He may seem like an ordinary kid. Everyone sees him, but they don’t know what is behind the kind face. When he takes the Piste, the fencing strip, no one is in his way. He is en guard and ready to go. With weapon in hand he stands strong. Everyone should watch out for this tough hero. Matthew Rush, freshman,   fenced his way to the North American Cup.

Fencing, a seemingly unusual sport to most Americans, is  Rush’s passion.

After going to a short day camp at the Des Peres Lodge two years ago, Rush fell in love with fencing. Two to three times a week he practices for two hours. The commitment may not seem worth it to most people, but Rush would say it definitely is.

His coach is Hossam Hassan. He was the coach of the Egyptian Olympic Fencing team in 2004. Many of his students compete at national levels.

“My role model is my coach,” said Rush.

His training session is a very similar setup to most sports practices.

“We spend the first hour warming up, doing exercises, and running drills. Then the last hour is spent in fencing pools with the other fencers in the club,” said Rush.

A fencing pool is a usually group of six to seven people. The object is to eliminate the other fencers.

Rush enjoys the tournaments the most. The most recent tournament he competed in was the North American Cup that took place here in St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome. There were approximately 2,000 fencers at the event.

“I enjoy the opportunity to fence people outside the club and sometimes even people from other countries. In addition, the experience gained is invaluable to improving in the sport,” said Rush.

Although he enjoys the sport, there are challenges to any sport including fencing. Rush finds it most difficult to identify the strategy of his opponent being able to come up with how to counter it. Fencing is very much mental.

“It helps a lot to have my coach there helping me,” said Rush.

Fencing is not all serious. There have been many funny moments during his fencing practices. Fencing is supposed to be a sophisticated sport, but it can be quite funny when a fencer makes a clumsy mistake.

“I would have to say that the funniest moment would be when one of my friends tripped over himself during a bout. With all of the sophisticated posturing many fencers show, this was understandably a very rare occurrence,” said Rush.

Although Rush would love to make it to the Olympics someday, he does not know how realistic that dream is. Fencing is a difficult sport that requires great concentration and excellent reaction times, and Rush takes the challenge.