditional sports and one that can open doors to college.

“I want to train athletes to the national level,” he says. “The primary purpose of my youth program is to train athletes to the level that they can get college scholarships. And for women especially there are athletic scholarships available. And every Ivy League school has a fencing program.”

Piggybacking a Growing Sport

The birth of Lee’s fencing academy coincides with a growth in the sport in America.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the immigration of former Soviet fencing masters to the United States has helped fuel youth fencing. In recent years, too, the U.S. Olympic teams have had some remarkable successes, including six medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Last year at the national summer competition in Atlanta, more than 6,500 fencers from 300 clubs nationwide took part.

Why the growth?

Lee says it’s been a combination of factors. Some kids like fantasy and the tie-in with movies and role-playing games. He also says fencing appeals to intelligent kids, “nerds” and video game fans who may never have had any interest in  mainstream sports.

“I credit [growth] to fencing’s similarly to video games,” he says. “It’s extremely fast. And when you score you light a light, ring a buzzer and in that way it’s very much like a video game.

“It’s instant gratification, it’s very quick reaction time. The difference is that you’re the guy in the video game. You’re the actual combatant.”

Lee can relate.

After taking his first class in Anchorage, he and his buddy ordered fencing equipment from a catalog and let their imaginations fuel their fencing fire.

“It was the romance of it,” he recalls. “I can remember that first semester.  … We would go out to the park. And I’d say ‘You’re the Musketeer and I’m the cardinal’s guard and we’re fighting over something.’ And so we did role-playing. That’s what it was all about for me then. I just wanted to pretend I was a pirate or whatever it was that was that moment’s romantic ideal.”

The Matches: Bursts of Combat

While that romantic ideal may lure some kids to the sport, it’s the sport itself that keeps them.

On the academy’s large, wooden floor—a surface cushioned by foam and cork underneath—are eight fencing strips, the long grids where fencers compete against one another. During classes, the strips are filled with kids of all ages, fighting for touches while listening to Lee’s instructions.

Lee says the sport is all about agility, footwork, quickness and technique and many of those who try it are hooked just as he was.

Matches are made up of short, dynamic bursts of combat.

 “They’re individuals, you might say,” he says of those who are drawn to fencing.  “And maybe a little bit on the nerdy side. But this is a way for that nerd to become an athlete. And highly coordinated, too.”

Mary Ann Fiechtner of Poway says her son, Tom, was a student of Lee’s with Coeur du Lion, and grew to love fencing. He’s in college now–running, not fencing–but enjoyed the experience. And she enjoyed being around Lee’s club and his students so much that she’s chosen to stay involved with Lion Heart.

“It’s really such a good community of fencers here,” she says. “I am so impressed with the quality of the kids that choose to dedicate themselves and do it well.”

Lee may not compete as he once did, but he’s fine with that. Growing his academy is what counts most to him.

Still, he laughs when he’s asked if he can still beat his students.

“Oh yeah,” he says, noting that only one student, 16-year-old Stephen Sabo of Poway, can regularly outpoint him. “Everybody else I can hold my own against.

“My goal, of course, is to train them to surpass me. As time goes on, that’s going to be easier and easier. But I make a big deal of it when they beat me. I ham it up and put it on Facebook and all that.”