From Friday night football games to lacrosse CCS championship games, athletics are everywhere at Sacred Heart. But beyond those fields lie another group of dedicated athletes who devote countless hours to their craft outside of the SHP athletics department. One of the most unique of these sports is fencing, a sport that uses both physical skill and mental strength. Two of SHP’s fencers, Laura Lin ‘28 and Allison Mu ‘27, embody what it’s like to practice and compete in this demanding and unconventional sport.
Being around the sport of fencing, you may hear it being called “physical chess,” requiring a combination of footwork, technique, and decision-making. For both Lin and Mu, the sport has been a formative part of their lives since childhood.
Lin first explored fencing at just eight years old. She felt inspired by her older brother, who fenced foil, a technique focused on the limited target area of the torso. Lin explained that she “tried all three weapons before deciding on epee because [she] liked how its full-body target area made [her] individual strategies more diverse.” She spent her first six years fencing for Medeo Fencing Club in New Jersey before she moved to California. Since her move last year, she has fenced at the Academy of Fencing Masters in Sunnyvale.
Her training schedule is rigorous, and she practices three to four times a week. She explained that in her practices, “I do footwork exercises, drills, and open fencing, which is when I do practice bouts with my friends.” She also competes one to two times a month. In 2024, Lin claimed the Division 3 Women’s Epee National Championship at the USA Fencing Summer Nationals, the largest and most anticipated competition for fencers.
Lin’s love for fencing lies in its strategy. “Because of Epee’s full-body target, there are so many ways to approach each bout. It really forces you to adapt and think critically about your opponent’s style,” she explained. The unpredictability of each match keeps her hooked, as no two bouts ever look the same.
Allison Mu’s journey also began with her brother. After seeing him compete, she decided to give the sport a try at nine years old. What began as curiosity quickly turned into passion. “I love many aspects of fencing, but my favorite parts would be independence and the mental exercise needed to do it,” Mu said.
Unlike many team sports at SHP, fencing is individual. “We mainly only have our coaches on the sides of the strips giving us strategies and suggestions, and sometimes they cannot make our strips. So fencing is mainly an independent sport and requires us to think for ourselves,” Mu explained. She enjoys making split-second decisions against her opponents.
Her training is demanding, with two individual lessons and four group practices per week. This dedication has undoubtedly paid off. At a recent tournament in Washington, Mu won gold and earned a “B” ranking, which qualifies her to compete in the highest division. She has also placed in the top 50 at national tournaments. Mu has been able to travel across the United States for competitions, visiting cities like Milwaukee that she says she may not have otherwise seen. Through these tournaments, she has also been able to form friendships with people across the world.
Both Lin and Mu balance the demands of training and competition with their academic responsibilities at SHP. Their schedules mirror those of varsity athletes, yet fencing requires navigating logistical challenges like traveling far distances and coordinating with coaches outside of school. Together, their experiences highlight the discipline and independence needed for this unconventional sport outside of school, and while fencing may not have a presence in Sacred Heart’s athletic department, Lin and Mu’s stories remind us that the spirit of athletic excellence at SHP goes far beyond campus.
