Bay State Fencers Celebrates 10 Years in Somerville

L. Stacy Eddy, head coach and owner of Bay State Fencers, switched careers and sold his car in 2004 to finance the fencing school, which has classes and workshops for kids and adults.

This year, Bay State Fencers celebrates its 10th season in Somerville. It's been in the same space—561 Windsor Street, the same building that houses Taza Chocolate—since it was founded.

To this day, Eddy, chuckling, said he sometimes gets calls from people asking him to install a fence.

In fact, Bay State Fencers is the other kind of fencing, the kind of fencing where people stick each other with swords.

Specifically, Bay State Fencers specializes in epee, one of three swords used in competitive fencing.

You've likely heard of foils and sabers, the two other sword styles in competitive fencing, but epee is the one that should probably be a household name.

In epee, the entire body, from foot to head, is a target, whereas in sabre-dueling, only body parts from the waist up are targets, and only the torso is a target in foil. What's more, saber and foil dueling have "right of way" rules that govern who can attack and when, whereas with epee-dueling opponents go at each other whenever they want.

Eddy is actually certified to teach all three weapons, but Bay State Fencers is a epee club, he said.

Eddy trained under Alex Beguinet, who's now head coach of fencing at Duke, but Eddy's education and early career were in theater and theatrical lighting. He worked on stage and TV productions, and also taught stage combat. "But I always loved fencing, and I loved teaching," he said.

That's why he sold his car and set up shop in Somerville, where space wasn't too expensive and there was parking.

At the time, he said, Bay State Fencers was the only fencing club in Metro Boston (Boston Fencing Club was in Waltham).

Now in its 10th season, Bay State Fencers offers classes for people of all ages and abilities. Some of its students have gone onto big things in the fencing world. One student, Ellen Finnegan, competed in Austria as part of the U.S. Veterans World Team. "Veteran" in this context means someone over 40, not someone who served in the military. Alexander Chiclana started fencing in Somerville when he was in 8th grade, and now he's on the fencing team at Brown University. He also works as a junior instructor at Bay State Fencers.

"We support competition at whatever level people choose to compete at," Eddy said.

For those who are interested in trying it out, Bay State Fencers is offering a program this fall called "Foray into Fencing." On the first Tuesday of every month, starting Oct. 1, you can show up for a two-hour class, learn the basics, suit up in fencing gear, plug yourself into the electronic scoring system and give it a shot.

Check out the video above to hear Eddy and Chiclana talk about the school.