The Boston Latin School women’s fencing team took home the state championship in late February.
Fencing is a competitive combat sport which involves physical and mental strength. The objective of the game is to hit your opponent in certain areas to win points. The first to five points wins the “bout,” or game. Fencing involves quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, along with complex footwork and advanced strategy.
There are three different kinds of fencing: foil, saber and épée, and each have their own weapons, target areas and rules. BLS fencing has separate divisions for each of these types and they work collectively to win the competition.
Throughout the regular season, the women’s fencing team played in four different competitions hosted at Brookline High School, Dana Hall School, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and BLS, finishing with a record that allowed them to pass through the first round of states without having to play a match.
They entered the competitive single elimination states tournament, where the first team to win 14 bouts win the tournament. With all three different team subsets playing simultaneously, if one team went down, the others would pick up the weight.
Thus, another level of strategy is added to the competition and as a fencer for the foil team. Melania Yee (III) notes, “This made it really important to communicate between teammates so that we could figure out who had to be on guard — no pun intended — for the school we were fencing.”
In some ways, their supportive cheering and pushing of each other to try their hardest is even more important than communication. As BLS students, the height of the team’s chant is in Latin to fire up the team and keep the energy high: “Sumus lupi, sumus magni!”
The team focuses on making bonds between the subsets of fencing, so their success is no surprise for BLS — both the women’s and men’s teams have past wins in State Championships. The women’s fencing team won the State Championship in 2022 and the men’s fencing team won their State Championship in 2023. Given these past accomplishments, their success is not a surprise.
Despite the win, the season was not without its struggles. Last year, many seniors graduated from the fencing team. Regarding the difficulty of rounding up new members, saber captain Lucy Zhang (III) notes, “Recruitment and training for beginners have been the main goal. […] We hope to help younger members improve and find their passion in fencing.”
Undeterred by these issues, the team is optimistic about the future. Graduating épée captain Evelyn Cabot (I) says, “I already know they will do incredibly well next year, but more than anything, I want them to always enjoy fencing and being on the team.”
Next year, the team hopes to gather more members and welcomes anyone who wants to join fencing, no matter their skill level. After this season, the BLS fencing team and their supporters have high hopes for more wins to come and are very proud of the girls’ team for winning this year’s State Championship.
