The Sunnyvale Sun
Sports
Rouse, Houser get their point across
By MIKE BARNHART
When high school begins this month for Gareth Rouse and Chase Houser, they are going to have quite a summer vacation story to tell their friends. After all, not every teenage boy gets to stay several days in a hotel with large groups of long-legged girl athletes in tight-fitting shorts.
But, other than jockeying for position during elevator rides to and from the 37th floor, the boys did not have much time for such distractions; they had their hands full trying to fend off guys coming at them with swords.
For Rouse, a former Peterson Middle School student and a sophomore-to-be at Wilcox High School, and Houser, a recent Cupertino Middle School graduate who will be a freshman at Homestead, the first few days in July were not as wild and crazy as it sounds. Simply, the talented teen athletes were at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta for United States Fencing Association's Summer National Championships, June 30-July 5, and--truth be told--they did not score any phone numbers. They did all of their scoring in the fencing arena.
Both local boys were scoring machines in the Youth 14 Boys Epee competition. Battling in an auditorium adjacent to where the USA Junior Olympic Girls Volleyball Championships were being staged, Rouse and Houser both impressed during preliminary rounds, then placed among the top eight in the direct elimination portion of the event. Rouse, a right-hander who reached the semifinals before getting out-pointed, shared third place and earned a bronze medal, while the left-handed Houser claimed the seventh-place medal.
The success of the boys was not necessarily surprising, as the duo entered the competition ranked in the top 10 of the USFA national point standings. Entering the Summer Nationals, Houser was rated sixth, two notches ahead of Rouse.
Rouse and Houser are teammates at California Fencing Academy of west San Jose under coach Alexandr Maximovich. CFA teammate Luc Ginestet (49th) finished better than almost two-thirds of the 141 competitors. Because of strong performances earlier in the season at qualifying tournaments, the three were eligible to return the next day against older fencers in the Cadet (under 16) bracket.
Rouse and Houser again were tough to beat during their preliminary bouts, both losing just once. But it was Houser--just 13 years old during the event--who fared better in the single-elimination tourney that followed. While Rouse placed 45th out of 137 competitors, Houser knocked off some opponents three years his senior en route to a 12th-place finish.
Later in the week, Houser again upped the ante, fencing a Junior (Under 19) Team Epee event. Along with teammates Gregory Schoolcraft and Jake Jennings, Houser helped the CFA squad take 13th out of 32 teams.
An epee (pronounced EPP-pay, literally meaning "sword" in French) is one of three weapons used in the sport of fencing. Unlike the foil and sabre, the epee is the only weapon which can score "touches," or points, by hitting anywhere from head to toe on the front of the opponent's body.
The foil, the fencing weapon that beginning students usually learn with first, is a long, thin sword with a plastic button on the end to prevent injury. Similar to the foil, the epee is heavier, with a bowl-shaped hand guard and a long, narrow blade that has no cutting edge. The sabre, also heavier than the foil, is the modern version of a horseman's weapon. It is used with slashing and thrusting movements.
After taking most of July and August off, Rouse and Houser will resume their training regimen at CFA under Maestro Maximovich. For five years now, Rouse has been working with Maximovich, who came to the United States in 2001 from his native Kazakhstan.
"Four or five times a week," Rouse explained his typical workout schedule, which is similar to Houser's. "Usually we have three or four classes with other fencers and one or two private lessons. But, if you are training for fencing, there really isn't time to do any school sports."
Not that Rouse minds. "I really enjoy fencing," he said, after returning from a recent family trip to Oregon. "When I was on vacation, I really missed it."
Houser had his first fencing lesson about three years ago in a CFA recreational class, but only because his family moved into the area too late to sign up for baseball and too early for basketball. Houser will enter next season ranked among the nation's best in the youth 14 epee category. He hopes to continue to develop his skills and strategy and challenge for the individual championship at the 2007 Summer Nationals in Miami.
Meanwhile, Rouse must move up an age bracket.
"My goal will be to reach the top 12 next year," explained Rouse, whose early interest in fencing was fueled by visiting castles in England and hearing stories about knights with swords. "I found out that I need to reach at least that ranking to have a chance at any national team or international competition."
