{"id":90519,"date":"2026-01-06T00:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/90519\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T00:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:09:11","slug":"brooklyn-tech-fencing-a-beast-of-a-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/90519\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Tech fencing \u2014 a beast of a program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anne Cebula. Photo courtesy of Barnard Magazine<\/p>\n

It is the second most successful team at Brooklyn Technical High School.<\/p>\n

Hint \u2013 It\u2019s like chess on legs \u2013 at least that\u2019s what the coach says.<\/p>\n

Time\u2019s up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Tech\u2019s fencing team \u2013 the math team is No. 1.<\/p>\n

Thank you Bert Yaged. He is \u2013 according to sources \u2013 credited with establishing a \u201cbeast of a program\u201d at Brooklyn Tech, often training students in unconventional spaces like the school\u2019s cafeteria.<\/p>\n

Under his leadership, the Brooklyn Tech boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 varsity fencing teams have won numerous New York City Public Schools Athletic League City Championships, including the 2024 City title \u2013 and a notable three-year consecutive streak for the boys\u2019 team from 2017 to 2020.<\/p>\n

The boys were city runners-up this past season, which concluded in November. The boys\u2019 season runs from September through November \u2013 it\u2019s March through May for the girls.
But why fencing?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in 1965, at Lincoln High School,\u201d Yaged told the Brooklyn Eagle. \u201cI met Claude \u2013 a friend who was from Montreal; and he was on the school\u2019s fencing team. He asked me to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew nothing about fencing,\u201d Yaged continued, \u201cHe said he\u2019d teach me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Claude must\u2019ve been some kinda teacher.<\/p>\n

Yaged started his teaching career \u2013 guess where \u2013 at Tech \u2013 after his graduation from LIU. \u201cI taught Physical Education there from 1970-75, and then moved to Sara J. Hale, Tilden (\u201977-\u201892) and returned back to Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s never left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was teaching,\u201d he remembered, \u201cI guess I must\u2019ve taught 100 kids a term how to fence. That really helped me get kids on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s just a coach. Oops, sorry \u2013 not just any coach.<\/p>\n

He has about 34 kids split between his boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 squads. \u201cWe get kids by word-of-mouth, announcements on Instagram, and there are some kids that fence on outside clubs.
\u201cWe also welcome first-timers on the team as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing practice, he says is 3:45 to 5:45 Monday through Thursday. \u201cFriday and Saturday is for private fencing club practice,\u201d the coach said.<\/p>\n

The sport is \u201cnot cheap\u201d he added, \u201cIt\u2019s a costly sport like golf. When I taught kids to fence at Tech, I saved them at least $6,000-$7,000 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Success doesn\u2019t come easily. Yaged is known for a rigorous conditioning-first approach. For example, he has been known to have students spend months strengthening their endurance and footwork \u2013 running up and down the school\u2019s eight flights of stairs \u2013 before ever allowing them to touch a blade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the very first day of the club,\u201d Anne Cebula told the Eagle. \u201cAbout 50 kids showed up. It was all about fitness and footwork. In fact,\u201d she recalled, \u201cCoach (Yaged) didn\u2019t open the equipment closet until that May.\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, Cebula remembers, there were about only 10 kids left in the club. \u201cOne of the reasons I chose Tech,\u201d she said, \u201cWas because of their free fencing club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cebula did more than stairs at Tech. The three-year varsity member and team captain led the Engineers to their first PSAL City title in 36 years (2016). She was PSAL Girls\u2019 Individual Epee champion in 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more. She enrolled at Columbia and was an NCAA Epee Champion in 2019. \u201cI was selected as an Epee performer,\u201d she said, \u201cBecause I am tall (5-11).\u201d The two-time All-American honoree concluded her career with an 82-42 dual record and 21-8 in Ivy League competition.<\/p>\n

The Epee is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing, foil, and sabre being the others. The modern Epee derives from the 19th-century Epee de combat, a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword.<\/p>\n

She finished as the highest ranked American in women\u2019s Epee on May 1, 2024, qualifying for both the individual and team events in the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the individual event, she won her first match 15-14 against Rossella Fiamingo (three time Olympic medalist, eventual Olympic gold medalist in team). She lost her next match, 13-15 against Auriane Mallo-Breton, Olympic silver medalist in both individual and team. This resulted in her 13th place finish.<\/p>\n

In the team event, she went +2 overall against Poland, but the overall team score ended at a loss, 29-31. The team fenced in the back bracket for placement and ended in seventh place.<\/p>\n

The Olympics were commonplace for Tech graduates. Siblings Keeth and Erinn Smart were members of the 2004 (Athens, Greece) and 2008 (Beijing, China) Games. Keeth won a silver medal in the team sabre event.
Keeth was a three-timer \u2013 he was in the 2000 Games (Sydney, Australia). Erinn was a silver medalist in the team foil event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.<\/p>\n

The list of Yaged Success continues. There was Sara Harvey-Browne, s standout fencer who Yaged noted for her \u201cimpeccable footwork\u201d and \u201castounding lunge.\u201d She was recognized as a top talent with the potential to follow the Smarts\u2019 Olympic footsteps.<\/p>\n

And Stephanie Gales, a versatile fencer known for her leadership and loyalty to the team. She was described by Yaged as a \u201cRenaissance Woman\u201d for her balance of athletics and academic ambition.<\/p>\n

Kevin Powell, Class of 1975, was recipient of the PSAL Iron Horse Award, an honor for multi-sport or exceptionally durable high school athletes.<\/p>\n

David Arasa, Class of 1973\/74, A former team captain, and recipient of the PSAL Iron Horse Award.<\/p>\n

And, the 2024 PSAL Boys\u2019 Champions:
Dillon Miller, Conrad Seib-Levinson, and Jonah Batre-Bang in foil, and Nathan Lin, Enzo Bera and Rygel Ng in epee. There is no sabre event in the PSAL.<\/p>\n

The success? Easy, says the coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids at Tech get in a problem and solve it. Fencing is a problem. It\u2019s like chess on legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not much of a problem at all at Brooklyn Technical High School \u2013 thanks to their coach.<\/p>\n

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> X: @AndyFurmanFSR<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anne Cebula. Photo courtesy of Barnard Magazine It is the second most successful team at Brooklyn Technical High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[41164,43002,43003,98,100,99,38396,43004,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-90519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-andy-furman","9":"tag-anne-cebula","10":"tag-bert-yaged","11":"tag-brooklyn","12":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","13":"tag-brooklyn-news","14":"tag-brooklyn-tech","15":"tag-fencing","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}