Thank you to the Harvard Varsity Club for nominating me to join this wonderful group of student athletes.  I’m honored and humbled to be part of such an esteemed class.  Congratulations to all of the inductees and their families on this accomplishment and well-deserved recognition.

This moment of celebration has been an opportunity for me to reflect on my time at Harvard and what Harvard fencing means to me.  Fencing was very much the core of my college experience and helped lay the foundation for my life afterwards.  When I arrived on campus, I was a shy and insecure kid, deeply intimidated by the aura of Harvard prestige.  I had a nagging suspicion that I wasn’t worthy and I didn’t know how I could possibly measure up to my remarkable classmates from around the world.

The fencing team provided a crucial home for me.  In a moment when my world was expanding in a way that was often overwhelming, the familiar confines of the fencing room allowed me to focus, and made the world feel manageable again.  Not just the structure of the sport itself with its rules of right of way, five-point bouts, and the defined limits of the fencing strip.  It was the community of the team that provided the structure that I deeply needed at that phase of my life.

I was fortunate to come to Harvard as part of a freshman class of highly accomplished young fencers who had competed at the national and international level before.  I don’t think any of us had necessarily chosen Harvard specifically for its fencing program at the time.  Our rival school, Columbia, was the traditional choice for academically-inclined young fencing talents.  At the time, Harvard was where you went if you were more focused on other ambitions than on fencing (if you were lucky enough to get in).  However, something had drawn us all to Cambridge and, although we didn’t know each other well before, we were now in the same boat.  We quickly became inseparable.

Each evening after practice at the MAC, we would go to dinner together at the Lowell dining hall.  An organic daily rhythm developed.  Not just the freshmen but practically the full team.  Our group became so big that we would claim the large elevated table that sat above the rest of the hall.  In retrospect, those dinners were perhaps the single most important aspect of my Harvard experience.  They allowed me to engage with my classmates as people and teammates.  They weren’t the distant, untouchable “geniuses” of my imagination; they were real, complex individuals who shared my passion for the sport.  Those were the moments when I was able to come out of my shell, take off the proverbial mask, and finally be myself.

Moreover, I can see now that those dinners were the key element of the magic that is Harvard fencing.  As if by subtle sleight of hand, the team culture forged by those dinners transformed a fundamentally individual sport into something so much more.  The personal bonds we forged transmuted our personal ambitions into something more powerful.  The care we had for each other allowed us to share in our teammates’ victories and defeats and fueled us to do more than we were capable of on our own.  We started the first strength and conditioning program for the team, adding extra (entirely optional) practice sessions.  We started a pre-match group cheer, beating on a trash can (which has now evolved into an actual drum the team brings to each meet).  And before the NCAA championships, we even all dyed our hair red to show our commitment to the team.

This alchemy is what Harvard fencing means to me.  I see it as a throughline in the rest of my life.  HFT showed me the thrill of working together for a common purpose, the satisfaction of striving towards ambitious goals, and the comforting support of teammates always having your back.  Many of the most meaningful experiences in my life share these qualities and were made possible by the confidence I developed as part of the team: working on group projects in school, leading a team in my career, and even raising a family with my wife.

As I look at everything Harvard fencing has achieved since those years, there is much to be proud of.  For the first time since our team in 2006, this year Harvard won the NCAA Championship.  Under the inspired leadership of Daria Schneider, the first woman coach to lead a team to a national title, Harvard sent a record number of fencers to the Olympics, including all four members of the men’s sabre team.  Foil fencer Lauren Scruggs brought home both gold and silver medals, a truly historic achievement for American fencing.  And I feel that our class was part of those successes in some small way.  There is so much the team has accomplished.  But what makes me most proud of all was to hear from current Harvard fencers that the tradition of team dinners continues to this day.  High-achieving young fencers are now choosing Harvard specifically because of its unique team culture.  And it warms my heart to see that the magic of Harvard fencing continues.

Thank you.