After They Decided, It Was Pointless to Argue : 3 Chaminade Fencers Head for Penn State as Entry on a Mission

The comparisons are irresistible. Robin Hood, battling the Sheriff of Nottingham. Errol Flynn, the swashbuckler of black-and-white film. Zorro, slashing his signature letter.

And of course, the Three Musketeers.

But what else can they be called? Jeff Feinblatt, Dean Jacobberger and Wes Waldron are not only best friends, they are three of the best young fencers in the country.

In their four years at Chaminade High, they amassed more than 3,000 victories. They raked in more than 300 medals, fenced in 10 Junior Olympics and led Chaminade--a school that four years ago didn’t even have a team--to its second national title in May.

And now these kids straight out of Central Casting are taking their show to central Pennsylvania. The 18-year-old athletes, specializing in foil and epee, have enrolled in Penn State “as a package.”

To put this decision in the perspective of mainstream sports, consider: How often do three of the nation’s top athletes in football or basketball come from the same high school? And since each fencer was recruited by elite Division I programs from all over the country, what is the likelihood of all three deciding to go to the same college?

All for one and one for all, as they say.

Landing the three fencers was a recruiting coup for Penn State Coach Emmaneuil Kaidanov.

“Isn’t it crazy that three kids from the West Coast want to come here to Happy Valley in the middle of nowhere?” Kaidanov, a 30-year coaching veteran, asked with a laugh. “Sometimes you might get two fencers from the same school, but it is quite unusual to get three at once.”

The trio started drawing attention from top-level fencing programs when their coach promoted them during national fencing events.

“I was selling them ‘as a package’ to the coaches at the competitions,” said their mentor, Father Lawrence Calhoun. “I knew they were the next foil or epee team that would make a splash at the collegiate level.”

Their delivery to Penn State was as much happenstance as it was planned. Notre Dame was their first choice, but only Feinblatt was accepted. After considering other fencing powers, Waldron settled on Penn State in January. Jacobberger followed in February, and a visit to the campus convinced Feinblatt in March.

There is no disguising what the three fencers want to accomplish at Penn State.

“NCAA championship. Freshman year,” Feinblatt said, then paused. “Well, first of all to make the team. ‘Cause it’s going to be really tough.”

Penn State--which placed second behind Columbia in the 1993 NCAA national championships--carries only three starters and one alternate for each weapon. The California freshmen will vie for only eight possible openings on a team already filled with top national fencers.

“Getting on the traveling team is going to be harder than winning the NCAAs,” Jacobberger said. “I think when we go to Penn State, it will be the three of us against the rest of the team (to earn a position).”

Calhoun offers a simple explanation for how Feinblatt, Jacobberger and Waldron have managed to maintain their close friendship despite frequently competing against one another.

“They’ve all managed to win big events at different times,” Calhoun, 57, said. “They respect that on any given day, any one of them could beat another. They keep level-headed and they’ve proven that they’re all as good as each other.”

Jacobberger won the 1993 national high school championships in epee in May, while Waldron--with a bronze in both epee and foil--was the only fencer to win a medal in two events at the U.S. national championships in June. Feinblatt became the country’s No. 1-ranked junior epee fencer when he won the North American Circuit at Stanford last October. At January’s Junior World Cup in Budapest, he placed 57th--the top U.S. finish.

Friendly competition helped to improve their fencing skills, they said. As one fencer got better, the other two countered by learning new skills and strategies.

“When Jeff came back from Budapest,” Waldron started, “his fencing had jumped up so much . . .”

”. . . and you bring the other people up to your level,” Feinblatt finished.

“We can’t let one or the other get too far ahead,” Jacobberger added. “It’s too hard to work to catch up.”

Waldron and Feinblatt inevitably end competing during most competitions, Calhoun said, knocking each other out of the top spot.

“It happens a lot that we face each other in (competition),” Feinblatt said. “There’s pressure to win, but I feel like, I’m going to do my best and they’re going to do their best so whoever comes out ahead deserves it.”

Jacobberger and Waldron became interested in fencing when they read a story--not, as it turns out, Alexandre Dumas’ Les Trois Mousquetaires-- in seventh-grade literature class. Calhoun, coincidentally, had just begun his first year of teaching biology at Chaminade.

The science teacher/part-time priest brought with him two decades of coaching experience, which included extensive training with fencing masters in Europe.

Seventh-graders Jacobberger and Waldron began taking lessons from Calhoun, and Feinblatt joined them two years later after trying an introductory fencing course at Pierce College. Three other boys were added, and a fencing team was born. The six members of Calhoun’s original squad--which included Travis Johansen, Roshan Jayasinghe and Chris Shubeck--will all fence in college this fall.

After having played baseball, football and basketball, the boys became intrigued by an individual sport.

“It’s not like an entire team going out there and you’re relying on someone else to do something,” Feinblatt said. “If you goof up, it’s your fault. If you do well, you’re the one to be congratulated.”

By the time they were sophomores, they were regularly beating seniors and winning adult competitions. Their travel schedule expanded, and they began fencing in more competitions around the country.

They tried to recruit more students for the fencing team, but few wanted to try the “sissy” sport. Now with all of the attention they’ve had from colleges, Waldron says, “almost everyone they tried to recruit back then came up to us this year and said, ‘Man, I wish I had gone out for fencing.’ ”

In their four years at Chaminade, Calhoun estimates that each fencer has traveled more than 80,000 miles. They have frequent-flyer travelers’ cards from five airlines--Waldron, in fact, has already cashed in on two free trips.

And since fencing is not a varsity sport, the fencers’ families must pay for it all. One year, including air fare, hotels, and entry fees, can cost as much as $10,000.

“My friend down the street always jokes, ‘If you weren’t in fencing, you could have a real car,’ ” Feinblatt said.

Despite the sacrifices, the three will probably continue fencing after their college years. Calhoun predicts that all of them will be future Olympic and World Championship contenders.

But he admits that four years ago, he didn’t envision that they would have a lasting future in the sport.

“I never thought it would go as far as it did,” he said with a laugh. “I thought Wes would probably be a wrestler, Jeff would be playing volleyball, and Dean always liked soccer.”

But it was their personal satisfaction--not just their friendship and their success--that kept all three involved with fencing.

“(Even without them) I would have stuck with it,” Waldron said. “I enjoy the sport, and it’s just been a bonus that these guys are with me.”