The Art and Design High School Fencing Club has transformed into a team, traveling to other schools for matches over the past two years. This shift not only reflects a more competitive approach for the club, but also emphasizes their skill development over the past years. The team now aims to compete more frequently and elevate their practice to the next level.
In the same year as the creation of Art and Design High School, the original fencing team was founded in 1936. Now in 2025, PSAL Fencing is run in the spring for both girls and boys, but this year more girls than boys were up to join the A&D squad. Because of this, A&D’s varsity team is currently a girls only team. Mr. Ashton Agbomenou, A&D illustration teacher and the team’s coach, hopes that more boys will be interested in making a team during the 2026 spring season.
Since going varsity in March earlier this year, the team has traveled to ten different schools for competition, competing in various matches across NYC. This 2025 spring season, the A&D club’s record was two wins and eight losses across their ten matches.
Mr. Ashton Agbomenou, a 32-year-old illustration teacher who’s been a fencer for four years and a coach for seven years at the school, says he encourages the team’s 13 members to push themselves to new heights.
“There’s probably more things to learn from a loss than there is from a win,” Mr. Agbomenou said. “So it’s like you’re doing harder work, you’re working harder, much harder when you lose.”
The current captain of the girls fencing team, Isabella Sala-Concepción, a senior majoring in Photography at A&D, has been a fencer since her freshman year. Isabella comes from a family that have been fencing for a long time, and that’s the main reason she started fencing and what has driven her love of fencing.
“Fencing is tough,” Isabella said. “You’ve got to hit them. You gotta hit them hard. I get bruised all the time. I bruise other people. You know, this is a game that hurts. So you have to be tough. You have to be able to push yourself like that, and you have to be comfortable being super hot and holding really heavy weapons.”
In their division, the team placed 5th in the Public Schools Athletic League, with the fencing team from John Jay Campus in Manhattan, taking first place with a perfect record of 10-0 this 2025 season. The PSAL is a league that includes public schools across New York City, offering students the chance to compete in fencing. The Manhattan-Queens division includes Art and Design, Beacon High School, John Jay Campus HS, Long Island City HS, NEST+M, & Stuyvesant High School.
Vivian Lin, a sophomore majoring in fashion at Art & Design, shared how she successfully balances her schoolwork with her commitment as a competitive fencer. Her ability to balance schoolwork with fencing reflects the increased discipline and time management required as the team becomes more competitive.
“Time management usually isn’t an issue for me because I find schoolwork easy, and I balance out school work between classes and I’ll finish my classwork early just to work on my homework.” Lin continued explaining how devoted she is to the team. “I used to get home around 5 but because of fencing games, I got home around 8. I make room for fencing because it’s what I love. I would give up my time alone to spend time with my teammates and have fun.”
Madison Persaud, a sophomore majoring in illustration, says she enjoys how fencing requires strategy, rapid decision-making, and finesse, not just physical agility but also mental sharpness: fencers must anticipate their opponent’s moves and react within split seconds. The use of different weapons such as foil, epee and sabre, distinct techniques and add complexity.
“Fencing has been something I was always interested in just because it’s a really unique sport. like, you don’t really see a lot of sword fighting, just like fighting in general, like in sports because people mostly think of basketball and stuff like that. I think this is a very unique sport,” she said.
