Lunge & Parry
Metal clashes as buzzers ring during fencing classes at St. Mary Catholic School’s Tileston gym.
Metal clashing and buzzers ringing are familiar sounds to the white jacketed- and mask-donning fencers. Confined to outlined strips on the floor, they calculate each thrust and retreat from their opponent, hoping to score a point before time runs out.
St. Mary Catholic School’s Tileston gym is the practice space for the CAPE FEAR FEBCING ASSOCIATION. Athletes, both male and female and ranging from ages thirteen to sixty, are hard at work. As five pairs lunge and parry one recent practice, they are connected to a series of cables, which link to small scoring systems that keep track of every hit they score.
Towards the far end of the space is Nora Reber, regarding one pair of fencers with intensity. She is acting as a director, or the referee of fencing. When the match ends, she takes a turn against one of the younger fencers.
This is a typical night for Reber and the others. A dozen or so members come in to work out, taking turns between fencing and directing another match. Earlier in the evening, the beginner and intermediate classes are held to teach the basics, and at 7 p.m., an open workout begins. It is an opportunity for fencers of all levels to work on their skills in a casual setting.
They do work hard, though.
The Cape Fear Fencing Association began in 1997 as a volunteer-based group and has grown substantially through the years. They now boast between seventy and eighty members and have a full-time coach, with practices and open workouts several times a week, year-round.
People of all ages and levels are members. The club currently has members as young as seven and as old as seventy. Many parents have brought their children in to learn the sport and end up picking up the sword as well, members say.
As a sport, fencing is growing in popularity – and not only because of last year’s Summer Olympics in London. With three different styles to choose from – foil, epee, and saber – there is a style suited for everyone.
Across the state, fencing clubs are springing up, and the clubs host competitions so there is at least one almost every weekend. The Cape Fear Fencing Association hosts several competitions each year, including an Iron Maiden competition in February for women only.
The club, though it has several members who have competed and won events in the summer national competition, is dedicated to making fencing as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
Reber is no stranger to the setting. She has been fencing since 1990, with the exception of a five-year break. Fencing, she says, is a sport that can be picked back up easily. She has she has been the district chairwoman for the area and the club’s president on different occasions.
“It’s a good sport for women,” says Reber, “because it uses your head.”
Since the sport not only relies on strength and agility, but also involves thinking a few steps ahead like chess, Reber has found that women are able to hold their own with male competitors. Her husband and her son are both fencers, as well.
Despite a hectic schedule that includes being a mother and working as heading the anthropology department at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Reber still finds time to fence.
For her, it is a form of both exercise and entertainment.
“It’s always unexpected,” she says. “You can never tell what’s going to happen.”
To view more of photographer Mark Steelman’s work, go to www.marksteelmanphoto.com.
