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2nd Annual San Antonio Epee Open

March 4, 2006, San Antonio, TX

Pietro Sanfilippo from Catania, Italy, 15 years old, moved to the US last October when his father, a chemical engineer with Exxon/Mobil, transferred to Houston, TX, for the next three years.

Pietro was a fencing enthusiast since young age and fenced at Club Methodos in Catania under Maestro Gianni Sperlinga…

After settling in Houston, Pietro’s family started the new life, using a new language and learning to find their way around in a big city. After enrolling in high school, they all started looking for a fencing club for Pietro to continue with his passion.

By chance they happened to be around a school gym where in the evening there is fencing practice (Texas Christian Academy at the Woodlands). After asking around in his rather limited English, when it came out that they were Italians, someone put them in telephone contact with Francesca. So Pietro started fencing in Texas in the only club with an Italian speaking fencer other than him.

From the start Pietro said that he wanted to compete, not just fence for fun and he was explained the letter rating system from U (unrated) to E, D, C, B, A.  Less than 2% of USFA fencers have an A rating and they represent the elite of fencers. One gets a rating by placing on top or winning competitions with fencers ranking better according to certain rules and final placement.

For a beginner fencer it usually takes a year to get an E, two to three years to reach C and, if he continues, another three or four years to get an A. Exceptionally, there are fencers who got an A at 13 years of age, but these are extremely rare cases (2 or 3 so far, one of them at Alliance). Young and promising athletes get an A when they are 15 to 17 years old if they train and compete seriously for several years.

In the United States, the rating issue is an important one - like the stars awarded to a good restaurant. The other advantage of an A rating is that often A rated fencers do not have to pay for the registration fee at local and regional tournaments. Since on average it may cost $50 to register for a tournament, it brings a decent saving for a fencer who competes 2 to 3 times a month.

Pietro progressed from U to A in 35 days, going directly from U to C at the Pouj, from C to B by winning the Presidential Challenge at Katy Blades, and a week later got his A in San Antonio at an open competition with 8A, 4 B, 2 C, and 4 U.

Pietro eliminated in DE first one A 15-5, a second A 15-7, and in the semifinals he went against Kelley Hurley, the Linz 2005 cadet WE world champion, a fencer capable to give a very hard time to anyone, a left hander like Pietro, and with great experience. At 14-13 for Hurley, Pietro recovered and won 15-14 after a couple of double touches at 14-14. Hurley was flabbergasted for being eliminated by the unknown Italian.

The final was with Robert Reed, a mature strong and physical fencer with several years of experience who weighs twice as Pietro and is almost 10” taller. Reed also lost 14-15.

With this victory Pietro earned his well deserved A in record time.

Pietro’s club in Houston, Alliance Fencing Academy, has about 90 fencers and more than 30 of them with a letter rating, 10 of them A, 9 in residence. This is a remarkable number for any club in US. Now Pietro is part of the fencing elite in Houston and in Texas.

His coach in Houston is Andrey Geva who has “created” all the A’s at the club and several male and females national champions in the youth and cadets categories and is the founder of the epee program in Houston, starting from scratch six years ago.

Andrey’s work with Pietro consists in getting him ready to fence in the US, adding some techniques without interfering with the fencing assets Pietro has from Italy. The result of this approach thus far is extremely positive.

From day one,  Pietro has been embraced by all and has made right away many good friends at the club.  Since he lives at the Woodlands, he carpools with a bunch of friends, boys and girls, who spend their commute listening to music and just having fun together. As a result, Pietro’s English has made giant improvements.

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