Hand Fencing Looks to Continue Building with New Leadership By : David Bixon

After a successful 2025 season, the Daniel Hand Fencing team looks to its new leadership to build upon past successes and grow as a team in the upcoming 2026 season. With their sights set on improving as fencers, they also look for something far more important: improving as a family.

This winter, the Tigers are going into the season looking quite a bit different. With the departure of key seniors Ricky Chamorro, Maeve Wiles, Shay Ryan, Cora Davia, Noah Lynch, and Max Stein, there is a lot of change in the atmosphere surrounding the team.

Led by head coach Mike Ginsburg, the team will look to fill the void left by the departed seniors with a new set of captains: Adam Stotz, Gedeon LaRiviere, Robbie Ginsburg, Kasey Chen, Kathryn Franson, and Amber Kittel.

This won’t come easy, though. Chamorro, third in the state in 2024 and seventh in 2025, a two-time All-State finisher, and one of the most accomplished foilists in Hand fencing history, leaves behind a legacy for the foil team to live up to.

“I plan on filling Ricky’s legacy by actually remaining in contact with him and getting advice from him while also forging my own way and developing my own strategies as captain,” LaRiviere said. “I hope to also lead drills and work actively with each member of the team individually so that they strive to be their best self. My ultimate goal is to develop a team that is skillful but also a team that bonds well together and feels connected.”

Along with the loss of the seniors, another challenge the team faces is finding new novices who will help shape the team's future. In 2025, the team had a record low five novices join the team.

“Recruitment is always our biggest challenge,” Coach Ginsburg said. “Most students at Hand haven’t grown up fencing, so trying something new can feel intimidating. But that’s also our greatest strength — everyone starts from the same place. Success comes down to the time and effort you’re willing to put in, and that makes our team unique. I just hope we have a good group of freshmen and sophomores join both our men’s and women’s teams this year.”

The five novices who joined last season found tremendous success and are set to step into needed roles this coming season. 2025 women’s foil novice tournament medalists Ari Lee and Ingrid Burton are expected to step up onto the varsity squad, while 2025 men’s foil novices Erick Picon and Declan Mahoney aspire for spots on the men’s foil varsity team. Junior Emily Mathews will look to continue building upon her success as a novice varsity starter.

In 2025, the saber squad lost one of its best fencers in Ella O’Malley and fielded a talented yet inexperienced women's saber team. Despite the loss, Chen led them to sixth place at the team state championships. Now a captain, she looks to continue leading by example while also building off her 13th-place finish at individual states.

“I think that because of the numerous setbacks our team faced last year, it was pretty incredible considering how far we got. I plan to actually implement more drills for my squad, and try my best to become a better fencer myself,” Chen said.

Last season’s women's epee team faced the challenge of having only 4 fencers, but they handled it gracefully and found plenty of success. Now with more experience under their belts, they look to move back into title contention.

Despite all the obstacles to come, there is also much to look forward to. LaRiviere, fresh off winning the most improved award and finishing 22nd in the state for men's foil, has been practicing tirelessly with his fellow squadmates in the hopes of leading the men’s foil team back to team states for the second consecutive year.

Men’s epee, led by Captain Ginsburg, aims to continue developing its fencers while making up for the loss of Stein, one of the team's most prolific leaders. The outlook for this season is very optimistic, though, as three medalists in the 2025 CT state JV tournament, Juniors James Boyd and Jack Johnson, and senior Alex Johnson, look to continue developing their skills to assist Ginsburg and fellow senior Henry Diana in leading the team back to its previous level.

As the season grows closer, there is a lot on Coach Ginsburg’s plate, but there is no doubt that the future is bright for this up and coming group of athletes.