After its short inaugural season in 2024, the Mounds View Fencing Club (MVFC) started its second year strong, with several members securing wins at competitions this fall — both through MVFC and their own fencing clubs. As one of many student-founded activities available at Mounds View High School, members hope this success carries over into the upcoming winter season and brings more recognition to the sport of fencing.

Senior Allex Tran founded the club last year after noticing that the district only offered community education fencing clubs in elementary and middle schools, not at Mounds View. Tran, who participated in those clubs prior to attending high school, saw an opportunity to bring something new to the fold. “My mission was to bring Mounds View Fencing Club to Mounds View itself so that high schoolers can enjoy it,” he said.

The club focuses on helping their athletes improve their skills and fencing forms and decreasing their risk of injuries through conditioning. This helps them improve their technique, whether it is foil — striking the opponent’s torso with the tip of the blade — or saber — slashing the opponent’s body with a shorter blade.

As the club’s founder, Tran oversaw most aspects of organization in its first year. This year, however, they formed a more efficient leadership structure, with a board of experienced fencers to help operate the club, including sophomore Victor Kwan. “When it comes to instructing, teaching and practice, that [is usually] me and Victor, mostly Victor. He’s very good at conditioning and the athletic portion of fencing,” said freshman Jackson Toews Johnson. “If we have drills or something a little more technical, then I take the [lead] on that. But behind the scenes, the whole mastermind — it’s all Allex Tran. He’s the one setting everything up.”

This year, they also wanted to make the club more accommodating by participating in all seasons, with the fall season being more casual for anyone to give fencing a try and the winter and spring seasons being more competitive. “This year, we tried to approach it in a holistic approach where we go through all seasons, right? We wanna be really out there. We wanna be really accommodating towards anyone’s schedules…We’re really here to have fun, first and foremost. We really want to share our passions of fencing with everyone else” said Tran. The club meets every Thursday and Friday for the entire school year. 

Since they are not sponsored by Mounds View’s administration, the club has had difficulty finding a place to practice, as the gyms are reserved for sanctioned activities. This led them to reach out to band teacher Bill Sucha, who agreed to be their advisor and allowed them to use the music suite as a makeshift gym rather than the MAC gyms or Kauls Court. “What’s most frustrating for us is that we want to use those amazing spaces. We want to have somewhere that we can practice in and really get into the mood of sports,” Tran said.

Another issue the team has faced is funding their equipment. Although they have access to a rental gear system, which lowers the cost of the gear, they still have to worry about the cost of their practice equipment such as scoring boxes. To counter the expensive costs, the club fundraises frequently by bagging groceries at local stores. Even when conditions are tough, they remain motivated to help their club. “At one point, we were fundraising in a winter storm outside of Kowalski’s,” said Tran. “It was literally blizzarding outside, but we still went there, we still helped people out, and they rewarded us for that.”

Despite these challenges, multiple Mounds View fencers found success at tournaments within their own clubs outside of school during the fall. In November, Kwan placed first in the UMFC Gopher Open, earning a D national ranking. This December, junior Eli Bauer placed first at the Blake Novice Tournament at The Blake School, and earlier this month, Johnson placed sixth at the SPA Invitational at Macalester College.

The club also participates in the many tournaments around the Twin Cities. “We often go to tournaments every week. The fencing season itself usually kicks up around winter and spring seasons. Even though we practice throughout the year, we mostly make our winters and spring seasons really competitive. Each week, there are boundless opportunities for tournaments,” Tran said. “The Minnesota High School Fencing League [has] a state championship where schools from all over the state compete with each other in individual and team events, and we have a really fun and grand championship around February.”

Looking at the future of the club, Tran wishes to keep going to tournaments and qualifying for championships. “What I’m hoping is that MVFC will do really well at the Minnesota high school [fencing] championships. I hope to at least be around the top four for the teams event where we’ll face off against other schools,” said Tran.