By John Enrietto

Eagle Sports Editor

CRANBERRY TWP — He tried other sports.

But baseball, soccer, basketball, golf, etc., just weren’t doing it for Cranberry Township resident Harry Hardman.

“They weren’t his cup of tea,” Donna Hardman, his mother, said. “We had to find something that was his cup of tea.”

Mrs. Hardman was driving down Route 228 one day when she noticed a sign on a building’s upper floor advertising fencing. Through a window, she saw a couple of people competing in the sport.

“I wondered to myself. ‘What’s that all about?’” she said.

So she told her son.

Shortly thereafter, he found his game.

Fencing Sports Academy International ran the school. It offered a free fencing night that Harry attended. He received a crash course in the sport that night.

“He fell in love with it,” his mother said.

“I love the individuality of it,” Hardman said. “Team sports just aren’t my thing. I like the idea of me going up against one person ... It’s all up to you what you do.”

He’s already done plenty.

Hardman is entering his sophomore year at Aquinas Academy and has been fencing for three years now. He is on the school’s fencing team. Aquinas completed its first season in the Pittsburgh Interscholastic Fencing Association’s High School League last year.

Bradley Cellier, a former veteran national champion, coaches Aquinas Academy and is the owner of Fencing Sports Academy International. The academy was formerly located in Mars and now works out of the Pine-Richland Middle School gym.

“We are looking for a more permanent facility,” Cellier said. “We’ve got 25 fencers in our advanced program, another 25 in the youth/intermediate and maybe another 25 taking beginner classes.

“It’s hard sometimes to get adults to practice with teenagers. But in fencing, you can do that.”

Other programs in the high school league include Fox Chapel, Oakland Catholic/Central Catholic, Winchester Thurston, Peters Township, Allderdice, Bethel Park, Mount Lebanon, Pine-Richland and Seton LaSalle.

“We didn’t win a match last year,” Hardman said. “You need to have three girls and three boys to compete in a full match and we only had two boys. So we had to forfeit a number of points each match.

“This year, it looks like we’ll have that third boy.”

While fencing features three different weapons — foil, epee and sabre — Hardman competes strictly in foil, where one can score only by making contact on the opponent with the point of the weapon.

A typical bout is three minutes long, or goes to five points, whichever comes first. A direct elimination bout has 15 touches and a trio of three-minute periods.

“Harry isn’t the tallest guy in the world, so he doesn’t have the reach that a lot of others do,” Cellier said. “But his footwork is outstanding.

“His biggest strength is his passion for the sport. Harry wants to win. He wants to do well. He is so excited about fencing right now ... He’s consuming it.”

Cellier compares Hardman’s passion for fencing to another academy member — 68-year-old John Carroll.

“They identify with each other that way,” he said.

Through a Western Pennsylvania tournament, Hardman qualified for the 2016 National Fencing Championship in Dallas, Texas — but didn’t go. He attended the Penn State University Fencing Sports Camp instead.

“That was extra individual training I wanted to get,” Hardman said. “Penn State is one of the best fencing schools in the country.

“The absolute best fencers in the country were at nationals. I would have been knocked out of the competition pretty quickly.”

The Nittany Lions are one of 26 Division I colleges in the nation to offer fencing. Ohio State, Cleveland State, Detroit-Mercy, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and a number of Ivy League schools have teams, among others.

“My goal is get a scholarship for fencing in college,” Hardman said. “I learned a lot from the camp. I picked up on more rules and point control with the foil.”

“That’s very realistic,” Cellier said of Hardman eventually landing a scholarship. “There are plenty of opportunities out there.”

Hardman worked with Penn State foil coach George “Gia” Abashidze, a former USSR national team member who has mentored numerous Olympians.

Fencing has been referred to as “physical chess.” It requires speed, strength and quick thinking. It has been featured in every modern Olympic Games since 1896.

The sport requires participants to wear a protective jacket, underarm protector, knickers, knee socks, gloves, a metal mesh mask and a lame (metallic vest used for electronic scoring).

“This isn’t stuff you can just run in and pick up at Dick’s,” Mrs. Hardman said. “You have to mail-order for it, get it online. Often times, booths are set up at national events.”

Now that Hardman has found his sport, he’s looking to elevate his skill level in it.

“I watch Olympic fencing all the time, watch you-tube videos ... Anyway I can get better, I do it,” Hardman said.

Anyone interested in taking up fencing, or learning more about the sport, may e-mail Cellier at brad@fencingsportsacademy.com.