North has been achieving its own feats. The girls’ epee squad took a big first place finish at the district II championships on February 1, and the boys’ epee squad placed third.##M:[more]##
The fencers on the winning girls’ squad were Komal Kumar, Anjali Baliga, Deesha Sarma, and Giselle Torralba. For the boys, it was Stefan Haas-Heye, Joe Behnke, Hamad Masood, and Felix Hutchison. Both squads qualified for the state championship on February 23 and 24.
“I thought both squads had a very good chance of qualifying for the states if they fenced to their potential,” said Coach Gail Kedoin. “I think both squads can do very well at the states.”
Most of the students on the team have only fenced for the school team, and don’t belong to any outside fencing clubs, yet it is their hard work at practice that has helped them improve and that has gotten them this far, Kedoin said. And heading into the second half of the season, she expects some promising meets.
“We’re constantly working on techniques each day,” Kedoin says. “After meets, we would talk about, ‘What did you see people do?’ We would work through it. Not only are we working on our own techniques and trying to improve it, we’re discussing it so they understand that this is what needs to be done, and how you counteract certain moves. That’s the key — we just do drills every single day.”
“Doing a drill 10 times doesn’t make you a pro,” she tells her team. “You’ve got to do it 10,”000 times, so it becomes an automatic reflex.” Kedoin, who lives in West Windsor, and her husband, Rob, a computer consultant, have two girls — second and fourth graders at Dutch Neck and Village schools. By day, Kedoin runs her own stained glass business, which she says gets put on the back burner during fencing season. Kedoin was one of five children. Her mother was a full-time mom and her father, who worked at AT&T for over 40 years, took the midnight to 8 a.m. shift so he could take Kedoin and her four siblings to Girl Scouts and other after-school activities.
Kedoin, who began fencing when she was in ninth grade, continued fencing all the way through college at the University of Pennsylvania and to fencing at the international level. And it all began with her gym teacher, who suggested she try out for the sport after seeing her play in a one-on-one basketball tournament.
“He said, ‘Gail, you’re a great athlete, but I’m thinking long-term for you. You’re too short for basketball, volleyball, or track. Why don’t you try fencing?’” Kedoin recalled.
She brought the idea home to her parents, who said that if she was halfway decent at the sport, she might be able to get a scholarship to college.
After college, Kedoin made it to the national scene, where she was one of the top ten fencers. She was considering trying out for the Olympics when she injured her knee. She went to physical therapy, but decided she couldn’t go back to fencing half-heartedly. So, Kedoin helped train a couple of her friends who made it to the Olympics, and decided she’d like to coach, thinking “I’d like to give back to the sport what it gave me,” she says.
Kedoin was the catalyst for the programs at both High Schools North and South. Four years ago, she initiated the sport as a club that combined both schools. When she took some of the students to the NJ Independent State Championships that year, where two students had third place finishes, it helped the school board’s decision to turn the club into varsity sports at both high schools, she said.
When Kedoin was given the choice over which district high school she would like to coach, she chose North, knowing that her two girls would wind up there in a few years.
Since fencing’s inception at North three years ago, like South, it has drawn many students. Kedoin says 70 students tried out in each of the past two years. And with each of those years comes improvement. Last year, the girls came in fourth and qualified for the states, and the boys’ came in 10th, and this year’s performance at districts is a big step up. She also points to the teams’ performance on February 5 against St. Benedict’s. “Two years ago, we lost 6-21. Last year we lost 4-23,” she said. “This year, we won 14-13.”
“They work really hard everyday,” she says. “With every single meet, I can see them getting better and better.” She also points to North’s close loss to South on January 30, describing how her boys fought back from a 5-0 deficit to 9-5, and eventually to 13-13, before falling short in the final bout. “They’re definitely fighters; they don’t give up, and they work really well as a team,” she says.
And Kedoin, a two-time Empire State Games winner, wants to be there as much as she can for her students, and wants them to be able to talk to her. She says she tells them “no matter what you go through or experience, I’ve been there,” she said. “I’ve gone to a national tournament and lost every single bout first round 5-4. It makes you feel smaller than a grain of rice, but you learn from it, pick yourself up, and move on.”
