Many high school student-athletes in this area who play baseball in the spring continue right on through the summer.
We only have so many months of decent weather to engage in America’s pastime, so this is the best time to be out playing ball.
Coming off throwing a no-hitter this season, Bernard Witek, a rising senior at Loyola School, Manhattan, and a parishioner at Holy Cross, Maspeth, was excited to refine his pitching game heading into the next school year.
Unfortunately though, there hasn’t been any time for baseball this summer, since Witek was busy winning a national championship in the sport of fencing.
Witek, 17, runs cross-country and plays baseball for Loyola during the school year, but in the summer, it’s all fencing all the time.
The Rego Park native’s passion for the sport began about five years ago when he signed up for fencing classes at the Polish and Slavic Cultural Center in Greenpoint. He always had a love for sports and wanted to try something new.
“Ever since then, I haven’t looked back really,” said Witek, who practices for five hours a day, five days a week in South Hackensack, N.J., in the summer.
He and his coach, Patrick Durkan, spend lots of time working on footwork and speed to prepare for bouts. A fencer wins a bout when reaching 15 touches against an opponent – determined by hitting target areas on the upper body linked electronically to a buzzer system.
Though all sports can teach valuable life lessons, Witek said fencing is slightly different because it is an individual sport.
“That individuality forces you to motivate yourself,” he said. “I know both team sports and individual sports because of baseball. In baseball you maybe make an error, but in fencing the only person accountable for that error is you. There’s no one there to back you up.
“For fencing, I really feel the individual aspect will help later in life. Like for a job, it’s always you. No one is going to be backing you up most of the time. There will be people along the way helping you out, but in the end, it’s you and you have to fight for yourself and be determined to achieve your goals.”
In addition to his team sports during the school year, Witek also travels to tri-state area fencing tournaments. He said this helps him prepare for the national stage by facing different opponents rather than his normal practice competitors.
Every summer for the past four years, Witek has competed in the national tournament. Though his results were not up to par with where he wanted to be, he continued improving each year.
Recently in Dallas, he entered the Division III National Championship in Men’s Saber. His bracket featured 254 fencers of all different ages.
Advancing Bout by Bout
After winning five matches to determine preliminary seeding, Witek was off and running into the single-elimination bouts. Bout by bout, he continued to advance into unexplored territory.
“The more and more bouts I won, the more comfortable I got,” he said. “But also the more perplexed I was, since I had never been that far in a major tournament before.”
Soon 254 competitors whittled down to two, with Witek poised to compete in his eighth intense bout of the day. With his 15th touch, he was crowned national champion.
“I feel that my steady progress showed when I won the national championship,” he said.
Witek is looking to continue fencing in college, and with a work ethic and attitude that is quite impressive for his age, he’s well on his way.
“If I don’t have as much talent as someone else, I believe that if I can outwork them, I can beat them in the long run,” he said. “If you want something, you take it; you don’t wait for something to fall into your lap.
“It’s not getting discouraged about that first or second or 100th loss, because that 101st bout can be the greatest victory.”
Now that one national championship is in the books, Witek’s sights are set on ensuring that it won’t be his only one.
And with the drive he’s shown with a saber in hand, the future is bright for this young fencer.
Contact Jim Mancari via email at jmmanc@gmail.com.