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Profile of a Fencer: Brian Zulkoskey

by Dennis Duncan with Brian Zulkoskey

When I started fencing in 1981, Brian was already there, thrashing most of his opponents. The first thing I noted while watching him practice was his ramrod straight back and the way he let his legs attend to the business of getting in and out of range. Almost everyone else I watched tried to get closer by leaning forward from the hips not realizing that this brought their own target in by a good 6 inches. Having just come from the judoka discipline, I appreciated the physics of this approach.

While others, such as myself, forgot this element in the heat of competition, Brian was always poised to my admiring annoyance. But the passion and desire was always present even though it was rarely overtly displayed on the piste. At the end of the bouts, however, shouts of joy or rage were often heard. A truly ferocious competitor.

Here's Brian in his own words.

Growing up in Prince Albert (long before the existence of the P.A. Northern Knights Fencing Club), I first became interested in fencing after reading the novel Glory Road by Robert Anson Heinlein , who had been a fencer while in the U.S. Navy. I found his descriptions of swordplay and duelling to be riveting.

When I came to the U of S in 1974 I fully intended to join the fencing club. I still remember seeing the ad in the Sheaf and the poster in the Physics building, but when it came time to register I decided not to as I was too shy to try something new on my own. Of course now I kick myself for not joining then, as I would have had all of my junior years to fence.

I finally joined 6 years later after persuading a co-worker to try it as well. The co-worker quit after 2 months because of bad knees but it no longer mattered as I was hooked. Kelvin Kudryk, another beginner, became my regular training partner and we regularly "closed down the club", staying past 10:30 p.m. Claude had been in Saskatchewan for a year when I started. Kelvin and I quickly improved because of what we learned in Claude's GROUP WORK.

Our first competition was the Rapiers Fall Special in Regina. The competition was for foil only, and because of lack of equipment was done by corner judges! I got an engraved pencil and had a very sore front heel for my efforts. When I complained to Claude about my heel, he laughed and told me where I could purchase a heel cup. I've worn one ever since.

As I was spending so much time fencing, my wife Anna-beth (we had married that summer of 1980) soon realized that she would have to join as well if she wanted to see me on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday evenings. Anna-beth, Kelvin, and I became a close-knit trio of fencing buddies, travelling to as many Western competitions as possible in my '74 Celica.

One of our more memorable trips involved a tournament in Winnipeg in late December 1981. Returning to Saskatoon on New Year's Eve, it was -40 C outside and not much warmer in the car. We seriously thought we were going to freeze to death, but we finally made it home.

I fenced sabre as well as foil in those days, and on that same trip I found myself up against Bob Edgington. The competition was held in a shopping mall, and during the bout Bob ran me off the end of the piste and I fell backwards over the trophy table. Hopefully this didn't scare away any parents who had been considering putting their children in fencing!

Kelvin and I made the provincial squad for the 81/82 season and now that we were receiving lessons from Claude we were improving even more rapidly. Thanks to the administrative work of Warren McKay, Kelvin and I were part of the team of Saskatchewan fencers who competed in the 1983 Hapoel Games in Israel. We also competed on Saskatchewan's Men's Foil team in the 1983 Western Canada Summer Games in Calgary.

In the fall of 1983 I was elected President of the SFA and served in this capacity until 1990.

Editor's Note: Brian also brought the qualities that made him an excellent fencer to those meetings His points of logic were well prepared and precise and his defense of his positions was established in factual arguments. This grounding in reality was, and is, of substantial benefit to the SFA.

I reached my competitive peak in the late 1980's. One highlight was a pool of 6 Men's Foil final at the Northwestern Open in which I went untouched (indicators of +25). I was second once and third twice at the Western Championships. My best National ranking was 11th. I was able to travel extensively throughout my career, competing across Canada, at U.S. tournaments in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington, D. C. In 1988 John Brunning, Claude, and I spent 2 weeks training and competing in Germany and France.

I was able to finish my competitive foil career with a fairy-tale ending at the 1990 Western Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. The format of the competition was teams of 3, round robin with the other 3 provinces, then direct elimination. During the round-robin I fenced horribly, but my team-mates Kent Shirley and Darren Sherbot kept us in the hunt for the gold. The final match of the d.e. was between us and Alberta (David Waller, Brandon Smith, Cameron Smith). Everything finally came together for me in this match. The first bout was me against Cameron and I won 5-4. Darren then lost to Brandon. Then Kent lost to David and we were down 1-2. Darren tied the match by beating Cameron 5-1. Alberta took the lead back 3-2 when Brandon beat Kent. In the meantime, during these four bouts I had been getting psyched. My 2nd bout (the 6th of the match) was against David and I won 5-2 (tying the match 3-3). When Kent beat Cameron 5-1 in the next bout to give us back the lead at 4-3, I was totally pumped. I was up next against Brandon, who was also undefeated in the match. We were not to be denied, and I disposed of Brandon 5-0, giving us the gold. It was one of my best efforts on the piste, and I only regret that Anna-beth wasn't there to see it.

As it turned out, there was one more competitive highlight to come. At the 1991 Nationals in Hamilton, John Brunning was unable to fence in the early rounds of the Men's Epee team competition and there was no designated alternate for the team. I was there as a judge, but I obtained permission to fence and was able to scrounge equipment from other Saskatchewan fencers. (I had some experience in epee, having earned my 'A' at the 1987 Nationals in Calgary, finishing 10th. Incidentally, the 1987 Nationals were less than two weeks after my son Adam was born. I still can't believe that Anna-beth let me go!). The team cruised through the early rounds eventually meeting B.C. in the top 4. It was a close match but we lost. We regrouped for our next match, however, and won the bronze. It was my first and only Nationals medal, and it came after I had supposedly retired!

Although I had considered concentrating on judging as my post-competitive fencing activity, I am happy with my decision to become a coach. Apprenticing under Claude, I earned my Level III Foil qualification at the 1994 Nationals in Montreal. The coaching accomplishment about which I am most proud (so far) is the establishment of the East College Park 'Imp' Fencing club for 8- to 10-year- olds - a satellite of the Saskatoon Fencing Club. The club is in its second year of operation. I had a 60% return from last year, not counting two members who 'graduated' to the SFC. Adam is currently a member of the Imps, and my daughter Paula can hardly wait until she is old enough to join. Hopefully, at some point in the future, fencers who got their start with the Imps will be on the Provincial Squad.

Hello, it's me, the Editor again. Brian's fencing career, in its competitive, administrative and coaching aspects show that there are many facets of the sport in which to excel. Although the rewards of competitive excellence can be displayed in trophies and medals, the satisfaction that comes from doing your best continues onto other fields of endeavour.

Not mentioned by Brian were some of the associated adventures such as wearing his black leather Physics jacket on a wrong way bus ride into gang land Chicago. Also not mentioned was the attack of the naked fat man in Calgary at 3 in the morning. You might ask him for the details sometime.

Most of you will know that Brian's day job is as a Physics lab instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. I had the opportunity to meet one of his previous students while taking a course in C, the computer language. She referred to him as "The Lab God" so I guess I can call this brief profile, "The Life of Brian".

 



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"TALKING LIKE A MOTHER"

by Darlene Dudiak

Mark and Rob have been fencing for three years now. Right from the beginning they enjoyed it and felt it was the sport for them. I guess this should have been expected because, although they are very different people, from the time they were quite young they both had a strong interest in knights, castles, swords, etc. They were often found in the backyard using sticks, pipes, toy swords or whatever to do battle. Perhaps it's in the genes. After all what can you expect with all those Scottish ancestors.

It has been a tremendous learning experience for them, not only the fencing, but the life experiences that could have taken years to accumulate in other circumstances.

Experiences such as:

  • learning to cope with the highs and lows of winning and losing;
  • making friends of different ages and backgrounds in other cities as well as our own;
  • travelling, both in- and out-of-province;
  • dealing with the sudden, tragic death of a team-mate and friend;
  • setting goals and working towards them;
  • time management;
  • responsibility for assisting with fund raising; and
  • caring for equipment.
I have learned a few things in these three years as well:
  • not to expect phone calls from tournaments unless the trip is preceded by threats;
  • standard responses when asking how things went are: "fine", "okay", "not very good" or a shrug;
  • that some bouts are difficult to watch;
  • that I have tremendous respect for the dedicated people who are involved in running things;
  • don't say to Claude, "they did really well and got quite a few points" after the team has just been defeated at the Canada Games or he may say something like "you're talking like a mother";
  • it's easy to break a lot of sewing machine needles when trying to sew up a seam on Kevlar knickers; and
  • I need a job!
When I was asked to write this I did a lot of thinking about fencing and why we are doing this. In spite of the above, there are still times, particularly as I write another cheque, that I'm not at all sure why. However, as long as they enjoy it, and I do think this is paramount, Joe and I will continue to do our best to support them - I know, I'm still "talking like a mother".

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