Thursday, March 7, 2013
POMPTON LAKES – After placing third in this past weekends Individual State Tournament Cooper Schumacher feels he has given his high school fencing career the adequate closure it needed.
Schumacher was one of 22 fencers competing in the epee grouping of this past weekends meet. Schumacher proceeded to win 13 of his 16 matches on the day in route to a final three fence-off.
“I just went out and fenced. I had tunnel vision [and took it] one bout at a time. I saw the person in front of me and fenced them,” said Schumacher.
During the fence-off Schumacher didn’t fare as well as he usually does falling in both matches to take bronze. He noted that he was disappointed with the outcome as he felt he didn’t leave his best effort on the strip.
“The three years I’ve been at States I’ve been on the podium for all three. I’m not really happy with bronze, but it’s a similar format to NCAA Championships which hopefully I’ll be at next year,” Schumacher said.
While Schumacher expects to continue competing beyond this season he noted that he was happy to add a medal to the Pompton Lakes trophy case, however he is more proud of the teams’ accomplishments than that of his own personal ones.
“It was nice to win another medal for the school, [but] I would say I’m more proud of the team this season [because] we all stepped up and played well.”
This past season under the tutelage of Schumacher the Pompton Lakes Fencing Team had it’s best season in some time going 6-5. Schumaker acknowledged the teams’ “underdog” mentality as a driving force behind their success.
“We proved ourselves every time and I’m glad I got to be Captain of this team,” Schumacher said.
Schumacher will continue his fencing career next year either at Columbia or at St. Johns, but will always look fondly upon his time as a Cardinal.
“I’m definitely going to miss high school fencing,” said Schumacher. “I started fencing in Jersey freshman year and whether I go to college for it, or if I make the Olympic Team, or the Junior World Team [I’ll know] it always started here so it’s kind of bitter-sweet that it’s ended.”
