Fencing medalist coaches future champs

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Tim Morehouse remembers the first day he crossed paths with the sport that would change his life – even though he was not too sure what that sport was all about at the time.

“I went to Riverdale Country School and one day I saw a sign that said: ‘Join the fencing team, get out of gym.’” Morehouse said. “I was in seventh grade and I didn’t even know what fencing was. But when I saw it was sword fighting I fell in love with it.”

Morehouse’s love affair with fencing is now almost 30 years old, and it has taken him more places than he ever dreamed, including three Olympics. Morehouse was part of the silver-medal winning American fencing team in the 2008 Games in Beijing, while also competing in the 2004 Games in Athens and the 2012 Olympics in London.

But these days Morehouse can be found in his laboratory, as he likes to call it. It is a second-floor studio on West 91st Street just off Broadway in Manhattan, where he toils as the founder/teacher/cheerleader of the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club. This club, and his foundation – Fencing in the Schools – are just two of the ways he is giving back to the sport that has given him so much.

“One of the reasons I started Fencing in the Schools is because if my school did not have a fencing program when I was growing up, I never would have found the sport,” Morehouse said. “So I think this is very important for me now. I’ve been to three Olympic Games, and I want to see our sport grow. We’ve done a lot to promote the sport. People knowing about the sport is great but they have to have a place to go to fence. I’ve been doing Fencing in the Schools for the last four years and we’ve introduced 15,000 kids to fencing. We’ve been to schools all over the country, as far as Idaho, and we also run varsity teams in the city. The club is an extension of that because I wanted a place where I could teach. The club is really my classroom and it’s also my design studio for how we develop athletes and make them into champions.”

Morehouse’s days are hectic ones, for sure. They usually start off with some work with the foundation before he arrives at his studio where “things really pick up around three and stay that way until around eight,” Morehouse said. But sometimes there are other responsibilities that keep him out of the club altogether, such as what happened last week when he and several of his students jetted to Dallas for the Summer Nationals competition. And this year’s trip was a rather productive one for the Morehouse contingent.

“The U.S. Summer Nationals is the biggest tournament, numbers-wise, in the world,” Morehouse said. “This year there were 7,000 to 10,000 fencers competing in Dallas. One of our girls, Sydney Hirsch, just turned 15, and she just became nationally ranked in the junior category, which is under 20 years old. She has only been with us for about six months, so that’s a pretty remarkable achievement to be on that national list that quickly. She also has an ‘A’ ranking in our sport.”

Hirsch, who won a pair of medals at the event, raved about the opportunity to train under a former Olympic medal winner.

“My mom heard about a new fencing club opening in the city and thought that would be a good place to join,” said Hirsch, who has been fencing for just over two years. “I knew of Tim’s Olympic background and I thought it would be really cool that I could get to train with an Olympian.”

Another of the six students who travelled to Dallas also found success: “Amber White earned her ‘A’ ranking as well, so it’s exciting to see our students progressing,” Morehouse said. 

“As you progress in this sport you can travel around the country and around the world. Our kids are going to Bulgaria in September,” he said. 

One of the principles Morehouse teaches his young charges is that nothing comes without putting in the work, and by that he means hours – many, many hours dedicated to honing their craft with the hopes of one day following in Morehouse’s Olympic footsteps.

“Overall, I’ve fenced 15,000 hours in my career,” Morehouse said. “When our team won the silver medal, I was at 10,000 hours. When I made my first Olympics [in 2004 in Athens], I was at 5,000 hours. There’s no getting around putting in the work. These days you hear too many stories of people taking shortcuts in our lives but my story is success through hard work. That’s what I’ve seen from all my Olympic teammates, whether it was fencing or something else, they put in the work.”

Morehouse said his idea for his foundation was spawned almost 10 years ago, but it took time to get it off the ground, because he wanted to make sure he launched it the right way.

“Fencing in the Schools was an idea that started to form between the Beijing and London Olympics. I was doing a lot of work promoting the sport and people were coming and asking me, ‘Where do I fence?’” Morehouse said. “So after London, I wanted to start a program that would create a school program and really make the sport more accessible. The club is sort of the same thing. I just wanted my own classroom, my own lab to teach in, to develop as a coach. My wife [Rachael] was the one who told me I should open a club. She’s been trying to get to me to it for the last three years. But I knew if I opened it, it would have to be special, so I definitely took my time to find the right place. I knew if I was going to do it, how much effort I was going to put into it to make it special. And I think we’re on our way to being one of the best clubs in the world, hopefully. We’re definitely a young club, so we have to put in our 10,000 hours.”

Being an Olympic medal winner has its perks. It provides Morehouse with a platform to promote the sport – which is what he did when he was in a commercial for a bank last year.

“As an Olympian, you get to go out and speak at schools, and I was also in a Chase commercial last year,” Morehouse said. “I was part of the largest marketing campaign ever with a fencer. I stabbed an ATM machine,” he said, recalling his way of taking his receipt from the ATM in the commercial. 

“And Project Runway’s Tim Gunn is now a student here, so as we bring more people into the sport, it just raises its profile and gets more people interested.”

Morehouse laughs at his students’ seeming lack of recognition for his past accomplishments. On their recent trip to Dallas, many of them were curious as to why so many made a fuss when they saw Morehouse at the Nationals. Even bringing his silver medal to the club on occasion as a sort of show-and-tell moment is greeted with a shrug.

“I bring my medal in here and I show my kids from time to time, but to them I’m just Tim,” Morehouse said. “I don’t think they are impressed that I was an Olympian. When we go to Nationals, people are like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Tim.’ But my students are like, ‘Why do they all want to talk to Tim? He’s just our coach.’”

The 2016 Olympic Games will be commencing on August 6, and for the first time in 12 years Morehouse will not be a participant. So does he feel the pang to once again be competing on the greatest of sports stages? Not as much as you would think.

“I loved the Olympics. It was so amazing, and it’s everything you imagine it to be,” Morehouse said. “But if you told me I could have made this Olympic team if I traded in what I did the last four years, the answer would definitely be no. My life has grown in such tremendous ways, from getting married to opening the club, to starting the foundation. I really love what I’m doing now. I definitely miss the Olympics but this was definitely the right choice for me to build other parts of my life. I’ve always been a teacher so I spent the last four years doing what I love – teaching, bringing the Olympics to kids, bringing fencing to kids. So I’m very happy where I am, and I’d love for some of my kids to eventually make it to the Olympics. I’m an Olympian, so of course my goal is to create Olympic champions. We’re going for the gold here. I know it’s a long process, we’re only in year one here, so we’re just trying to lay the groundwork.”

Hirsch is one of those students Morehouse thinks could be competing in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. 

“Her eyes bulge a little bit when I walk about Tokyo,” Morehouse said. “But I never want my students to feel like I’m putting a ceiling on what they can accomplish. For me it’s about ‘let’s talk about the possibilities. Let’s not talk about the limitations. How far can we take this? Let’s start there.’ But I think Sydney has the talent to do it, so why not set your sights on how far you can go?”

And what does Hirsch think of her coach’s endorsement?

“That’s a huge goal for me,” Hirsch said. “It’s definitely something that I’m striving for.”

Morehouse said he is excited for the upcoming Olympics, as many of his former teammates from the 2012 Games will be competing in Rio de Janeiro. Deep down, he might secretly wish he were representing the United States one more time, going for the gold once again – or at least for a silver medal. But mostly, he’ll cheer for the U.S. team and his friends, and be perfectly content in his new life – one that will change in August, as he and Rachael are expecting twins.  

“I still have lots of friends on the team. Almost the whole team was with me in London,” Morehouse said. “I’m very close with a lot of them, and I’m excited for them. We’re fielding one of the best Olympic fencing teams that we’ve ever had in our history, so I’m excited for these upcoming Olympics to watch and to be a fan. But I love everything that I do. There’s hard work entailed in it, but I love that I have these kids. This year has added so many amazing people to my life. Having this club and having the students and their families, I want this to be their special place, and when they get older I want them to think of this place as a place that helped influence them and helped shape their life in a positive way.”

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