This year, the fencing team is drawing attention for drawing crowds.

Historically, fencing has primarily maintained its numbers from students who start participating in middle school and continue into high school. This year, students of all grades joined the nearly 40-members-strong team, including nine high schoolers new to the sport — an unusually high number.

Sabre captain Halle Cowgill reflected on the relatively little recognition fencing has earned in previous years. “I remember my first year fencing and there was like, 20 people. I think what’s changed the most is, [beyond] the amount of people total in the fencing, the distribution between each of the three fencing types.”

Distribution in the past has been uneven because most beginners are encouraged to start with Foil or Épée, which are considered easier. For Cowgill, the number of participants has always been smaller in her specialty. “In the past, a lot of people [ended] up doing foil, and…we would have like three people in the Sabre team.”

Cowgill attributes part of the popularity this year to longtime participants’ involvement in other activities. “I think fencing is just becoming more well known…I know [foil captain] Claire Kim does multiple other sports as well. And she’s the captain of the swimming team. So there’s just really more…outreach to the younger people of our community.”

This year’s unexpected surge in participation has helped close the gap, and Cowgill is excited to see more students join Sabre, which has grown to ten participants.

Junior June Dalton is one of these students. This is Dalton’s first year fencing, and several factors drew her to the sport this year: “I had a lot of friends on the team and I was already planning on starting a winter sport to hopefully keep me more active during the winter,” she said.

Dalton’s reasoning tracks with most students new to fencing: looking for something to do during the winter and encouraged by friends from other activities, they join on a whim.

Dalton has chosen to join Sabre, but the group is still on the smaller side despite the uptake in participants that Cowgill observed. However, both Dalton and Cowgill enjoy having a variety of students to practice with as a result of the participation increase, which helps athletes practice against individuals with different competition styles and better prepares them for competition.

Dalton feels that her experience thus far has been positive. “Honestly, practice has gone smoothly and I think [the captains] are handling it well,” she said.

Furthermore, the participation increase has not made running full-group activities more difficult. “Part of the practice we do all together is warmups and conditioning. I don’t think that has been affected too much. Definitely a little bit more crowded, of course, but ultimately, we haven’t seen a much change in the activities we do,” Cowgill said.

Overall, Cowgill is anything but concerned about the influx of participants — in fact, she’s thrilled. “Last year, our men’s Sabre team was made up of all seniors…and they did absolutely wonderful (sic), but I was a little scared that this year we wouldn’t have any guys interested in joining the team. And now that we have like a ton of people I’m very happy about…the diversity of fencers being able to fence…and just getting to know everyone more and connecting with people. It’s great. Awesome. No drawbacks,” Cowgill said.

Both Cowgill and Dalton hope to see more students join fencing next year.