Notre Dame Men's Fencing at the Notre Dame Duals on January 29th.
Guiorgie "Gia" Kvaratskhelia (GEE-uh Claw-duh-SKELL-ee-uh) enters his first season as the newly announced associate head coach of Notre Dame fencing after spending the previous five as the assistant coach. He also maintains his role as the foil specialist. He was and remains regarded as one of the top foil coaches in the nation with a background that includes a successful competitive career in the former Soviet Union as a member of the Georgian National Team.
Since joining the Irish staff in 2007, the Notre Dame fencing team has enjoyed tremendous success having qualified the maximum 20 foilists for NCAA Championship play, with 17 of those 20 appearances resulting in All-America honors.
This past season proved no different to the recent trend of foil success at the NCAA Championship, as the maximum four fencers advanced to the event with three of the four - Hayley Reese, Reggie Bentley, Ariel DeSmet - earning All-America citations with DeSmet capturing the individual foil title with a 15-13 victory over Penn State's Miles Chamley-Watson. It represented the second time in the last three years that a men's foilist has claimed gold under Kvaratskhelia's watch, as Gerek Meinhardt accomplished the feat in 2010. Additionally, DeSmet became the first freshman foilist to win the title since Charles Higgs-Coulthard did so all the way back in 1984.
Reese, meanwhile, represented the first foilist to complete all four years under the tutelage of Kvaratskhelia as a four-time All-American, after receiving second-team recognition following an eighth-place showing in '11. Kvaratskhelia had previously helped Adrienne Nott churn out three such citations, however her first honor came the year prior to him joining the staff.
For his vast successes, Kuaratskhelia was tabbed as the 2010-11 U.S.Fencing National Coach of the Year. On the year, he helped several Irish representatives and others American fencers acheive great results on the NAC circuit as well as in several international competitions.
During the 2010 season, three of Kvaratskhelia's foilists were again dubbed All-Americans at the NCAA Championships. Meinhardt, Enzo Castellani and Reese finished first, third and fifth, respectively. Meinhardt, a former 2008 Olympian became Kvaratskhelia's first NCAA gold medalist, posting a solid 15-9 victory over David Willette of Penn State. Also under Kvaratskhelia's champion coaching, Castellani earned the bronze medal, finishing round robin play with 16 wins and a +40 indicator.
The years of 2008 and 2009 both saw all four foil participants earn All-American distinction, led by Meinhardt and Reese in `09, who each earned silver medals on the men's and women's side, respectively. Castellani (8th) and Nott (9th) rounded out that year's group, with Nott closing out her career as the program's 18th fencer to earn four All-America honors.
In 2008, the story was the quick maturation of a group of freshmen that saw Steve Kubik (8th), Zach Schirtz (11th) and Reese (11th) qualify for All-American in their first year with the program, while Nott (4th) earned first-team billing in her second year under the tutelage of Kvaratskhelia. 2007, meanwhile, saw the Irish qualify four with Nott, Mark Kubik and Jakub Jedrkowiak all earning All-America honors.
Kvaratskhelia has also had a great impact on the recruiting trail in his stint with the Irish. In his first full season on the scene, he helped secure one of the top freshman classes in all of college fencing for the '07-08 season that was led by elite foilists Reese, Schirtz and S. Kubik - all went on to earn All-America honors in '08. That success hasn't slowed down since as in '09 he helped ink '08 U.S. Olympian Gerek Meinhardt as well as Radmila Sarkisova, ranked as high as 90th at the time in the FIE World Junior rankings. For the NCAA Championship season, Kvaratskhelia helped secure commitments from NCAA gold medalist Ariel DeSmet and NCAA participant Rachel Beck, with the latter hoping to bolster a youthful lineup while DeSmet and others are away in search of Olympic qualification.
Over the past two seasons, Kvaratskhelia has inked two of the best fencers in the country, men's foilist Race Imboden and women's foilist Lee Kiefer.
Imboden, a signee from `10, ranked as the fifth-best junior at the time and 11th-best senior, while Kiefer ranked as the 10th-best junior and 6th-best senior.
Prior to joining the Notre Dame coaching staff, Kvaratskhelia spent 10 years as the coach of the Kanza Fencing Club in Salina, Kan. In that time, Kvaratskhelia transformed Kanza from a small recreational club into one of the nation's top foil centers. His fencers at Kanza - which included the Kubik and Hodges brothers - combined to win three USFA national men's open foil team championships, with six of his Kanza fencers going on to compete at the Division I level as scholarship athletes.
Named the 2002 USFA national development coach of the year, Kvaratskhelia molded his fencers at Kanza into top competitors on the national and international levels. His Kanza fencers combined to be national finalists 15 times, while receiving nearly 50 national medals. Former Kanza fencers Ryan Dunn and Chris Miller were members of the U.S. Junior National Team before going on to successful collegiate careers (Miller as an All-American at Penn State and Dunn at Air Force.) Kanza product Christina Tillman also went on to fence at Air Force while Eric McConkey joined her as a Division I competitor at Cleveland State.
Known previously as the Coyote Fencing Club, the Kanza foil center had a roster of only five active fencers when Kvaratskhelia arrived in 1996 but that number of active competitors grew to a bustling gym full of 30 fencers by 2005.
During his time at Kanza, Kvaratskhelia worked cooperatively with many coaches throughout the United States and from overseas. Kanza has hosted an impressive list of nationally-ranked fencers during recent years, with those elite foilists including the likes of Kurt Getz, the Kubik brothers, Andras Horanyi, Meinhardt and Tamara Najm. Kanza also welcomed more than 60 out-of-state fencers for its 2005 summer training camps and worked an "exchange" program with clubs in Russia and Ukraine, allowing fencers from his homeland and Kansas to train in an overseas setting. Kanza likewise has sponsored community outreach programs while helping grow the sport of fencing throughout the state.
Kvaratskhelia - who became a U.S. citizen in 2004 - developed an elite four-fencer team of youth men's foilists at Kanza, with that group winning USFA national titles in the open category during 2001, `02 and `04. The Kanza foilists brought home the bronze from the 2006 USFA Summer Nationals, led by former Notre Dame fencers Steve ('11) and Mark Kubik ('09).
After immigrating to the United States in 1994, Kvaratskhelia stayed active in his own fencing career by competing in domestic and international events. He placed fifth in the open competition at a 1996 North American Cup and fenced at World Cup events in 1998 and `99. Kvaratskhelia first ventured into coaching in 1994, assisting Vladimir Nazlymov (now head coach at Ohio State) at Central Fencing Club in Kansas City and at the satellite Lawrence Fencing Club. Two years later, he accepted the challenge in Salina and spent 10 years building Kanza into a nationallyrecognized club.
Kvaratskhelia grew up in the formor Soviet republic of Georgia and began fencing in 1988 at the age of 13. He progressed quickly and was a member of the Georgian National Foil Team from 1990-94, during which time he fenced alongside the likes of Vladimir Aptiaouri (a member of the U.S.S.R. foil team that won the gold at the 1988 Olympics). Kvaratskhelia took home the bronze medal at the 1990 Soviet Junior National Championship - shortly before Georgia declared its independence - and he later had an impressive 11th-place finish at the 1992 European Championship.
Noted for his tremendous communication skills, Kvaratskhelia is fluent in Russian, Georgian and English. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education and sport in 1993, from the Georgian State Physical Training Institute in his hometown of Tbilisi. He also received a sports journalism certificate from that institution (`92) and pursued graduate studies in journalism at Tbilisi State University in 1993, prior to coming to the United States.
Kvaratskhelia and his wife, Dani Edson, have one daughter, Maya, as well as one son, Alexander, born in November `11.
