Many Mississippi State University students know and love the school’s many competitive sports teams.
While students likely are aware they have the opportunity to watch football, baseball, basketball and several other sports on campus, some might be unaware of the more obscure sports they participate in while at MSU.
In the recent years, MSU’s fencing club, the Dueling Dawgs, managed to grow from fencing amongst their own members to hosting tournaments with other clubs within Mississippi, as well as some clubs from out of state.
The club welcomes all students who have an interest in fencing, regardless of experience.
Freshman Ty’Bresha Glass said she found an interest in fencing through watching the Olympics. Upon hearing MSU had a fencing club, she decided to check it out.
“I went to the day that fencing club was on display and I was like okay, let’s try this and then I just kept coming back,” Glass said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Glass said fencing can be a constructive way to work out school frustrations.
“I know if I ever get super angry or something like that, I can go take it out and feel perfectly fine afterward and have fun at the same time, safely,” Glass said.
Yoseph Alabdulwahab said he was in a few other fencing groups before coming to MSU and plays a big role in the Dueling Dawgs’ growth.
“I wanted the club to do more,” Alabdulwahab said. “Originally, I wanted there to be a fencing team, but they just don’t meet the NCAA requirements. The next best option is for the club to regularly host tournaments and making the Mississippi fencing community stronger.”
The club will host a tournament this weekend with competitors from Oxford and Jackson, as well as some people from a troop in Nashville taking part.
“I’m really hoping there are people who are better fencers than I am, so that way I get to learn what my weaknesses are or maybe learn what my strengths are,” Glass said. “I’m super excited to meet the people, and I want fencing to become a passion and I want to see myself improve on it.”
Alabdulwahab said gauging the people who may become your opponents takes a bit of tact and charisma.
“It’s kind of like going on a date, right, you don’t know the person so you’re trying to gauge the person by talking and asking different questions, and seeing what topics they talk about,” Alabdulwahab said. “Same thing in fencing. You move in different ways, you try different things, you kind of gauge if their responses are they more defensive or offensive. It’s a learning experience.”
Alabdulwahab said a fencing tournament is run with different pools, wherein everyone in a pool will fence each other to determine a ranking system which they can organize into a bracket to face the rest of the contestants at the tournament.
There are three different events for the three types of fencing run separately with the same bracketing system: sabre, foil and epee.
Both Glass and Alabdulwahab said they encourage students interested in fencing to join the club.
“Don’t be scared,” Glass said. “It’s okay if you’re bad the first day because it’s the first day. Definitely don’t be scared to come and at least try once.”
The Dueling Dawgs will host their tournament beginning with the foil event at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Sanderson Center.