Archive for February, 2010

In the moments immediately following his July appointment as men’s foil coach for Team USA, Rice fencing coach Mauro Hamza could have relaxed and dreamed of Olympic glory. No one would have blamed him. Except himself.

With the 2009 Senior World Championships looming in September and next summer’s Senior Pan American Zonal Championships right around the corner, Hamza could not afford to daydream. Qualifying his team for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London will require a commitment far greater than any effort previously spearheaded by Hamza.

“I can’t cross a hurdle until I reach it,” Hamza said. “I know there is a lot of work to be done, and that’s why I take it a step at a time.”

Hamza is one of six weapons coaches named by US Fencing. The national team appointment is the first for Hamza, although he helped coach the U.S. Junior & Cadet National Team to its first world championship in Poland in 2001 and served as coach of the Egyptian team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Those successes validated Hamza in international coaching circles, but he views his current challenge in a different light. Developing the juniors into an international power required painstaking persistence, but achieving a similar level of notoriety on the senior circuit will test the will of everyone remotely affiliated with US Fencing.

“A lot of work needs to be done in order to achieve a medal in the Olympic Games,” Hamza said. “Our team is younger than most, but we’ve managed in the last couple of years to become a top world contender, and last year we took the silver medal.”

Hamza is grateful that he’s not building the Olympic team from scratch. “It’s the same group I’ve been working with. We already have instilled in them the culture to become Olympic champions, but it will be difficult to transition them to competition at a very high level. Even so, there is a good chance for us to do well.”

Hamza believes in blending physical training with mental reinforcement and video analysis. Many of his potential team members are young — either college seniors or recent graduates — so it is imperative that they follow a strict regimen. Hamza senses a shift of perceptions internationally regarding US Fencing, thanks in part to the success of the junior team.

“When you’re an underdog, no one knows who you are,” Hamza said. “But when you move up, everyone is watching you. We’re on that spot now, and it’s definitely more challenging.”

The first challenge came in Antalya, Turkey, at the 2009 Senior World Championships. There, Hamza aimed to give his team some important experience as well as to improve its international ranking. While the results were not a resounding success, two U.S. team members made it into the top 16: Kurt Getz at No. 7 and Gerek Meinhardt at No. 16. From the Senior World Championships, Hamza will lead the way through a series of competitions designed to further prepare Team USA to challenge the international community for supremacy in London. Only eight teams will qualify for the 2012 games, and with the clock ticking, Hamza is hard at work.

But taking the team to the Olympics isn’t Hamza’s only dream. He has reestablished the fencing club at Rice, and he would like to see Rice fencing compete in the NCAA. He plans to do that by establishing a women’s team at Rice, and as the program expands and matures, he could further expand it to involve men’s fencing.