2024 diverse coaches grant

 The Long Island Fencers’ Club is honored and humbled to have been selected to receive the 2024 USA Fencing Diverse Coaches Grant. The selection committee was impressed with the application and commended the Long Island Fencers’ Club for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sport of fencing, specifically your work to develop young women coaches.

As of January 2024, the Long Island Fencers' Club has been awarded five (5) grants for our outstanding programs!

Grants:

2024 USA Fencing Diverse Coaches Grant

2024 Fencing the Gap Support Fund (Student Scholarship)

2023 Charitable Fidelity Grant (private donor)

2023 USA Fencing & All Kids Play Coaches Clinic Mini-Grant

2023 USA Fencing & All Kids Play Community Impact Mini-Grant

Please email us if you wish to join our donors supporting our various initiatives (info@longislandfencersclub.com). 

The Long Island Fencers’ Club’s “Shine the Light” initiative allows children with hearing loss to explore the Olympic Sport of Fencing. The “Shine the Light” brand was selected to highlight the abilities of people with hearing loss rather than their challenges. No child should ever question their self-worth. Our Coaching Team for “Shine the Light” comprises Foil Coach Michelle O'Brien (New York State Permanent Certification, Speech, and Hearing Handicapped), assisted by our Executive Director Philip Daly. 

The Long Island Fencers' Club is pleased to announce our American Sign Language Fencing Program in conjunction with Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf beginning March 2024!

We want to thank Mill Neck Manor's Executive Director Dr. Bradley Porche, for his leadership and vision to make this program a reality!

Please email us if you wish to join our donors supporting our various initiatives (info@longislandfencersclub.com).
 

The Long Island Fencers’ Club's "Student Coach" initiative recruits fencers from diverse backgrounds to become the next generation of fencing coaches. Our Student Fencing Coaches come from diverse backgrounds, heritages, religious beliefs, and socio-economic experiences.

The Long Island Fencers’ Club is proud to have founded our “Student Coaching” initiative, recruiting underrepresented groups to become USA Fencing Coaches. In less than one year, our program has engaged nine (9) persons identifying as females and eight (8) persons identifying as males from a diverse cross-section of society with ancestral origins consisting of Argentinian, Chilean, Colombian, German, Irish, Jamaican, Korean, Honduran, Italian, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Romanian, Salvadorian, Ukrainian, and Welch. Our coaches identify as Catholic, Lutheran, Pentecostal Christian, Presbyterian, Jewish, or Jewish Ashkenazi, while others do not practice a religion. Nine (9) of our student coaches attend college full-time, and two (2) more will join them in the coming school year. 

Thirteen (13) of our nineteen (19) staff members are people from underrepresented demographics who otherwise may never have been able to join the USA Fencing Coaches Community. In part, thanks to your grant, the Long Island Fencers’ Club provided vital coaching equipment and financial compensation to our student coaches. The Long Island Fencers’ Club has provided more than one thousand hours of training to our Student, Assistant, and Fencing Coaches over the last year, promoting two assistant coaches to coach and another two from student coach to assistant coach. 

The Long Island Fencers’ Club is committed to recruiting and developing our Student Coach Initiative. The impact on our Student Coaches does not shine by presenting facts, figures, or percentages but rather in terms of their personal development and sense of self-worth. It has been our unending pleasure to guide them on their journey to fulfilling their dreams! 

Coaching Staff Demographics as of December 2024:

Male 47%

Female 53%

Student Coach Average Start Age 18.6 years.

Generation Z 76%

Millennials 6%

Generation X 6%

Boomers 12%

Asian Pacific 12%

Hispanic 24%

Jamaican 6%

White Male 29%

White Female 29%

Please email us if you wish to join our donors supporting our various initiatives (info@longislandfencersclub.com).