It didn’t take long for Longmeadow’s Sean Quinlan to become intrigued by the sport of fencing.
When a friend brought over his fencing bag back when Quinlan was in fifth grade and he got to see the equipment, he instantly wanted to give it a try.
Fast forward five years and Quinlan — now a 16-year-old sophomore — is enthralled with fencing, and got better and better at it. That progression has taken him to the Junior Olympic National Championships in Salt Lake City Feb. 18-21, where he’ll compete against some of the best the country has to offer.
“I never thought I’d go this far,” Quinlan said. “I thought I was pretty good but never did I think I’d reach this level and be going to junior nationals. I’m ecstatic.”
In fencing, climbing to the top is no easy road. With it being a niche sport, competitions are typically open to all age groups, which can make things difficult for a beginner.
The first couple years Quinlan says he lost nearly every match he was in — he was just getting into the sport and was competing against people who were older and more experienced.
Instead of giving up, he used it as motivation to get better and he continued to improve.
“It took a little bit for me to get in a groove,” Quinlan said. “The way I got better was fencing people who were better than me. For two years, I lost almost every match. I was going against some 19-year-old college kid as a 13-year-old so I was losing all the time. I got into a mindset of not making it about winning or losing, but about making it tough for them to win. I did that, started to get even with them and finally I started beating them and that’s when I really fell in love with it.”
Quinlan trains with fencing master Paul Sise at Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy in Easthampton. He trains there three days a week, spending a few hours per sessions.
Those sessions include lessons from the fencing master, sparring and general cardio training. He also works out at his home gym, does cardio, jumps rope and diets to stay in shape to compete.
All the hard work has paid off. The fencing world works off a ranking system where you move up or down depending on how you fare at various tournaments.
‘A’ level fencers are those who compete at the international level, serving as the pool that Olympians and national champions are drawn from. ‘B’ level fencers are college-level fencers. Quinlan is currently a ‘C’ level fencer, working his way up the rankings.
Last Thanksgiving, Quinlan competed in a tournament at the Boston Fencing Club, which featured six ‘A’ level fencers, five ‘B’ level fencers and an assortment of ‘C’ and ‘D’ fencers.
He made it through three rounds of the tournament but fell in the fourth round, 15-6, to a fencer named Iliya Mechov. Quinlan had no idea at the time, but Mechov is a former Olympian who competed in the 1996 Olympics. He was a former six-time national champion who has been an international level Epee coach for 30 years.
“I didn’t know who he was beforehand,” Quinlan said. “I just knew he was really good from watching him. After fencing him, you just realize there’s another level to this. Everything he did was perfect. I’d attack him and my blade would be a half inch away and he’d just move away. Everything was perfect. It shows the skills I need to get to and how high you can go with this sport. Getting to see him, it gave me extra motivation to try to get to that level someday.”
Quinlan qualified for the Junior Olympics in December by taking bronze in a qualifying competition in the Under-20 age group for the New England Region. He did so competing against a variety of juniors, seniors and college students.
In Salt Lake City, he said he just wants to give it his best and let the results take care of themselves.
“I have no idea what to expect out there,” Quinlan said. “The one goal is not to be disappointed with how I did. I want to be happy with how I fenced. If I go against a really solid competitor and lose, I’ll be fine with that. As long as I fence well and give it my all, I’ll be happy with how I did.”
While hard work has helped separate him, there are different attributes that have helped make Quinlan successful in fencing.
“I’m six-feet-tall so my height and length help me,” Quinlan said. “It really comes down to practice, technique and distance awareness. I have good spacial awareness which helps me moving around. I have the reach where if someone overextends, I can take advantage of it.”
Not only does Quinlan compete, he’s also gotten into coaching the sport. He spends his Saturday’s as a teacher at Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy, guiding beginner and intermediate classes.
He is a member of the USA Fencing Coaches Association.
Going forward, Quinlan hopes to continue fencing for as long as he can due to his love for the sport.
“The hope is to be able to do it in college,” Quinlan said. “I don’t do it to try to get a scholarship, though. I enjoy fencing. It relieves stress, anxiety and is just a great thing that I enjoy doing. I’ll stick with it for years.”