Brooklyn Fencing Center
We have appeared on the WB11 10 o'clock news, Fox 5's Good Morning New York and in the pages of Time Out New York, not to mention features in many local Brooklyn papers. You can watch our fencing clip at NY1.com. In honor of the first competition in our permanent space, Borough President Marty Markowitz proclaimed September 26th Brooklyn Fencing Day in Brooklyn! The Brooklyn Fencing Center is a member of Metropolitan Division of the US Fencing Association. Look for our porcupine patch at a fencing competition near you. Head Coach Rolando Balboa started fencing foil over a decade ago and began coaching in 2001. He founded Brooklyn Fencing in 2003 and since then his students have won numerous national--and a few international--medals. Rolando also coaches the fencing team and teaches fencing at St. Ann's School in Brooklyn. Saber Coach Judy Cummins is a two-time saber Gold Medallist in the Veterans National Championship and took fifth in the 2006 Veteran World Championship. Judy also coaches the fencing team at Yeshiva University. Foil Coach Dan Kellner--formerly ranked 1st in the U.S. and 10th in the world--was a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team where he placed 16th individually and, as captain of the foil team, led the U.S. squad to a 4th place finish, the highest in 56 years. He was a 7-time U.S. World Championship Team Member, U.S. National Champion, U.S. National Junior Champion, U.S. Junior World Championship Team Member, a 2-time U.S. World University Games Team Member, and a 2-time U.S. Pan-American Games Team Member. In 2003, he was the first American foil fencer to win the Pan-American Games in 28 years and also led the team to its first gold medal in 32 years. He has numerous podium and medal finishes at National, World Cup, and Grand Prix World Cup fencing tournaments. While attending Columbia University, Dan was 4-time NCAA All-American and 1998 NCAA Fencer of the Year. Dan was an assistant coach to U.S. Men's Foil National Coach Simon Gershon for many years at the Fencer's Club in Manhattan and now brings his coaching and competition experience to Brooklyn where he looks forward to training future generations of great American foil fencers. Epee Coach Misha Mokretsov has been fencing since 1997. His fencing career began in his native city Khmelnitsky when he was engaged in fencing youth organization by his coach Yury Mazur, who helped him to become a Ukrainian National Championships runner-up in 2005, a member of Junior National Epee Team, becoming a European Championship finalist in team event in 2004. Throughout his national team career he competed in numerous cadet and junior World Cups and European Championships. Misha was offered a full scholarship at St. John's University where he became an All-American athlete in 2008 and currently is a team captain. He helped St. John's team to get 2nd place at NCAA championship in 2006 and 2007. Misha has been coaching in the Metropolitan area since 2006. He has an outstanding background as both a competitive fencer and a wonderful coach. Epee Coach Tanya Novakovska was born in 1985 in Ukraine, Nikolaev. Her fencing career began in 1994 in her native city when she was engaged in fencing youth organization by her first coach, Petr Chelpanov. At the age of 12 she became a medalist of a National Junior Championship and was accepted to the National Ukrainian Junior Team. Since that time she began working with the Ukrainian National Fencing Team's head coach, Dmitry Reizlyn. Under his guidance she became twice Junior European Champion in 2004 Espinho, Portugal; Junior World Silver medalist in 2005 Linz, Austria; Junior European Bronze Medalist in 2003 in Croatia, Winner and Medalist of numerous Junior and Senior World Cups, including Winner of 2005 World Universiade in Izmir, Turkey. Our armorer is Edwin Balboa. Like his brother Rolando, Edwin originally hails from La Paz, Bolivia. R.A. Fedde has served as the Bout Committee Chair for the Metropolitan Division for the pa
